There are memorable nights in sports, and then there are the unforgettable. Friday, April 20, was one of those unforgettable ones.
On that night, if you took 460 West and hung a right on Southgate Road into English Field—a baseball stadium tucked away in Virginia farmland that sits in the shadows of the ever popular Lane Stadium—you would have seen the Virginia Tech baseball team, in front of a record crowd, help its community take a step forward in the healing process.
“It felt good [to play baseball],” said Hokies catcher Matt Foley, who, after the game against the Miami Hurricanes, looked more emotionally than physically drained, on this, the first night of sports in Blacksburg following the tragic 33 shooting deaths on the Virginia Tech campus just five days earlier.
 The Virginia Tech baseball team lost a game and won the hearts and minds of a grieving crowd in Blacksburg on April 20. |
“At the same time,” Foley said, “that first inning was the toughest inning of baseball I ever played. Right after the moment of silence, right after, you had to try to carry on and play. It’s just hard to say but it was great getting out here and taking your mind off all the terrible things that happened this week. That was the biggest thing—not just playing baseball, but taking your mind off the terrible things.”
The “terrible things” will linger in all of our minds.
For this Hokie community, those “terrible things” are a reality that they will never forget but must find a way to escape. The escape must begin with moments, small moments like this, before normal life can resume.
On this night at the ballpark, there are hot dogs, popcorn, and kids running every which direction for foul balls. There are also hugs—long grateful hugs for seating ushers, for policemen and for neighbors seen for the first time since Monday.
There are even hugs for the visiting fans from Miami.
“It’s good for everybody to come together like this,” said Dave Childress, a Virginia Tech sophomore from Vinton, Virginia. “It’s just something different than sitting around talking about what happened or watching the news. It’s good for something positive like this. Nothing like the ballpark.”
Nothing like the ballpark, indeed.
Isn’t it amazing how baseball once again is there to help? The sport acts unknowingly as a shoulder to lean on, if only for a night, just as it did for New Yorkers following the events of 9/11.
The game itself provides a few moments away from the constant news feed from the small university town, even if it is just a game.
Of the tragedy, Washington Nationals manager Manny Acta said, “I mentioned to my wife, in particular, that this is frustrating to me. When things like that happen is when I get frustrated, not things on the baseball field.” But it was on the baseball field that the Nationals showed their support—Acta’s team replaced its caps with that of Virginia Tech’s the night following the tragic slayings. “It’s still a game, it’s still a beautiful job, and we are competing and all that,” says Acta. “It was very frustrating to think that you can work as hard as you can, you can put your kid through college, and then all of sudden your kid’s not going to come back home because somebody felt whatever way they felt. It was very frustrating and sad. It was the least we could do.”
This week Blacksburg has taken the leasts and the mosts and is ever so grateful for all the well wishes the community has received. That is why when Tech shortstop Warren Schaeffer’s potential two-run tying home run was hauled back in by Miami’s left fielder to end the game with an 11-9 Tech loss, the fans stood and cheered, loudly, until the players retook the field to accept the crowd’s “thank you” and tip their caps in return.
In the end, Virginia Tech didn’t worry about the agony of defeat.
The night was about taking the small steps against the agony of death.
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