Posted: May 11, 2008, 4:08 PM CST
Still there Breeze?
The game would now be over.
The pitcher picked up the soft grounder and could have easily
thrown
the ball to the first baseman.
Shay would have been out and that would have been the end of the
game.
Instead, the pitcher threw the ball right over the first baseman's
head, out of reach of all team mates.
Everyone from the stands and both teams started yelling, 'Shay,
run
to first!
Run to first!'
Never in his life had Shay ever run that far, but he made it to
first
base.
He scampered down the baseline, wide-eyed and startled.
Everyone yelled, 'Run to second, run to second!'
Catching his breath, Shay awkwardly ran towards second, gleaming
and
struggling to make it to the base.
By the time Shay rounded towards second base, the right fielder
had
the ball . the smallest guy on their team who now had his first
chance to be the hero for his team.
He could have thrown the ball to the second-baseman for the tag,
but
he understood the pitcher's intentions so he, too, intentionally
threw the ball high and far over the third-baseman's head.
Shay ran toward third base deliriously as the runners ahead of him
circled the bases toward home.
All were screaming, 'Shay, Shay, Shay, all the Way Shay'
Shay reached third base because the opposing shortstop ran to help
him by turning him in the direction of third base, and shouted,
'Run
to third!
Shay, run to third!'
As Shay rounded third, the boys from both teams, and the
spectators,
were on their feet screaming, 'Shay, run home! Run home!'
Shay ran to home, stepped on the plate, and was cheered as the
hero
who hit the grand slam and won the game for his team
'That day', said the father softly with tears now rolling down his
face, 'the boys from both teams helped bring a piece of true love
and
humanity into this world'.
Shay didn't make it to another summer. He died that winter, having
never forgotten being the hero and making me so happy, and coming
home and seeing his Mother tearfully embrace her little hero of
the
day!
AND NOW A LITTLE FOOT NOTE TO THIS STORY:
We all send thousands of jokes through the e-mail without a second
thought, but when it comes to sending messages about life choices,
people hesitate.
The crude, vulgar, and often obscene pass freely through
cyberspace,
but public discussion about decency is too often suppressed in our
schools and workplaces.
If you're thinking about forwarding this message, chances are that
you're probably sorting out the people in your address book who
aren't the 'appropriate' ones to receive this type of message.
Well, the person who sent you this believes that we all can make a
difference.
We all have thousands of opportunities every single day to help
realize the 'natural order of things.'
So many seemingly trivial interactions between two people present
us
with a choice:
Do we pass along a little spark of love and humanity or do we pass
up
those opportunities and leave the world a little bit colder in the
process?
A wise man once said every society is judged by how it treats it's
least fortunate amongst them.
You now have two choices:
1. Delete
2. Forward
May your day, be a Shay Day.