In the mid 1980s, WP Kinsella’s Shoeless Joe dragged me back to my childhood love of baseball. The last team I played on was the Athletics, styled after the Oakland A’s.
Even though it’s not Thanksgiving in the USA, it is here. A great Thanksgiving gift to me is about what kind of richer bonds are forming around the Oakland A’s after their pitcher, Pat Neshek‘s family tragedy last week. Their son died last week after only 23 hours of life. This is an unthinkably brutal loss. Then he pitched Friday night. Stunning.
Pat Neshek was overcome with emotion when he found out his teammates were taking the field wearing patches honouring his late son.
“I’ll be honest — I completely broke down,” Neshek said. “I can’t believe the support I’ve gotten from the team and my teammates. I couldn’t be doing this without that.”
From all this, I feel we should all strive to be worthy enough to be able to be this supportive when those close to us experience loss. And I’m thankful that I have this kind of people in my life already.