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I’m familiar with this story;
it’s true.
Shay’s father tells the story.
these were frum boys.
“I believe”, he began, “that when a child like Shay, who was physically
and mentally disabled, comes into the world an opportunity to realize
true human nature presents itself, and it comes in the way other people
treat that child.”
He then went on to tell a story about the time he and Shay walked past
a park where boys Shay knew were playing baseball. When Shay expressed
an interest in playing ball despite his handicap, his father approached
one of the boys on the field and asked if Shay could play.
“We’re losing by six runs and the game is in the eighth inning,” was
the reply, “but I guess he can be on our team and we’ll try to put him
to bat in the ninth inning.”
Shay’s team scored three runs in the eighth inning but still entered
the bottom of the ninth three runs behind. They managed to get the
bases loaded with two out, and Shay was scheduled to bat. Not only did
that Shay could be credited with a grand slam and win the game for his
team.
“That day,” said the father softly, with tears in his eyes, “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 me so happy, and
coming home and seeing his mother tearfully embrace her little hero of
the day.”
The natural goodness of youth. Thanks for sharing
i know this family personally! this story always brings me to tears as you see that these children showed such compassion to a special child of hashem! Hashem shepped alot of nachas from his kinderlach who sacrificed a ballgame just to make a kid happy and his parents happy!
You can watch this on the Aish Hatorah Website. Watching it always brings tears to my eyes.
This story was published in one of R’ Krohn’s books.
I happen to know the family personally – I was Shaya’s brother’s chavrusah for a few years.
A few points: Shaya did not die that winter.
His father told me that in R’ Krohn’s book, he embellished the story to make it sound better. It wasn’t the bottom of the ninth inning, or anything like that. He simply wanted to hit, and they gave him a home run. In the book, it says they put him on their shoulders and carried him around. His father told me that didn’t happen.
Finally, it didn’t happen during the summer. It happened during the school year, in Yeshiva Darchei Torah, in Far Rockaway.
did you HAVE to bust the bubble….
Feif Un,
How do you feel about the way the story was modified? Has your chavrusah ever expressed an opinion about this?
beautiful story! very random question though, the name shay is a shortened version of shaya? I remeber once seeing it on a tallis bag… 🙂
I know this story – it is definitely true (maybe a tad embellished, but the ikker is true). My son had a similar story occur when he was a counselor in the summer camp of that Yeshivah. He had a camper who is developmentally disabled, not Shay, and the boy was assigned to his bunk. He was a little leery as to how the other boys would accept this very obviously different child, but they took him into the group like any other friend, and he was very gratified to see the friendships that were forged with this child that summer. The boys were instinctively more patient with him, and didn’t get upset when he needed a little more time to do things, even in a game of competition, and they cheered every accomplishment. He was often the first one picked on a team, and the sensitivity and mesnchlechkeit of my son’s bunk made him very proud of his campers.
Kids have an unbelievable capacity to love. Kids have an unbelievable capacity to be cruel.
anon for this: his brother is also disabled, and I don’t think he’s even aware of the embellishments to the story. One time he told me he was jealous of his brother, and he also wanted to hit a home run.
One thing I wasn’t clear on in my last post: I said Shaya didn’t die that winter. In fact, as far as I know, Shaya is still alive and well (I haven’t been in contact much with the family, but I think I would have heard if something did happen to him G-d forbid)
kapusta, I don’t know the story or the boy (beautiful story, by the way!) but Shay is a name in itself. I believe it means “gift” in Hebrew.
thanks Jewess 🙂
Thanks Feif Un.
Question for all: Do your feelings about the story change once you know that some of the details may have been changed to make it more effective?
Anon: for me, not really. The point is that young kids made a disabled kid very happy.
You guys might be talking about 2 different, albeit similar, stories (rather than a change in details.)
I think embellishment or enhancement to a story (especially for a maggid) is certainly permitted and somewhat expected; however this crossed the line a bit unless the maggid heard the story at this stage of the retelling (like playing telephone, stories change a bit whenever they are repeated). I have heard stories retold by the same Rav and they change a little each time. The essence of the story remains and the mussar is learned from the story.
And here is the link:
Shaya Hits a Home Run – a 1 min. Video from Aish.com
Thanks for the link da.
Again, as I said – it wasn’t the last inning with the team losing. He simply walked by, and said he wanted to try and hit. They gave him the bat, and allowed to get his home run. Was it still an amazing story? Yes. The boys made his day. The happiness he got from it was amazing. But the story didn’t happen the way the video or R’ Krohn say it did. I heard this straight from Shaya’s father.
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