Donald J. Trump is going to award some Presidential Medals of Freedom in a few days.

Some of the recipients of the nation’s highest civilian honor will be athletes. They are athletic legends at that. I mention this because at times we hear grumbling about whether athletes deserve an honor meant to commemorate individuals’ contributions to American life and culture.

Of course they deserve such an honor.

Among the recipients of the Medal of Freedom this month will be the legendary New York Yankees slugger Babe Ruth, Dallas Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach and Minnesota Vikings defensive tackle Alan Page. By the way, the president also will honor the late Elvis Presley, Sen. Orrin Hatch, the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and political mega-donor and philanthropist Miriam Adelson. They’re all worthy.

Back to the athletes. The Bambino, Roger the Dodger and Page will be the 29th, 30th and 31st athletes honored in this manner. Former President Barack Obama honored 12 athletes with the Presidential Medal of Freedom; they included Michael Jordan, Stan Musial and Bill Russell. Others honored have included, oh, Muhammad Ali, Jackie Robinson, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Arthur Ashe, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Ted Williams.

Every one of those individuals has contributed mightily to the culture of this country. Thus, they deserve the honor bestowed on them by the president.

One of the athletes the president will honor, Alan Page, also distinguished himself in another way. After he retired from football, he went to law school, got his degree and then took his seat on the Minnesota Supreme Court. I am quite sure the president will highlight that achievement right along with the prowess he showed as a member of the Purple People Eaters defensive front line for the Vikings.

And how do you deny the worthiness of Babe Ruth, arguably the greatest athlete ever to play baseball, which many of us still consider to be the National Pastime?