While we’re enjoying the friskiness of fans and players alike for the Cubs/White Sox series (and more than our fair share of awkward moments), we’d like to share the story of one man who wins no matter the victor when the Cubs and/or White Sox play. That’s Adam Carter, a beer vendor for both teams.

Carter’s true passion isn’t baseball; it’s philanthropy. That’s why he spends the baseball off-season traveling across the world, making small donations to needy people without the auspices of major charities. These “microdonations” often make the difference in desperate areas. (You can find Carter’s Web site here and see how donations help.)

He raises funds informally and delivers them in much the same fashion. He pays his own expenses to travel the world as an angel of mercy. Then, when spring comes around, he straps on his gear and slings suds for those ever-polite Chicago sports fans.

Larger charities see people like Carter (and there are more than a few) as self-serving; after all, only the person handing the cash to those in need get the tearful hug. Also, they remove any economy of scale by delivering small sums with large relative expenses (absorbed by the traveler, but still).

People like Carter see the larger charities as bureaucratic, stifling, and occasionally misguided. While he can’t do as much as them, he believes can do what he does better.

And now we look forward to a hundred more stories just like this, thanks to newspaper groupthink. Still, it could be worse: they could fail to find a hundred more people that care like Adam Carter.