For the second straight year, Cleveland Guardians outfielder Steven Kwan hosted his Check on Your Mate Chess Tournament. The event at Progressive Field was a fun-filled day to help promote mental health awareness.
"To come here, blending the two loves that I have, I think it's really special,” Kwan said.
Kwan didn’t come alone either, as he brought along fellow Guardians Slade Cecconi, Tanner Bibee and Travis Bazzana, as well as other familiar faces in the Cleveland pro sports scene like Cleveland Browns long snapper Rex Sunahara and Cleveland Cavaliers guard Max Strus. However, their being professional athletes didn't mean the kids would shy away from friendly competition.
"It really lets the guard down for us and the kids; we get to see them in their natural habitat,” Kwan said. “The banter you get from that is unbelievable.”
But to Kwan, the best kind of banter comes from an open dialogue around mental health.
"I think it's a little unpopular at times to seek help, admit that you're having a tough time with things, and to be able to maybe lower that stigma a little bit, make it a little more normalized, that's all we're trying to accomplish with that,” Kwan said.
"Life is hard, baseball is hard, chess is hard. All these things are really, really hard. But if you can do it with other people and take a little mini tribe with you along the way, I think it goes a long way.”
