The cold weather was easing, which, for Josh, meant the beginning of baseball season. Our friends Tori and Andrew seemed to be the only people at the hospital who love sports as much as we do. After spending much of college football season together and going to see every athlete who came through Walter Reed, we started having conversations about traveling to see as many ballparks on this side of the country as we could. My growing belly was also a call for a last hurrah before the baby arrived. Thus was born the Great Baseball Tour of 2013.
JOSH
An organization called All32in17 was founded by a father and son who had made connections with people affiliated with professional sports teams. Their powers combined with Tori Smith’s scheduling created a baseball trip in which we saw seven American ballparks in seven days. We began at Camden Yards to watch the Orioles, then Yankee Stadium, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Detroit, and Toledo, and we finished in Cincinnati. It was going to be a dream of a trip. Not only did we plan this outing without any assistance from the hospital, but we did so much more than go to the games. We got to be on the field for batting practice at every single game. Andrew and I were able to throw the first pitch at the Toledo Mud Hens game, and we got to retrieve the lineups from the
Cincinnati Reds manager and bring them to the home plate umpire before the game.
The Detroit Tigers ended up being the biggest score—in runs for the team, but also for us as fans. We got on the field for batting practice, and Triple Crown winner Miguel Cabrera gave Andrew his bat! Torii Hunter, not to be outdone by his teammate, gave me his bat and gave us both follows on Twitter! We also got to meet Joe Maddon and Evan Longoria of the visiting Tampa Bay Rays. We watched a great game and then decided after the game to stand on the sidewalk next to the home team’s parking garage, hoping to get more autographs of a few players. First came Prince Fielder. Prince was super nice and gave us autographs and took photos. We waited and waited for Justin Verlander to make an appearance. People kept saying, “He drives the nicest car you’ve ever seen, and he won’t stop for anyone.” Paige smirked and replied, “We’ll see about that,” and then messaged him over and over on Twitter. We were almost ready to call it a night when the garage door opened and out rolled a crimson Aston Martin. There was an obvious buzz in the crowd, because they all knew who that car belonged to. Andrew and I stepped into the street a little, and the car pulled over as the passenger side window rolled down. The driver said, “Hey, are you the ones that have been tweeting at me?” Justin Verlander signed our Verlander jerseys and thanked us for our service before he drove away. We were in a daze the entire drive back to the hotel. You could have blown us over with a feather! We had pulled it off. We had successfully gone on a non-hospital-sanctioned trip. Andrew and I got our leave approved in time, Tori booked handicap-accessible hotel rooms, and we managed our own wheelchairs and prostheses without the help of a physical therapist. It was something a lot of other amputees were afraid to try, but Paige and I were more nervous to move out of Walter Reed without ever trying a solo trip.
The day after the Detroit game, we made our way back to Walter Reed. Our Great Baseball Tour had come to an end, and it was incredible to think about all the things we got to do in just a few short days. We saw Mariano Rivera close on opening day in Yankee Stadium. We met great players like Bryce Harper, Cliff Lee, Chase Utley, and Joey Votto. Andrew and I got to be guest captains, game-day commentators, and military members of the game for almost all the games we went to. We even got to be in the crowd on Good Morning America, where we met Brad Paisley, while we were in New York. We were crushing it at this recovery thing! Next on our list was gearing up for the next big adventure: life as an amputee dad.
After the baseball trip, it was time to focus on setting myself up for success as a father. We went and tested dozens of rocking
