Cardinal's Carlos Beltran Spends Team's Day Off Attending Graduation at First School He Founded

Yes Sports fans, there are good people involved in sports.  It seems like, on a day like today, when Adam "Pac Man" Jones is arrested (again) and Chad Johnson (the former Ochocinco) jailed for stupidity, that's all the news we hear in the sports world.

But here is one I can appreciate.  Carlos Beltran, a 16 year veteran of Major League Baseball (most recently with the St. Louis Cardinals) took his team's day off to go speak at graduation at the first school he founded.

In August 2011, he formed the Carlos Beltran Baseball Academy in the ecologically-friendly town of Florida, Puerto Rico for 10th, 11th and 12th graders.

Beltran at Groundbreaking Ceremony 2010

"We specialize in baseball, we do tryouts and select the kids that we think we can help develop their tools and their talent," Beltran said. "We provide materials and everything they need to help them get to where they want to be."

There is also an extensive academics program with all classes bilingual, Spanish and English.

"The reason I did it that way is because when I signed as a professional ballplayer, I didn't know how to speak English," Beltran said, "so it really took me time and it was hard for me to get used to being in the United States -- a different culture, a different place. It really took me time, so I want my kids to be more prepared."

Beltran donated $4 million to build the school and its facilities on an 18-acre site. When the school opened in August 2011, there were 60 students. Now it's up to 145. Transportation is provided, and they come from all over the island, some living an hour and a half away.

"They're really making a big sacrifice, but that's what life is all about -- making sacrifices," Beltran said. "When you work hard and make sacrifices, God will open doors."

Beltran has been nominated for the Roberto Clemente Award, given annually to the Major League Baseball (MLB) player who "best exemplifies the game of baseball, sportsmanship, community involvement and the individual's contribution to his team", as voted on by baseball fans and members of the media. Originally known as the Commissioner's Award, it has been presented by the MLB since 1971. In 1973, the award was renamed after Clemente's untimely death.

Beltran was born more than four years after Clemente perished in a plane crash on a humanitarian mission, delivering relief supplies to earthquake-ravaged Nicaragua on Dec. 31, 1972.

"I talked to (his wife) Jessica's  grandmother," Beltran said. She was in Puerto Rico that day, and she said it was a sad, sad day for Puerto Rico, because people really looked up to Roberto."

Beltran has idolized Clemente.

"Roberto was a player that, as a kid, I grew up hearing about the things he did on the field and off the field," he said. "I never got a chance to watch him play personally, but there are a lot of memories of him in videos. And when I get the chance to see those, it really amazes me how great a player he was. At the same time, he was a great humanitarian.

"In Puerto Rico, he's still a big influence on things that we do."

Beltran is following in those giant footsteps and becoming quite a humanitarian himself.

See the entire article from MLB.com here.