Tragedy in Texas

I wasn't entirely sure on what site to post this piece. It's a story that occurs at a baseball game, so I could have published it at MCB, but the greater significance has absolutely nothing to do with baseball.

Last night in Arlington, Texas, a 39-year-old firefighter was in attendance at the Rangers-A's game. He brought his young son to the park with him. In the second inning, Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton corralled a foul ball and tossed it up over the scoreboard (which is 14-feet high) to the fan who was sitting in the first row of the seats. The fan reached for the ball, caught it, and tumbled over the railing, landing on the concrete behind the scoreboard, some 20-feet below his seats. He was awake and conscious as he was taken away on a stretcher, asking paramedics to "Please check on my son. My son was up there all by himself." The man died a short while later at the hospital.

I heard about the incident this morning on my drive to work. This is the second death from a fall at a ballpark this year and the third time that a Rangers fan has fallen over the railings at their home ballpark since it opened in 1994. While accidents like this do happen from time to time, this one hit me especially hard. What must that little boy be going through today. He is a young boy who went to a ballgame with his dad. They were 150 miles from home, just he and his father. What greater evening can a child have? In a flash, his dream evening turned nightmare as he watched his father, in all likelihood his idol, fall some 20 feet to his ultimate death. But this is a nightmare from which this boy won't wake up. His father is gone forever.

The minutes following the fall must have been torture for the boy. Hamilton said today that he could hear the boy calling for his father just after the man fell from the seats. If that doesn't just rip your heart out... The hours that followed were surely worse as he was (in all likelihood) transported to the hospital to be with his dad, surrounded by strangers only - no one to comfort the child. Remember, these two people were 150 miles from family and friends, so by the time anyone was contacted and would have shown up to pick up the boy, he would have been alone in this horrifying situation for several hours. It just breaks your heart.

As a father, I do things to make sure I'm around for my kids. There will be no riding of motorcycles for me, no sky diving, no swimming in shark-infested waters. But I wouldn't have thought twice about doing the same thing this father did in Texas. Accidents like this can happen to anyone at any time and while it's a sad thing, it's probably not avoidable. I can only hope that if I ever meet my demise in such a way, that my children aren't forever burdened with having to witness it. And that they aren't left alone for hours to deal with what happened all by themselves.

I have been very lucky so far. My parents are both still around and I haven't suffered tragedy anywhere near what others have. I cannot imagine how devastating it must be to bury a child and I hope I never have to find out. But I also cannot imagine what this little boy in Texas is going through and what he'll continue to have to deal with. His life changed forever last night. It's just not fair.