Have a Shay Day ???

This showed up in my mailbox today. I have seen it before. So here it is in it's glory and my response below.


My question is: Would you have made the same choice?

At a fundraising dinner for a school that serves learning-disabled
children, 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,
physically and mentally handicapped 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 his father had walked past a park where some boys Shay
knew were playing baseball. Shay asked, 'Do you think they'll let
me play?' Shay's father knew that most of the boys would not want
someone like Shay on their team, but the father also understood that
if his 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.

Shay's father 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. His Father watched with a small tear in his
eye and warmth in his heart. The boys saw the father's joy at his
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 his father waved to him from the stands. In the bottom of the
ninth inning, S hay'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 ever 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!' Catchi g 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-base man'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 his father so happy, and
coming home and seeing his Mother tearfully embrace her little
hero of the day!

AND NOW A LITTLE FOOTNOTE TO THIS STORY: We all send thousands of
jokes through the e-mail without a second thought, but when it
comes to sending messages about life choices , people hesitate. The
crude, vulgar, and often obscene pass freely through cyberspace,
but public discussion about decency is too often suppressed in our
schools and workplaces.

If you're thinking about forwarding this message, chances are that
you're probably sorting out the people in your address book who
aren't the 'appropriate' ones to receive this type of message. Well,
the person who sent you this believes that we all can make a
difference. We all have thousands of opportunities every single day
to help realize the 'natural order of things.' So many seemingly
trivial interactions between two people present us with a choice:
Do we pass along a little spark of love and humanity or do we pass
up those opportunities and leave the world a little bit colder in
the process?

A wise man once said every society is judged by how it treats it's
least fortunate amongst them.

You now have two choices:
1. Delete
2. Forward

May your day, be a Shay Day.

************************************


Okay, this story has been making the rounds for a long time. The first time I saw it I did the research and found that the veracity of this story was undetermined. I just checked again - same thing. All I can say is that if it is true it had to happen at least 30 years ago. If it had happened anymore recently than that the scenario would have been.....

The coach of the team saying, "Lookit buster, I worked my butt off all season whipping this bunch misfits into shape and now we have a chance to make it into the playoffs. Ain't no way "I'm" giving up that chance to let your kid play just so he might feel better about himself."

At which point the ACLU would show up from out of nowhere (well not really nowhere - they're lurking everywhere) with a writ forcing the coach to let the kid play.

So the coach quits (this is okay - he was a jerk and the kids are better off without him).

While the guy from the ACLU grabs his cell phone trying to hunt down somebody who can find a judge to issue an injunction against the other team because now they have an unfair advantage due to having a coach. In the meantime, kids being kids, they decide to get on with it and let Shay play.
When it is Shay's turn to bat the guy from the ACLU (he's still feverishly trying to get an injunction) whips out the other court order he already has (he anticipated needing it because - as he so often reminds himself - he is smarter than everyone else) which makes the game stop while they move the bases three-quarters of the way in because Shay is obviously disadvantaged.

Now when the pitcher tosses the ball underhand his Father starts screaming from the stands, "That's not how I taught you to pitch ya little wimp. You can burn it past this kid - increase your stats."
A woman in the stands starts yelling at the father, "Sit down you jerk. They shouldn't even make him bat they should just let him run around the bases. The poor kid will never be able to do anything for himself so we need to take care of him". Then she hits the guy with her umbrella emblazoned with the Peace symbol.

Of course a melee breaks out in the stands and so no one notices that Shay has managed to tap the ball back toward the pitcher. Shay's team is yelling, "Run, Shay, run! " and so Shay runs (the now twenty feet or so) to first base while the pitcher intentionally tosses the ball over the first baseman's head. From the stands the pitcher's father screams, "I saw that. Wait till I get ya home ya little bastard. I'll teach you to throw the game." The last few words though are almost unintelligible because the woman with the "Peace symbol" umbrella has just used it to connect with his cajones.

Meantime Shay is almost to third by virtue of the others on the fielding team intentionally throwing the ball away from him. Now Shay is rounding third and the one little punk bully on the team, Billy, has finally gotten his hands on the ball and is heading toward Shay - intending to tag him out. The guy from the ACLU is overwhelmed and finally decides to take the law into his own hands (big surprise there) and runs out and tackles the kid with the ball. At this point Billy's father breaks away from the fight in the stands and begins to pummel the ACLU attorney while simultaneously the fielding team coach runs from the dugout and tackles Shay to stop him from crossing the plate.


Shay's father runs out onto the field to defend his son but is cut off by a freshly tonsured trial lawyer who stuffs his card in the dad's pocket saying, "This is worth millions if not hundreds of millions - give me a call." He then walks over and hands a card to the little punk, Billy, saying the same thing. Then he even hands one to the ACLU attorney with the cleat marks in his forehead.

Fade to black.

Now a thought about the original story.

Nature is not perfect, but it does not make mistakes.
Even it's imperfections have purpose. What that purpose may be I will often never be able to discern or fathom - but I have faith that it is there.

And a thought about the footnote.

I often forward things to friends. I never forward them without deleting the part that says "If you are a good person you will forward this", etc. , etc. - If they want to forward they will - it is not for me to admonish them for what they may or may not do with it. Emotions are great things - they make life worth living. But they are not the things upon which decisions should be based.



Later amigos.