By Scottie Andrew

I hope you're warmed up, folks — this edition of 5 Good Things is sports-packed! There’s no shortage of inspiring athletes this week (plus some unexpected GOATs, or greatest of all timers). 

I’m no sports fanatic, but few stories move me like those of an underdog, defying the odds and naysayers to achieve something worth shouting about. At their best, sports show us the stuff we're made of. Greatness takes many forms, and they don't all require winning championships. 

Here are some good things that happened this week.

CNN

America's pastime gets even better

Baseball is the greatest sport. I present the following story as proof!

Have you heard of the US Blind Baseball Association, a league for legally blind athletes who love the game? It's come up with an ingenious way to make baseball accessible: A player holds their own ball and tosses it up to hit. The balls contain several chimes so players can always hear them, and the bases make beeping noises to guide them in. Even without vision, these players are smacking the ball deep into the outfield and sprinting around the diamond.

“To be on a baseball field, a place that has brought me nothing but joy — it’s like heaven,” said Zach Ship, the “home run king” of his team. Ship unexpectedly lost his vision two years ago, and discovering blind baseball has buoyed him.

For the full edition of this story, head to CNN All Access. Keep tissues handy!

Roy Rochlin/New York Road Runners/Getty Images

The race of her life

The New York City marathon is always full of runners whose bravery will restore your faith in humanity. Here’s one of their stories. 

Ali Truwit lost her leg in a shark attack in 2023, less than two weeks after completing a marathon in Copenhagen. Two years later, Truwit got back in the race, running 26.2 miles around New York’s five boroughs — this time, in support of all the women and girls with prosthetic legs, like her.  

This year, she ran alongside one of her best friends and former swim teammates, who helped save her life after the shark attack. (Speaking of swimming — Truwit won a silver medal at the Paralympics last year, because she can truly do anything.) By the time Truwit crossed the finish line, she’d raised over $200,000 for her nonprofit, Stronger Than You Think, which donates prosthetic blades to young women so they can run, too. 

Ira L. Black/Getty Images North America/Getty Images

Billie Jean King can't stop achieving

Billie Jean King has done it all — almost. She founded the Women’s Tennis Association and fought for equal pay; she’s been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal; and she’s received the biopic treatment. What she didn’t have was a college degree. 

Until now! King is a few months away from graduating, finally, with a degree in History from Cal State University, Los Angeles. She nearly finished the job in the 1960s, completing three years of her program before leaving to make her own history. By the time she graduates, she’ll be 82, with yet another accomplishment to add to her very long list. Just imagine how much more she'll do by the time she's 90!

Photo credit

A half-naked show of solidarity

If you’ve caught a glimpse of pretty much any college football game this season, you’re probably wondering — why are so many of these fans shirtless? Like, more of them than usual? 

It started last month when Oklahoma State fan Trent Eaton took a $10 bet that he’d walk into an empty section of the stadium, take off his shirt and whip it around like a lasso. By the time the game had ended, hundreds of random men had taken their shirts off in solidarity with him and their team, which was about to lose yet another game in a disappointing season. 

Shirtless cheering has become the preferred method of motivation among desperate fans of losing teams — what better way to inspire your favorite players than to perform for them? Whether this trend continues into the back half of the season remains to be seen. But bad weather has never kept football fans down.

Chattanooga Audubon Society

The greatest weed-eaters of all time

Here's one more story about GOATS, but I’m not talking about sports greats. These are goat-goats, though they’re also at the top of their game — which just happens to be clearing land. 

Meet the hardworking hoofstock of Maclellan Island, a 20-acre nature preserve smack-dab in the middle of the Tennessee River. The preserve, across from downtown Chattanooga, has been overrun for years by invasive plant species that choke out native wildlife. Eager to “rewild” the island to make it more welcoming for people, plants and local animals, Chattanooga Audubon Society executive director Jim Stewart hired a herd of goats to chew their way across the island. 

Six hungry goats quickly set to work eating up weeds and other invaders, living on the preserve for weeks at a time under the watchful eye of a Great Pyrenees named Bao and their human employers. Since the summer, they’ve already cleared five acres!

To hear more from the goats and their super-fans, head over to the 5 Good Things podcast!

This week on CNN's 5 Good Things podcast, hear how universal childcare is going in the first state that implemented it. A formerly incarcerated man builds libraries inside prisons. And the K9 hero of the year makes their debut!

The key to protecting the majestic grizzly bear may lie within a few strands of their luxurious hair! Click here to learn more. 

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This edition of 5 Good Things was edited by CNN’s Andrew Torgan.

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