Tulsa Little League player getting national sportsmanship award

TULSA, Okla. — Tulsa Little League player, Isaiah Jarvis, is getting national attention again, this time as a Musial Award recipient.

The Musial Awards were started in 2005 and named after Cardinal great Stan Musial. The awards honor the greatest acts of sportsmanship annually.

Isaiah is among 13 other athletes, including former NFL player Warrick Dunn and baseball great Albert Pujos, being honored.

Isaiah is among those ranks for a simple hug at the Southwest Region of the Little League World Series in August. It was during a game that would decide which team could advance. Isaiah was up to bat, when the baseball struck him in the head, knocking his helmet off. He walked to first base but didn’t stop there when noticed the pitcher visibly upset. Isaiah pulled Texas East pitcher Kaiden Shelton in for a hug, drawing a standing ovation from the crowd.

“I got hit many times myself, but nothing like that,” Kaiden said in the bio featured at the Musial Awards. “I thought I hurt him. I had never done that.”

Oklahoma did not win the game, but the score is not what anyone remembers. FOX23 spoke to Isaiah after he returned home. He said he had no idea that one act of kindness was going go so far.

“If somebody’s down,” Isaiah said, “just go cheer them up, make them feel better, say ‘they got this’.”

“People see him as a hero,” says Isaiah’s father, Austin in the Musial Awards bio. “The world is so divisive, but they saw a gesture between two young competitors who came together in compassion. I think the world is hungry for that.”

Past recipients of the Musial Award include golf legend Arnold Palmer; “The Great One” Wayne Gretzky; Olympian Jackie Joyner-Kersee; Baseball Hall of Famers Hank Aaron and so many more.

The Musial Awards will air to the public Christmas Eve.

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