Introduction, recent column

I am the Sports Editor of the Titusville Herald in Titusville, PA. I live in Waterford, PA with my wife, our dog and our soon-to-be baby. We are due in December. I am 24 years old and a graduate of Edinboro University of PA. I will be posting my rantings on sports and some of my columns from my newspaper on here. I am adding my most recent column to this page now, I expressed my praise for former Giant George Martin and my sadness over the death of Scott Kalitta. Remembering the good in human nature, sports By Seth M. Murphy I recently came across the story of George Martin. Not many people will know who Martin is off-hand, but I was glad that I did. Martin was a co-captain on the 1987 Super Bowl Champion New York Giants, and a player I watched as a very young kid. Martin now is an everyday hero, and a very tired man. Martin recently completed a 3,003-mile walk, stretching from New York City to Embarcadero Park in San Diego. The walk ran from September 16 through Saturday. He burned through 24 pairs of shoes, 80 pairs of socks, lost 40 pounds and raised $2 million for sick and injured 9/11 workers. What Martin did was show that sometimes it is important to remind everyone who the real heroes in the world are. Martin is just an average man now, after a 14-year career in the NFL he is an executive at the financial services firm AXA Equitable. So when he decided to walk across the country to help remember and pay back those who not only gave their lives selflessly for others, but are still suffering from injuries suffered that terrible day. I heard Martin talking on ESPN Radio this morning and it just hit me when he told a story of a grandmother stopping her car on the side of the highway while they were walking. Martin assumed it was just another person hoping to get an autograph, but what the grandmother did next is important. She took the five grandchildren she had in the car with her and lined them up on the side of the road and said to them, watch and see a real hero. She then gave them $10 of the $14 she had in her wallet as a donation and went on her way. That is incredible. A woman who never knew Martin, giving money she probably can't spare, recognizing the everyday heroes in our world. To me this is equally important to find the good in humanity, because it happens on the same weekend the sports world lost one of their own tragically. Scott Kalitta is an NHRA champion and in a terrible accident Saturday he lost his life doing what he loved. Anytime the sports world loses an athlete it is terrible, it is worse when he passes young, and on the field of play. Watching Kalitta's car go up in flames, then barrel into a wall at the end of the drag strip made me cringe. The mere fact that I knew a man was losing his life right in front of my eyes hurt. All I hope for the NHRA is that they can come out on top of this, find a way to make their cars safer and more secure for the drivers who will continue on tomorrow and next weekend. NASCAR was able to bounce back a safer and better sport when they lost Dale Earnhardt and hopefully Kalitta's passing will do the same for the NHRA. So this weekend I take time to thank our everyday heroes, people like George Martin, who show us all the good that we can accomplish just by doing something good for others.