Favorite Christmas Story/Baseball Story
Song of the day, "Tears in Heaven" Eric Clapton
Quote of the day, "Cooperstown is the Greatest place on Earth" Bob Feller
Back in the day when I worked two jobs and went to college full time, oh and when I still had a heart and gave a crap about the world and it's going ons'. An curious thing happened. I was working my 2nd shift job at a gas station and one of the veteran employees came in and he said, "Jenn I need to tell you what I did on my days off." I said OK and listened and wept as Rich told me this story.
Background, Rich is a lifelong resident in Saugerties NY and a Mets fan. His neighbor and good friend Smitty had a son born with a genetic disorder where all his organs were in the mirror image of normal organs. All backwards even the heart was backwards and on the wrong side of the chest. Smitty was also the chief of police. His son had been entered in the "Make a Wish Foundation" and his number was up. He was 11 at the time and we will call him Little Smitty.
Little Smitty was not expected to live to see one say nothing about making it to the unheard of 11 years old. But a body born defective can only mature so far and then begin to compromise the promise of tomorrow. I know not the outcome of Little Smitty as I left New York and I weep as I write this.
His make a wish was drawn. His wish was to see a baseball game live. He loved the Yankee's. He is forgiven. He was only a kid. Boomer, Jeter, Strawberry, were all fresh. Joe was still catching and Darrell hadn't been busted for cocaine. And it was a night game in the fall. I remember there was the fear that little Smitty would come down with something.
A limo came to the house and took the Smittys and Rich to the ballgame. When they got there Little Smitty (not the entire family, just the one that counted) was invited to the dugout. He got to watch the game from the dugout! Lucky 4 star word. Joe talked baseball trash with him and Jeter tossed a ball with him and Boomer told him he could be a Yankee one day if he got his little butt better. They made the kids life. The Yankee's made a memory for me. They embraced this little boy and gave him the game of his life. They even won that night.
There were more words than that. The Story from Rich went well into the night. He kept remembering little things that they could see from their prime seats. In the end, it was good. Real Good. Little Smitty even got a Christmas Card that year signed from everyone on the team.
Quote of the day, "Cooperstown is the Greatest place on Earth" Bob Feller
Back in the day when I worked two jobs and went to college full time, oh and when I still had a heart and gave a crap about the world and it's going ons'. An curious thing happened. I was working my 2nd shift job at a gas station and one of the veteran employees came in and he said, "Jenn I need to tell you what I did on my days off." I said OK and listened and wept as Rich told me this story.
Background, Rich is a lifelong resident in Saugerties NY and a Mets fan. His neighbor and good friend Smitty had a son born with a genetic disorder where all his organs were in the mirror image of normal organs. All backwards even the heart was backwards and on the wrong side of the chest. Smitty was also the chief of police. His son had been entered in the "Make a Wish Foundation" and his number was up. He was 11 at the time and we will call him Little Smitty.
Little Smitty was not expected to live to see one say nothing about making it to the unheard of 11 years old. But a body born defective can only mature so far and then begin to compromise the promise of tomorrow. I know not the outcome of Little Smitty as I left New York and I weep as I write this.
His make a wish was drawn. His wish was to see a baseball game live. He loved the Yankee's. He is forgiven. He was only a kid. Boomer, Jeter, Strawberry, were all fresh. Joe was still catching and Darrell hadn't been busted for cocaine. And it was a night game in the fall. I remember there was the fear that little Smitty would come down with something.
A limo came to the house and took the Smittys and Rich to the ballgame. When they got there Little Smitty (not the entire family, just the one that counted) was invited to the dugout. He got to watch the game from the dugout! Lucky 4 star word. Joe talked baseball trash with him and Jeter tossed a ball with him and Boomer told him he could be a Yankee one day if he got his little butt better. They made the kids life. The Yankee's made a memory for me. They embraced this little boy and gave him the game of his life. They even won that night.
There were more words than that. The Story from Rich went well into the night. He kept remembering little things that they could see from their prime seats. In the end, it was good. Real Good. Little Smitty even got a Christmas Card that year signed from everyone on the team.
Labels: baseball, make a wish, NY Yankee's
posted by Jenn at 11:32 PM
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