In August of 2008, the father of a 24 year-old Major League Baseball player died four months into the player’s first full season in the bigs.  MLB offers their players seven days of bereavement leave, which this player took and then he went back to his job in baseball.  He ended up playing in 151 games in 2008.  He had 156 hits, 24 of them home runs, with 84 RBI.  His OBP was .368 and he slugged at .506.  His average to end the season was .297.  Again, all in his first full season in MLB the year that his 52 year-old father died suddenly. Since that time, he’s won a Gold Glove, been on two All Star teams and won the League MVP award.  He’s also led the League twice in on-base percentage, once in walks, once in doubles and once in putouts.  He’s an incredibly fun player to watch and one of the most popular on his team with the hometown fans.  He’s so important to his team that this year he signed a 12-year deal worth $251.5 million.  When the deal was made it was the second largest contract in MLB’s history (well, third really given contracts [...]

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