After visiting some shops, we headed on over to Kannapolis to the baseball stadium for the game. We were met at the gate by Courtney and Beth from the Hendrick Marrow Program and the General Manager of the Kannapolis Intimidators. We were taken up to a suite where we met the Director for USA Baseball and met two other bone marrow transplant families. Isaac was able to meet a boy and a girl who were both close to his age that had received transplants as well.
After a few minutes, they took us down to the clubhouse which was a cool experience. The team presented each of the three kids an official hat, jersey and baseball autographed by the entire team. Then they allowed us to hang out in the clubhouse and allowed the kids to talk to each player and get more autographs. We had bought Isaac a bat to get autographed by the team. He went from player to player getting each one to autograph it. This was pretty cool because according to the Team Director, most all of these guys will end up in the MLB in a couple of years. Isaac got his picture taken with all of the players including Pedro Alvarez who is supposed to be the #1 player taken in next years draft. This guy has already turned down a huge contract from the Boston Red Sox in order to go to college to get his education which was cool to see.
After the autographs, we walked out onto the field with the team. Isaac carried the bat for #9 Jordy Mercer from Oklahoma State. All of the players were extremely nice. We then went to the dugout and waited for the opening ceremonies. Isaac and the two other kids then went out for the opening pitch. He did awesome. He told us he almost cried after he pitched the ball because he was so excited. Overall, the night was a 10 on scale of 1-10. A special thanks to Courtney and Beth at Hendrick and Team USA Baseball.
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