An extra special baseball game

The afternoon of May 21, my wife, youngest son and myself watched the freshmen baseball game at Elmwood Park High School. My older son was playing for Fenton High School (Bison) and opposing the Elmwood Park Tigers. The game was in the last inning, and the Tigers' coach had substituted a batter into the line up. Before pitching to the batter, the Bison's coach took a trip to the mound to talk to all of his infielders. Once the batter took the box, you could hear his Tiger teammates clapping and yelling the batter's name from the dugout. Soon, the Bison bench started clapping, and then the fans on both sides of the diamond. People started yelling, "Let's go, hit it."

I am not sure how many times this player was able to get into the lineup, but it quickly became apparent that he was special. He ended up getting to first base on a walk. Once on first, his teammate hit the next pitch for a single while he continued to run to third. The pitcher obliged on the next pitch, which was a wild throw to the backstop and he stole home. At this time, no one thought about the score. This game seemed to be a success in everyone's eyes as he crossed the plate. As I sat in my seat next to my 13-year-old son who has special needs, I could only think: Thank you. Thank you to the players, the fans, the umpire, the coaches (and the administration who hired these people) ... They get it.

Dave Shimanek

Wood Dale