A good story about baseball!

[ZTABullwinkle]

I happened upon this article on www.cbssportsline.com this morning. It is what we never hear about with the days of steroids in baseball. Enjoy!

Here is the link to the story: Reds Already One of the Season's Big Winners

Insider: Reds already one of season's big winners
Aug. 18, 2005
By Scott Miller
CBS SportsLine.com Senior Writer


You know the problem lately?

We spend so much time cleaning the fungus from the shower-room tile -- Rafael Palmeiro, Kenny Rogers -- that sometimes we forget why we came to the ballpark to begin with.

For now, there is Bill Summe, Ken Griffey Jr. and a struggling bunch of fifth-place Cincinnati Reds.

And when it comes to what baseball is and what it should be, well, good luck to October in topping this one.

Summe doesn't play a position with the Reds, unless you know the corresponding number to mark on the scorecard -- 10? 11? -- for a public safety security officer. But when he was summoned into the middle of a crisis in Cincinnati's Great American Ball Park during a game earlier this month, he moved as deftly as Davey Concepcion ever did.

A man had collapsed as the Reds were playing the Atlanta Braves and, as paramedics feverishly worked to revive him -- they couldn't; Spencer Brock, 49, passed away later that night from a heart attack -- one of the officers handed a little boy to Summe.

One look at the man and Summe, a policeman in Cincinnati's Springfield Township since 1992, knew it wasn't good. So he and Sarah McManus, a colleague in the Reds security office, took little Antonio Perez, 6, and walked him away from his stricken grandfather as quickly as they could.

"He looked at me and asked, 'Is my Pawpaw going to be all right?'" said Summe, 39. "I knew from my years of experience as a police officer that the guy didn't have much of a chance. They were administering CPR, and I said 'We'll do everything we can.'

"I didn't realize at that point that he was only with his grandfather. I figured they had his grandmother or some others with them."

They didn't. It was Tony Perez Bobblehead Doll night at Great American Ball Park, and when you're a 6-year-old boy named Antonio Perez in Cincinnati -- where the Hall of Famer had spent most of his career -- well, don't you have a solemn duty to be at the ballpark on a night like that? So he and grandpa went to the game. Just the two of them, a night out, part of a terrific crowd of 37,157 and, well, there's always so much that happens that the box score doesn't tell.

Mostly, Summe simply wanted to get little Antonio away from the seat, away from the section, away from the crowd. They walked up to the concourse first. They weren't too far from the Reds bullpen. So Summe walked him there, told bullpen coach Tom Hume what was going on and asked if it would be OK if the two of them could kind of hide away in there for a while.

"I wanted to get the child's mind off of it," Summe said.

When an overwhelmed 6-year-old in a stadium swelled with people, noise and lights, a boy you're pretty sure has just lost his grandfather, looks up at you and asks, "How am I going to get home?" well, not every situation is in the security manual.

So into the bullpen it was. Word quickly spread, and Cincinnati reliever Randy Keisler plopped little Antonio down next to him on the bench.

Toward the end of the game, an 8-5 Reds victory, Griffey, from his position in center field, looked over and noticed the little boy.

"What's up?" Junior asked.

Nobody was quite sure what would happen next. Summe knew one thing: He didn't feel it was his place to tell Antonio that his grandfather was gravely ill, or worse. But he sure didn't want to lie to the boy, either.

That's another reason they were in the bullpen instead of back in the stadium security office.

"If we were back in our office, I was afraid he'd overhear what had happened over the radio," Summe said.

So the game ended, and as it did, Griffey first veered back toward the bullpen before trotting back toward the infield. He instructed Summe and Antonio to follow him, they were going onto the field.

"Win or lose, he was coming in the clubhouse," Griffey told the Cincinnati Enquirer.

Next thing the boy knew, he was in line toward the pitcher's mound, high-fiving with the rest of the Reds players following the win.

And then, the clubhouse.

"Junior spent half an hour or longer with him," Summe said. "Jason La Rue gave him a bat and a computer bag so he'd have something to hold all of the stuff. Felipe Lopez gave him the batting helmet he used in the All-Star Game.

"The thing is, we all pretty much have kids. We wanted to make sure the child was OK, because he was scared."

Imagine. After a blooper of a summer, the Reds storm back to stage the perfect rally.

Antonio's grandmother and stepfather picked him up later that night, and their tear-stained faces told him all he needed to know.

And that would pretty much be the end of the story, until ...

Wednesday, the family returned to Great American Ball Park because Antonio's mother, Shannon, and grandmother, Debbie -- along with Antonio's stepdad and 4-year-old sister, Maya -- wanted to thank the Reds. They brought homemade chocolate chip and peanut butter cookies to the security office, and then they moved along to thank the players.

Griffey again took Antonio onto the field, this time for batting practice before the Reds' game with the San Francisco Giants. In fact, Griffey himself threw some pitches to Antonio. Wily Mo Pena showed Antonio how the big guys stretch before a game.

Then, they had Antonio close his eyes as they led him back into the clubhouse. There, led by Jacob Cruz and Pena, the Reds gave him some wrapped presents -- a motorized scooter and safety helmet, a PlayStation 2 and other accessories and electronic devices and some bats, balls and gloves.

"It was pretty neat," Summe said. "Right in the middle of the clubhouse, all the players gathered around him as he opened his presents."

Antonio's reaction?

"In awe would be the best way to describe it," Summe said. "His hero now is Ken Griffey Jr. Griffey reached into his locker and took out a brand new glove and handed it to him.

"Ken does this kind of stuff all the time, he just doesn't like to make waves with it. He's like the canoe paddling out there in smooth water."

The Reds at midweek were 54-66, 22 games behind St. Louis in the NL Central, trailing even Milwaukee in the division standings. They fired manager Dave Miley earlier this season and they're being second-guessed -- deservedly -- for some of their offseason moves.

Yet given the organization's nimble reaction on as bad a night in human terms as you could imagine ... anybody want to dare suggest that the Reds aren't having a successful season?

[docetboy]

And that's why I love America's favorite pastime.

[KSigkid]

That's a great story.

As a bit of an aside - Griffey Jr., while not having a great year, is his best year in about 5 years. When all is said and done, and he's up for HOF election, I think the steroid era could end up helping his reputation. This is a guy who put up amazing numbers, and there's not a word that it has been through anything except talent and work.

[Lindz928]

That was such a touching story! I am very impressed by the actions of all of those players. I hope that story gets around.