Сборник спортивных реликвий владельца «Астрос» дополнен фигуркой Долли Партон после её смерти

I’ve got a pretty good range of sports memorabilia sitting around the office that ranges from pretty cool to about as obscure as it can get. Some of the highlights are a 1971 World Champion Dallas Cowboys banner that was my dad’s when he was growing up. That sits over a framed signed picture of Joe (JW) Williams that he sent me a couple of years ago. For those who don’t know, he’s a Dunbar legend who won a Super Bowl with the Cowboys and was even more importantly a winner of the NCAA’s Inspiration Award. I’ve got an autographed enlarged copy of the Sports Illustrated with George Springer on it that proclaimed the Astros as World Series champions a few years early. On the other end of the spectrum, I’ve got some of the unexpected. There is a model of the old Rangers ballpark. There’s an Elvis Andrus bobblehead that I got on a trip with J.P. Heath a few years ago. Those might not seem so weird other than the fact that I root against the Rangers about 98% of the year since they’re the Astros divisional rivals. I picked up a Jeremy Pena trucker hat over the weekend, and I’ve got a bobblehead of Jose Altuve riding a bicycle. But probably the most bizarre “sports” memorabilia is a wind-up figurine of Dolly Parton. Amazingly enough, I actually got it at a baseball game. It was the summer of 2021, and we were on a family vacation to Nashville. If I’m on a trip and there’s a baseball field around, then I’m probably going. After spending the morning at the zoo and checking out Nashville’s Parthenon in the afternoon, the majority of the crew decided they were done for the day. But Sierra decided she still wanted to tag along with me to the baseball field. When we got to the park, we were given the Dolly Parton giveaway. So Sierra and I enjoyed the game that night. We even spent about 30 minutes behind a pair of ballpark workers who were griping about everything from their living arrangements to their co-workers. To be honest, our first thoughts on the figurine were something like this. “It doesn’t really look like her, does it?” But if I get something at a game, then I’m going to find a spot for it. It’s had a few spots in its time but now sits by the TV. It is there alongside bobbleheads of Yordan Alvarez, Jose Altuve and other Astros legends. The even more obscure part about the Dolly Parton figurine? I was never exactly the biggest Dolly Parton fan. It was a few months after “The Bodyguard” was released that I realized “I Will Always Love You” was a Dolly Parton original. Not Whitney Houston. I still haven’t watched “9 to 5.” Dollywood isn’t at the top of my preferred vacation spots. No. I don’t dislike her at all. But most people would be surprised to find out a Dolly Parton figurine is sitting along all the other guy stuff in the man cave at the house. I was headed out to lunch on Tuesday afternoon when I got a text that Dolly Parton had died. She was 80. Amazingly enough, it was from Sierra, who was with me the night I got the figurine. Sierra is somewhere on my level of Dolly Parton fandom, so I wouldn’t have guessed she would be the first one that could break that type of news to me. I texted my wife Barb to let her know. There might be bigger Dolly Parton fans than Barb. But there aren’t many. It’s not a surprise to see Barb break into a rendition of a Dolly Parton song, but I think what she liked best about her wasn’t that she was a singer, an actor or an icon. It’s just being who she was. She had an initiative for Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, a program that allows all children from birth to age 5 to receive a free book in the mail each month. That program made its way to East Texas in Diboll. Last year, the Texas State Library and Archives Commission awarded funding to the T.L.L. Temple Memorial Library under its Community Literacy Support Grant program to continue its operations. A study around that time found that children who participate in Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library were at least four times more likely to demonstrate stronger emerging literacy skills — such as vocabulary and phonological awareness — compared to children not in the program. She had humble beginnings, and when she made it big, she donated her money to a variety of good causes. And in a world that loves to point out people’s flaws, she was loved by her biggest fans and respected by those like me who didn’t even know the origins of one of her biggest hits. The world lost a legend Tuesday. And when I sat back to watch the Astros and Yankees on Tuesday night, her figurine was there front and center. The scene of her sitting there in front of Astros bobbleheads probably wouldn’t make sense to others. It probably would make less sense to my friends that know my sense of music. But for so many of her fans, Dolly Parton just made sense. And she made the world a better place not only by her talents but by the type of human being she was. The world is better because she was in it. And in the strangest way possible, so is my sports collection.