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Perspective
Dave · September 5, 2007 at 9:02 am · Filed Under Mariners
If you never read anything I link to ever again, read this.
I’m not kidding. Go read it. You won’t regret it.
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Fantastic link.
I read that at BA last week and thoroughly enjoyed it.
Must read.
Something tells me that Dirk Hayhurst will be just fine after baseball.
Thanks, Dave. Made my day - a great human interest story.
All I can say is WOW! Thanks, Dave
Wow, ok. It’s early, and I haven’t had coffee. I read the post as “if you never read anything I write again” and then spent the next few minutes trying to find the punch line in Dave’s fake autobiography of a minor leaguer.
Thanks, completely made my day!
Thanks Dave!
So sad, but so kind.
Thanks!
Thanks a lot, Dave. I’m now out of tissue….
Thanks Dave, as promised, some Perspective.
Amazing.
And it confirms what I’ve been feeling over the roller coaster of the last few weeks: I’m a baseball fan because of the emotions it raises, from the exhilaration of the important victories to the depths of the crushing defeats. When I was a little kid, it was also the excitement of meeting an idol. I’m glad both the player and this child got to experience those emotions.
Number 2’s got it spot-on: Dirk Hayhurst will be just fine after baseball. What a wonderful story. Thanks, Dave.
Thanks Dave. Thanks.
I hope the kid is ok … a dose of perspective indeed.
There’s a special relationship between young kids and ballplayers, and Dirk and his teammates gave that kid something to carry with him (both literally and metaphorically) through tough times as well as the good. (I’ll never forget how thrilled my younger brother was to meet George Brett, and how Mr. Brett took time out of what was undoubtedly a busy schedule to joke and fool around with him.) Good on Mr. Hayhurst. Thanks for the link.
That brought a smile to my face and a tear to my eye thanks.
Nice story. It also reminds me that some of the cancer stories are not confined to young boys who are fans of the game.
Robert Ramsay was a lefty pitcher for the Mariners in the 1999 and 2000 seasons. He struggled after that and was eventually diagnosed with a brain tumor. They successfully removed the tumor via surgery and he underwent further cancer treatments. Last I heard he tried to make a comeback in the Padres system.
When I heard the news about his cancer, there was an email address and I sent him my best wishes and prayers. I found it quite remarkable that he took the time to reply to my email and we had a short back and forth exchange after that.
I haven’t heard anything about him since. I hope he is alive and well and pursuing whatever dreams he still has. He seems like a good man.
It’s never just a sport. Thanks for the link.
It’s hard to say who got more out of that event, the boy or the ballplayers who lifted themselves out of their self-made iron boxes. I both love and hate these kinds of stories. No kid should have to suffer like that.
Thanks for the link Dave.
I heard an interview with Dirk on XM radio last week or so, awesome guy from what I heard. Thanks for reminding me of this, Dave!
I thought the first part of the column was excellent. The intrusions ballplayers and other entertainers have upon their lives outside their work. The emptiness of people collecting meaningless items because it’s the thing to do.
Then of course, it went from being a great article to a testament of humanity. This was truly a situation that everyone benefited from. The players rightly can feel good about themselves for doing a good thing. The child has memories that will, literally and unfortunately, last him a lifetime. And not to be overlooked is that a parent who lives her life in frustration, terror, and exhaustion, also knows that she did the best thing she could ever do for her son.
Thank you, Dave, for letting us be part of that chain.
I feel so left out.
the Columbian had a piece about Rob wearlier this year (now paid archive, sadly):
“Rob and wife Samantha moved to Coeur d’Alene, Samantha’s hometown, and Rob went back to school to earn his social science teaching credential.
Ramsay has yet to find a full-time teaching job. Determined to stay in the Coeur d’Alene-Spokane area, Ramsay coaches (including the junior varsity boys basketball job at Coeur d’Alene High), substitute teaches, and helps a buddy with remodeling projects when not attending summer school to add a teaching credential in mathematics.
Samantha, whom Ramsay met when he played baseball and she played volleyball at Washington State, is an instructor and researcher at the Coeur d’Alene branch of the University of Idaho.”
Great story. It drew me right in, and Dirk is a good writer. Thanks for sharing it with your readers.
There’s so much more to the things in life than we sometimes realize. Thanks, Dave, for sharing this story.
Thanks Dave.
I agree with most of the above, and yet, a ballplayer who lets himself get distracted by every fan with a request is going to be one ill-prepared, unfocused player. How do you find the right line between catering to fans and finding your focus as a player just trying to survive and perpetuate your professional dream? You can’t always just “know” when to ignore and when to accede. Dirk found the right balance, but purely by accident. He would have been entirely right to ignore them mother and son, and it can even be said that the mom was totally out of line to touch the player.
Then again, history was never made by people who stayed in line.
Still … ballplayer first, or human being? Sad that often these guys HAVE to choose one or the other.
Thanks for sharing, Dave. It went up on my blog, too. This one’s worth passing around.
Thanks for getting me all emotional on a Wednesday afternoon Dave. Great story and very well written. I’m sending this link to my mom and wife, I’m sure they’ll enjoy and as much as I did.
Jim’s spot-on, as usual; no question, it’s an art. Still, for all that there was a certain amount of good fortune involved here, Dirk Hayhurst might be a non-prospect as a baseball performer, but as a human being, he’s clearly blue-chip.
The cynic in me says that we can now expect a flood of moms with perfectly healthy kids playing the cancer card as a great way to get ball players to pay attention…
Agreed.
And something we can take a lesson from, as human beings…
Ti– read this one, you’ll find he agrees with you, wholeheartedly.
Sad that a kid that young is’nt longed for this life but again it shows even sick a child fondest wish is of ten a simple one.
He wanted to meet a pro baseball player the level didn’t matter.Mind you sure at first they give the kid and his mother lip service but like most ballplayers when the truth is told they react accordingly .
They give the kid his wish and more so at least he has sweet memory of wish granted to hold on to when the worse comes.
This is the polar opposite:
http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/minors/features/264358.html
Very funny.
Reminded me of “The Twelfth Angel” by Og Mandino. Great Baseball book.
Also the piece Dave wrote close to Mother’s Day a few years back about going to game at Kingdom. Which in my humble opinion should be reposted every Mother’s Day. I searched for it on more than afew times . No luck
This also reminds any of those with doubts how much these Authors of USSM love the game of Baseball. They aren’t just stat geeks. Any person that believes or thinks that is just plain Wrong. ( I don’t get to say that often with absolute conviction). Thanks
I’m betting the writer read Ball Four.
36..that was an interesting read. I have in the past received the same treatment he is referring to when I’ve had to wear my military uniform on a plane, out in town, etc. “You know I was in the navy once, blah blah” or “My best friend’s sister’s boyfriend’s brother’s girlfriend’s cousin knows this guy Sgt. Ferris who is in the Army blah blah”.
I can relate to Dirk and I shy away from attention but I oblige them in coversation and interested just to be human, and I don’t consider myself a hero.
M’s could use a player like him.
Very touching story. It brought tears to my eyes (and thats hard to do at times).
#40 “M’s could use a player like him.”
M’s do have (and have had) players like that. Ibanez, Edgar, Moyer, Buhner amongst others…
Dave, thanks for the link. I have a seven year old who has been treated for leukemia since he was four, and recently he got to meet the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes, go on the field, etc. It meant the world to him, didn’t matter to him at all that most of those players will never be major leaguers.
I guess my point is that the uniform does make all the difference.
42.
So?
As I was clicking on Dave’s link I said to myself “this better be darned good and worth reading”; it certainly was; well worthy of being linked to and of being described as a must read.
39. I have in the past received the same treatment he is referring to when I’ve had to wear my military uniform on a plane, out in town, etc. “You know I was in the navy once, blah blah” or “My best friend’s sister’s boyfriend’s brother’s girlfriend’s cousin knows this guy Sgt. Ferris who is in the Army blah blah”.
Interesting, I’ve only had one airline conversation with a military person, but it was the opposite: he went on and on. The key factor may’ve been that he’d just finished basic training and was both glad and proud to be finished. But I didn’t mind the conversation, it was interesting to hear his stories. The two most memorable details: the constant Physical Training got the recruits into such good shape that by the end, instead of viewing doing pushups or laps as a punishment, they would ask the Drill Instructor for “more PT Sir!”. And although they all practiced throwing grenades, the Drill Instructor only let the ones with the good throwing arms actually throw LIVE ones. No McLaren-esque putting of live grenades into the hands of Rick White at that boot camp!
I know from past experience (friendship with a baseball player for many years) that unless you touch a nerve with them, somehow get through their reserve, most of their thinking is “them” (the outside world, fans, non-baseball players) and “us” (fellow baseball players, spouses and their relatives, some but not all authority figures in baseball).
Not “them” versus “us”…just an acknowledgement that the world of major league baseball is a closed society unless one of them chooses to let the door crack open a bit.
That’s what I think this story was all about. And a story like that WILL open the door a little bit. I’m glad they showed the humanity of relating to the kid and his mom.
Amazing Article. Thanks Dave, it was a good read.
[deleted - your girlfriend doesn't know what she's talking about. Go read some of his other articles.]
Another perspective-builder with a Seattle connection.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/othersports/2003868841_moyer05.html?syndication=rss
Nice article.
Dirk Hayhurst has class.
In 1980, I played Babe Ruth Baseball in a small town in the Pacific Northwest. Medford Oregon was a small town of about 45,000. When we won the District Tournament, it was expected and while a very exciting day…no big deal. We later won state and found ourselves on the way to the Regional Tournament in Lewiston Idaho. Even now as I look back on it and think of the no-name places we played with players you’ve never heard of, it seems more like a fictional novel than something I really experienced.
The NorthWest Regional Tournament, we played teams from Yakima, WA, Lewiston, ID, and Casper, WY…names you’ll recognize as the megalopolises they are. We were living the BIG dream now playing teams from places near and far. Excitment was building and people were starting to notice back home as this 15 year old team just continued to win.
However, after winning the regional tourney, none of us were prepared for the hoopla that awaited us at the Babe Ruth World Series in Williston ND. While not as well known at the little brother tournament…The Little League World Series…we felt we had hit the big-time. Fans from all over the US made the homage trek to this small town to watch the best from around the country. Every time we entered the stadium wearing our uniforms, kids would descend upon us to seek our autographs on hats, balls, bats, programs, pictures, paper, or whatever they had available. For an entire week, we were Rock Stars. We were living every ball players dream to be considered the best…playing the best teams…on the big stage. Kids I had never seen before that were both younger and older than I asked me about playing in the big games, patting me on the back, shaking hands, seeking for a moment with the players if only by touching our uniform. Reporters held interviews after games and we watched the late evening news to see the highlights (as ESPN was still a fledgling network).
Yes, I agree. Baseball has something magical about it. You don’t have to play in MLB to weave a thread in the fabric of the magical cape of baseball. You don’t have to be famous or from NY, LA, Atlanta, or even Seattle. It can have an impact on others in ways unimagined. Remembering that this is what baseball is about and that the latest trade, stat, or win can be irrelevant if seek to gain and retain that magical perspective. Baseball can impact our life just by touching the sleave of the game as a fan.