Players Impact Extends Beyond the Diamond

27 June 2007


 

 
By CHRIS KAZARIAN
It was a ritual Owen Wilcox of Eastham had been through before, but last season was different. The 7-year-old was parting ways with Brock Baber, Clayton Shunick, and Matthew Wieters.

    The threesome, all members of last year’s Orleans Cardinals, had stayed with Owen and his family through the summer. To the casual fans they were just baseball players, but to Owen these were friends.

    That is why when they left, Owen did something he had not done at the end of 2004 or 2005. He cried. “I think it was last year when my son cried after they left, that is when it hit home,” his mother Sara Wilcox said. “It just tells you how special this is for my kids.”
When Sara and her husband, Ed, had offered up their Eastham home to the Orleans Cardinals four years ago, they did so not for themselves, but for their children, Owen and Hailee, 6.

    “It is exciting for the kids. A connection is being made between them and the players. It is such a special thing for them to say, ‘I have a baseball player staying at my house,” Ms. Wilcox said. “They go up above the garage, play ping pong or air hockey. We enjoy it as adults too, but for us it is mostly about the children.”

    Around the league, many who host ballplayers are not unlike the Wilcox’s; they are families with young children, looking for ways to expose their offspring to the world outside the home.

    In 2004, Ms. Wilcox said, she was unsure about what to expect. “I think our major worry was whether they would have parties all the time,” she said. “But, you don’t really run into that because these kids know this is a good opportunity for them.”

    Their player that first year was Steven Blackwood, an outfielder from Georgia Tech.

    “The most difficult part of the experience,” Ms. Wilcox said, “was getting used to having someone new in their home.” At first, she admitted, “it was a little weird.”

    That weirdness did not last long, as the Wilcox’s quickly became close to the Atlanta native. “He was just so excellent. He was a gentleman,” she said.

    While Blackwood spent much of his time at practice and games, there was still time for bonding. The family took him to the movies, treated him and his girlfriend to dinner, and hosted his family during a visit that summer.

    In a small way, they even helped domesticate Steven. “He was hungry for lunch one day and we were all leaving. I told him to make tuna salad and he said, ‘I don’t know how to do that,’ so I showed him how,” she laughed.

    That year was when Owen developed a love for baseball thanks to Steven. “He would play outside with Owen and give him pointers on how to be a hitter,” she said. “Owen’s passion is definitely baseball, and I think it is because of us hosting players.”

    In what has become a familiar story with subsequent players, Steven became close with the Wilcox children. The experience was so positive that before the season ended, Ms Wilcox said, “we asked if we could have another player next year.”

    They were given two: shortstop Steven Singleton, and pitcher Jacob Cook.
The two were a part of the Orleans Cardinals championship team of 2005. 

    “That was a pretty exciting year,” she said. “It was special to be sitting on the sidelines. It is like having your own child. We made signs for the last game that said, ‘Go Steven’, it was exciting stuff.”

    The best part of the season, Ms. Wilcox said, was simply the relationships her children formed with the players.

    Cook often would sit and read with the kids; Singleton became a mentor to Owen during the Orleans Cardinals baseball camp that year.

    Last year, the Wilcox’s opened up their home to three players. Again, Owen and Hailey bonded with the athletes staying in their home.

    Brock Baber, who plays the guitar and writes music, was a hit with the children. 
“We had just seen that movie about Johnny Cash, [Walk the Line] with Reese Witherspoon. After that my son Owen had an affinity for Johnny Cash,” Ms. Wilcox said. “Brock, being somewhat of a southern boy, would play Johnny for Owen. They got along well.”

    Ms. Wilcox described Matt Wieters as quiet, but her children took to him. The switch-hitting catcher “impressed Owen,” Ms. Wilcox said. “Owen knew he was pretty special. Owen watched him and decided he had to be a switch hitter because of Matt.”

    Clayton Shunick was simply affable. “He is a southern gentleman, just a nice person who is good with the kids,” Ms. Wilcox said.

    While saying goodbye is sometimes difficult, the Wilcox’s have made this aspect of life a little easier on their children.

    They keep in contact with many of their former players, occasionally writing, or calling them throughout the year. Last spring, they went to see Georgia Tech play Boston College in Boston, but more importantly to check in on Blackwood during his senior year.

    This year, they traveled to Atlanta and Kentucky to visit Blackwood and Barber during April vacation.

    Although Blackwood, who just finished up his fifth year of college, was no longer playing, he was still a part of the team as a broadcaster. During their visit to the college, Blackwood “gave us a tour of Georgia Tech. We got to see the locker rooms, the beautiful stadium and meet some of the players,” Ms. Wilcox said.

    The trip also allowed them to reconnect with both Blackwood and Baber’s parents at college games and at dinner. “When we started this, I never though we’d be traveling around, visiting teams and seeing games,” Ms. Wilcox said.

    Earlier this month, Owen and Hailey were taken out of school early so they could watch the major league draft on ESPN. When Wieters was drafted fifth overall, Hailee became so excited she kept chanting his name.

    Although they have yet to congratulate him, the two are as proud of him as a real brother or sister would be. He was the topic of one of one of their show and tells at Eastham Elementary School.

    This year the Wilcox family continues to grow. They are hosting three players again including Shunick. “He requested to stay with us again which is a good sign,” Ms. Wilcox said.

    They also opened up their home to players on the U.S. Military All Star team, including 27-year-old catcher Ryan Shephard of the U.S. Navy. “My son cried when he left,” Ms. Wilcox said. “Sometimes it takes only 48 hours for these players to make an impression on a child.”
 


 


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