A Thanksgiving Gift from Baseball


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Pat Neshek of the Oakland Athletics looks to the sky as he touches the patch with the letters “GJN” on it after he recorded the final out of the bottom of the seventh inning against the Detroit Tigers during Game 1 of the American League Division Series at Comerica Park on October 6, 2012 in Detroit, Michigan. The patch worn by all the members of the Athletics is in memory of Neshek’s son Gehrig John, who died 23 hours after birth on October 3.

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.”

via Oakland Athletics’ Pat Neshek makes emotional relief appearance after death of newborn son | MLB | Sports | National Post.

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.

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Stephen Elliott-Buckley

Post-partisan eco-socialist. at Politics, Re-Spun
Stephen Elliott-Buckley is a husband, father, professor, speaker, consultant, former suburban Vancouver high school English and Social Studies teacher who changed careers because the BC Liberal Party has been working hard to ruin public education. He has various English and Political Science degrees and has been writing political, social and economic editorials since November 2002. Stephen is in Twitter, Miro and iTunes, and the email thing, and at his website, dgiVista.org.

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