Thursday, August 9, 2018

Fun at the Old Ballgame


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!



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!


Wednesday, May 23, 2018

Some Jack Scribner Highlights

Haven't posted anything in a while; need to get back in the swing of it and hopefully will soon. In the meantime, I'm just posting some videos of Jack here so I have access to them in a quick and easy-to-find location.

Jack goes deep against Elk Rapids senior year



Jack's last regular season game of high school. Less than a week later, he would be diagnosed with leukemia. He was already feeling pretty ill and incredibly weak (he is noticeably winded each at bat upon reaching first base), but he went 3 for 3 nonetheless. Here is what I posted on Facebook at the time: 
Of all the (very many) things for which I am proud of Jack, near the top of the list would be his resilience. He started this season in the worst slump of his life, going 1/19. Though he was down, he kept working hard, and from that point on (over the last five weeks), he has had the second highest batting average (.378) and highest on base percentage (.521) on his high school team. Today, in the final regular season game of his career, he capped things off with a 3/3 performance at the plate. Next up: District Playoffs on Saturday!
Little did we know how valuable that resilience would be in the very near future.









Jack comes up big against Linden junior year. He hadn't been playing a ton, but with family visiting from out of town, he got the start at first base this day. With family (and the TV cameras) on hand, Jack did not disappoint!



Varsity fall ball against Davison sophomore year. Davison won the league with their pitchers allowing only NINE runs all season. Three of those came here as Jack got a two-out, bases loaded walk-off triple in Davison's only loss. One of my favorite moments from his baseball career.




Here are two of the other runs Davison allowed that season. That's right, as a sophomore facing varsity players, Jack drove in five of the nine runs they allowed on the season!




First Varsity Hit




Sophomore year; JV walk-off winner over Carman-Ainsworth




12-year old Grand Blanc Little League championship game. Jack on the mound trying to pick up the save. His team (the Cardinals!) was up 19-18 with two outs and the tying run on base...




And some basketball, too...

Senior Night








And going REAL old school...