Our son was diagnosed with leukemia this June, which has led to a summer of disappointment and hardship. This week though, amidst all the junk, he got to have a really neat experience.
The Cardinals only visit Detroit every sixth year in the normal schedule rotation, so it's not often that Jack gets to see his favorite team. Thanks to some very thoughtful friends though, he got a really special experience during the Redbirds' most recent visit.
With the Cardinals coming to town, fellow baseball-crazed pastor, Paul Edwards gave us two tickets to Saturday's game. From there, Mike Smith took over. Mike is one of the official scorers at Busch Stadium, and is a friend of our family. He made a couple calls and arranged for a special experience at the game, but told us he would just let us be surprised. As it turned out, we got to meet Cardinals manager Mike Shildt and pitcher Adam Wainwright. Both were incredibly kind to Jack, showing genuine concern for his well-being as they interacted with him.
The time spent with them was cool enough, but Wainwright also signed a ball and a card, and Shildt gave Jack some really sharp Cardinals gear! We can't say enough about the kindness they showed in taking time to meet with us. Thanks so much to everyone involved!
The Cardinals only visit Detroit every sixth year in the normal schedule rotation, so it's not often that Jack gets to see his favorite team. Thanks to some very thoughtful friends though, he got a really special experience during the Redbirds' most recent visit.
With the Cardinals coming to town, fellow baseball-crazed pastor, Paul Edwards gave us two tickets to Saturday's game. From there, Mike Smith took over. Mike is one of the official scorers at Busch Stadium, and is a friend of our family. He made a couple calls and arranged for a special experience at the game, but told us he would just let us be surprised. As it turned out, we got to meet Cardinals manager Mike Shildt and pitcher Adam Wainwright. Both were incredibly kind to Jack, showing genuine concern for his well-being as they interacted with him.
The time spent with them was cool enough, but Wainwright also signed a ball and a card, and Shildt gave Jack some really sharp Cardinals gear! We can't say enough about the kindness they showed in taking time to meet with us. Thanks so much to everyone involved!
While at the Cards/Tigers game, we also got to chat with Cardinals broadcaster (and former pitcher) Rick Horton.
We reached out to him, and he graciously agreed to meet up with the two of us before the game. Rick is a great guy and we had a real nice
conversation with him, in addition to him also signing a card for Jack.
Thanks, Rick!In the midst of all this, we also got an unplanned bonus when we chatted with 1968 World Series MVP Mickey Lolich. He was there for the 50th anniversary celebration of that team, and we were waiting for an elevator in the Tigers administrative offices. He gave us a little good-natured ribbing seeing we were Cardinals fans (since the Cardinals were the team the Tigers beat in the '68 Series), but he seemed to be a really nice guy too.
We even got to witness Jose Feliciano reprise his iconic version of the Star-Spangled Banner, as first sung during the 1968 Series.
All in all, it was definitely an experience to remember!
All in all, it was definitely an experience to remember!
