Anonymous, but heart-felt story. Mercy, that is the relevance.
Question:
“Would you have made the same choice?”
At a fundraising dinner for a school that serves children with
learning disabilities, the father of one of the students delivered a
speech that would never be forgotten by all who attended. After
extolling the school and its dedicated staff, he offered a question:
‘When not interfered with by outside influences, everything nature
does, is done with
perfection.
Yet my son, Shay, cannot learn things as other children do. He cannot
understand things as other children do.
Where is the natural order of things in my son?’
The audience was stilled by the query.
The father continued, “I believe that when a child like Shay, who was
mentally and physically disabled comes into the world, an opportunity
to realize true human nature presents itself, and it comes in the way
other people treat that child.’
Then he told the following story:
Shay and I had walked past a park where some boys Shay knew were
playing baseball. Shay asked, ‘Do you think they’ll let me play?’ I
knew that most of the boys would not want someone like Shay on their
team, but as a fatherI also understood that if my son were allowed to
play, it would give him a much-needed sense of belonging and some
confidence to be accepted by others in spite of his handicaps.
I approached one of the boys on the field and asked (not expecting
much) if Shay could play. The boy looked around for guidance and
said, ‘We’re losing by six runs and the game is in the eighth inning.
I guess he can be on our team and we’ll try to put him in to bat in
the ninth inning.’
Shay struggled over to the team’s bench and, with a broad smile, put
on a team shirt. I watched with a small tear in my eye and warmth
in my heart. The boys saw my joy at my son being accepted.
In the bottom of the eighth inning, Shay’s team scored a few runs but
was still behind by three.
In the top of the ninth inning, Shay put on a glove and played in the
right field. Even though no hits came his way, he was obviously
ecstatic just to be in the game and on the field, grinning from ear to
ear as I waved to him from the stands.
In the bottom of the ninth inning, Shay’s team scored again.
Now, with two outs and the bases loaded, the potential winning run was
on base and Shay was scheduled to be next at bat.
At this juncture, do they let Shay bat and give away their chance to
win the game?
Surprisingly, Shay was given the bat.
Everyone knew that a hit was all but impossible because Shay didn’t
even know how to hold the bat properly, much less connect with the
ball.
However, as Shay stepped up to the plate, the pitcher, recognizing
that the other team was putting winning aside for this moment in
Shay’s life, moved in a few steps to lob the ball in softly so Shay
could at least make contact.
The first pitch came and Shay swung clumsily and missed.
The pitcher again took a few steps forward to toss the ball softly towards Shay.
As the pitch came in, Shay swung at the ball and hit a slow ground
ball right back to the pitcher.
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 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!
A wise man once said every society is judged by how it treats it’s
least fortunate amongst them.
May your day, be a Shay Day.
