As a lifelong Dallas sports fan, I have been able to see a lot of great athletes come through the city. When I say great athletes, I mean on and off the field. 

A lot of times fans and media can fall victim to highlighting the negative stories more than the positive stories and with everything going on in the world, right now feels like a good time to highlight one of DFWs stars off the field. 

Shin-Soo Choo is going into the final season of a 7 year, $130 million contract he signed with the Rangers before the 2014 season. A lot of stories were written about how bad of a contract that was and how the Rangers overpaid back then. 

Over the first six years of the contract, Choo has played 766 games and has hit 109 HRS while posting a .365OBP, which has always been his calling and why he hits at the top of the lineup for the Rangers. 

Earlier in the week, Choo was asked about his upcoming free agency.

Choo responded with a powerful message that a lot of people can appreciate during these times.

“Yeah, I think this time is a great time to think about other people.” That line is so powerful to me because right now, it’s important to be selfless and not selfish.

Choo went onto explain why wearing a mask is so important and expressed concern with people not doing wearing them when he goes to his sons baseball games.

Shin-Soo Choo gets it.

"I think this time would be a good time to think about other people first." pic.twitter.com/ZW6xPd7fVF

— Levi Weaver (@ThreeTwoEephus) July 6, 2020

In April, Choo donated $1k to each Rangers minor leaguer. He said in a conference call after this story was made public “he will never forget the minor leaguers,” because he remembers those days where he struggled to find meals. 

That gesture along with donating $200,000 to the nonprofit Community Chest of Korea to help the city of Daegu, which was hardest hit by COVID-19 brought his wife to tears. 

So, in this time where a lot of different people from different walks of life are struggling, Choo is showing if more people can be like him, we will pull together and be able to create change.