Aaron Throws Patrick a Strike From Heaven

Patrick was hard playing, baseball lovin' little boy. "Play coaches pitch Mom!" was his daily request from the time he started to talk. Unlike Aaron, Patrick was a student of the game and quick on the field. A left handed batter, PT was set up to be a hot pick in the little league "draft".

Aaron played little league for fun and could have cared less if his team won. As long as he had fun, it was all good. A healthy attitude for a kid. His first at-bat he was beaned. I would guess he was one of the most beaned players in his time. Getting beaned didn't hurt Aaron.

A half hour before Patrick's Little League tryout, his baseball career ended. Looking out to our back yard, I saw Patrick throw his glove down, and heard him yelling something at Aaron. Apparently Aaron gave Patrick a preliminary taste of a fastball. The sting of the hardball struck Patrick the same way it stopped his Dad's Little League career--in it's tracks. PT came into the house and announced his retirement through tears and sobs. Aaron's explanation was he was letting his brother know what he was going to experience. I called the Director and Patrick never played baseball again. The Ken Griffey Jr left handed baseball glove is about as good as new.

A friend of Patrick's, Trevor, sells corn behind home plate at the Mallard's games. Trevor gave PT two passes to the Warner Park Duck Pond to see a game of his choice. The last regular season home game was last night. Cathy dropped Patrick and his friend Amanda at the game. I went down later to catch a few innings and give them a ride home. I had standing room only and spent most of the night standing near an area where Patrick and Aaron would scramble with other kids to retrieve foul balls at games played by other minor league teams in years gone by. The game last night was good and the experience for Patrick and Amanda before the game was the best.

PT and Amanda found some seats in the stands along the first base side. The pitcher warming up is number 15 (aaron's high school football number). The first base coach wore number 29 (aaron's youth football number). Aaron's passwords and codes always included the numbers 15 and 29. (His cell phone was 772-1529).

Before the start of the first inning the first base coach picked up a ball and made a motion to throw it into the stands. That got the fans all hustling for position. At the next moment, the coach turned, and Amanda is convinced he looked directly at them. Amanda told PT to "stand up, he's going to throw it to us." As he rose, the coach threw the ball. Patrick put his hands out and caught the baseball in his bare hand! Even though the throw had some steam on it, the ball didn't hurt according to Patrick. Everyone sat down. Still standing a few rows in front of PT and Amanda was a boy with a shirt bearing a name. The name read "AARON".

I think the ball was thrown from Heaven to Home with an assist from the first base coach. Grateful that my boys can still play catch.

Safe at home.
Tom