"here you go, buddy," the older gentleman said, his palm outstretched toward liam. in his hand was a baseball. a dirty, grass-stained foul ball, from the first half-inning of the UNC vs. davidson baseball game.
this kind usher, dressed from head to toe in carolina blue, then helped us find our seats. i'm not quite sure how the ball had come into his possession; it might have landed in his vicinity, or he might have retrieved it from an area where no one was sitting. shoot, he might have even caught it himself. but no matter. he gave it to liam as a gift, as an elder lover of the game to a future lover of the game -- a bright-eyed little boy, decked out in a dodgers jersey and a UNC baseball cap.
liam held on tight to that ball throughout the remaining eight innings, precariously, at times, as he chewed his hot dog from one hand and a soft pretzel from the other. he slept with it in his bed that night, and brought it to school the following morning for show-and-tell.
it's amazing what an impact a seemingly small gesture like that can have. i'd be surprised if the usher even remembers it; there are hundreds of excited little boys who sit in those seats throughout the season, and hundreds of foul balls. to him, it was probably just another foul ball and just another little boy. but to liam, this memory will come flooding back years from now, as he reminisces on his first carolina baseball game. he loved everything about being there, from sitting in the fancy new stadium with the cool scoreboard, to witnessing home runs and amazing catches, to watching the tarheels play against the team that his own daddy played on in college. but there's no doubt that his foul ball was the highlight of them all.
if liam has one iota of his father's baseball skills, i'm sure that there will be many, many more balls in the years to come, from games in which he's a player and not just a spectator. but the first one is special. the first game was special. and that man, who knelt down and bestowed this gift to my son, well, he's pretty special, too.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
the kindness of strangers
"here you go, buddy," the older gentleman said, his palm outstretched toward liam. in his hand was a baseball. a dirty, grass-stained foul ball, from the first half-inning of the UNC vs. davidson baseball game.
this kind usher, dressed from head to toe in carolina blue, then helped us find our seats. i'm not quite sure how the ball had come into his possession; it might have landed in his vicinity, or he might have retrieved it from an area where no one was sitting. shoot, he might have even caught it himself. but no matter. he gave it to liam as a gift, as an elder lover of the game to a future lover of the game -- a bright-eyed little boy, decked out in a dodgers jersey and a UNC baseball cap.
liam held on tight to that ball throughout the remaining eight innings, precariously, at times, as he chewed his hot dog from one hand and a soft pretzel from the other. he slept with it in his bed that night, and brought it to school the following morning for show-and-tell.
it's amazing what an impact a seemingly small gesture like that can have. i'd be surprised if the usher even remembers it; there are hundreds of excited little boys who sit in those seats throughout the season, and hundreds of foul balls. to him, it was probably just another foul ball and just another little boy. but to liam, this memory will come flooding back years from now, as he reminisces on his first carolina baseball game. he loved everything about being there, from sitting in the fancy new stadium with the cool scoreboard, to witnessing home runs and amazing catches, to watching the tarheels play against the team that his own daddy played on in college. but there's no doubt that his foul ball was the highlight of them all.
if liam has one iota of his father's baseball skills, i'm sure that there will be many, many more balls in the years to come, from games in which he's a player and not just a spectator. but the first one is special. the first game was special. and that man, who knelt down and bestowed this gift to my son, well, he's pretty special, too.
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2 comments:
moments like that just revitalize your faith in humanity. love them. thanks for sharing. got a few chills.
how special! (i also didn't know chris played baseball for davidson. very cool! i, myself, dated a unc baseball player!) :)
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