superman7515
August 3rd, 2015, 02:03 PM
http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/03/us/kansas-batboy-kaiser-carlile-death/index.html
(CNN)They're young competitors with, doubtless, a common goal -- to make it to the National Baseball Congress World Series championship -- but this weekend, everyone, even their opponents, were rooting for the Liberal Bee Jays.
Some might question why the Bee Jays were even taking the field when their bespectacled, baseball-loving batboy, Kaiser Carlile, died Sunday after being struck in the head with a bat a day earlier, but it was a decision that wasn't made flippantly. Ultimately, the team decided, the 9-year-old would have wanted the games to continue.
"When the Bee Jays decided to continue Saturday's game after a team meeting in the outfield, they did so because they concluded it's what Kaiser would have wanted," Bob Lutz, a columnist for The Wichita Eagle, wrote in Sunday's newspaper (http://www.kansas.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/bob-lutz/article29829799.html#storylink=cpy).
Haysville, Kansas, Aviators coach Gabe Grinder, whose team would go on to be shut out by the Bee Jays on Sunday, told Lutz that Kaiser was enamored with being a batboy.
"We had a chance to play at Liberal this summer and we got a chance to see their batboy. That kid's full of life and he loves doing what he does," Grinder said.
Kaiser had been the team's batboy all season, and despite the high stakes in Saturday's game against the San Diego Waves, it was business as usual at Wichita's Lawrence-Dumont Stadium as Kaiser trotted out to the on-deck circle to collect a bat that had just been used, Nathan McCaffrey, the Liberal, Kansas, team's president, said in a statement (https://www.facebook.com/LiberalBeeJays/posts/10152939836481175).
A Bee Jays batter was in the on-deck circle taking warmup swings and accidentally hit the youngster in the head, the statement said. Kaiser was wearing a helmet, but the blow knocked him to the ground, witnesses told local media.
"Just to see him fall, that's what crushes you," McCaffrey said.
Fan Mickie Schmith likened the sound to that of a bat cracking against a baseball, while another spectator, Malachi Lingg, told CNN affiliate KAKE (http://www.kake.com/home/headlines/Batboy-injured-at-NBC-baseball-tournament-320387561.html) that she heard screaming after Kaiser was struck.
The batter "didn't see him at all and took a swing right as the batboy went by and hit him right in the back of the head," she told the station. "I felt really bad for the mother -- she was right there in the front row and saw it all."...
(CNN)They're young competitors with, doubtless, a common goal -- to make it to the National Baseball Congress World Series championship -- but this weekend, everyone, even their opponents, were rooting for the Liberal Bee Jays.
Some might question why the Bee Jays were even taking the field when their bespectacled, baseball-loving batboy, Kaiser Carlile, died Sunday after being struck in the head with a bat a day earlier, but it was a decision that wasn't made flippantly. Ultimately, the team decided, the 9-year-old would have wanted the games to continue.
"When the Bee Jays decided to continue Saturday's game after a team meeting in the outfield, they did so because they concluded it's what Kaiser would have wanted," Bob Lutz, a columnist for The Wichita Eagle, wrote in Sunday's newspaper (http://www.kansas.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/bob-lutz/article29829799.html#storylink=cpy).
Haysville, Kansas, Aviators coach Gabe Grinder, whose team would go on to be shut out by the Bee Jays on Sunday, told Lutz that Kaiser was enamored with being a batboy.
"We had a chance to play at Liberal this summer and we got a chance to see their batboy. That kid's full of life and he loves doing what he does," Grinder said.
Kaiser had been the team's batboy all season, and despite the high stakes in Saturday's game against the San Diego Waves, it was business as usual at Wichita's Lawrence-Dumont Stadium as Kaiser trotted out to the on-deck circle to collect a bat that had just been used, Nathan McCaffrey, the Liberal, Kansas, team's president, said in a statement (https://www.facebook.com/LiberalBeeJays/posts/10152939836481175).
A Bee Jays batter was in the on-deck circle taking warmup swings and accidentally hit the youngster in the head, the statement said. Kaiser was wearing a helmet, but the blow knocked him to the ground, witnesses told local media.
"Just to see him fall, that's what crushes you," McCaffrey said.
Fan Mickie Schmith likened the sound to that of a bat cracking against a baseball, while another spectator, Malachi Lingg, told CNN affiliate KAKE (http://www.kake.com/home/headlines/Batboy-injured-at-NBC-baseball-tournament-320387561.html) that she heard screaming after Kaiser was struck.
The batter "didn't see him at all and took a swing right as the batboy went by and hit him right in the back of the head," she told the station. "I felt really bad for the mother -- she was right there in the front row and saw it all."...