Memories of a foul ball, Fenway and the true meaning of baseball

Opening Day always takes Jonathan Keane back to when he was beaned by a foul ball at Fenway Park.

It was all captured by then-Herald photographer Ted Gartland, who photographed Red Sox slugger Jim Rice scooping the 4-year-old Keane up and rushing him to a waiting ambulance.

Keane, now 43 and living in North Carolina with his wife and three kids, said what that day taught him is to cherish every moment. Opening Day just brings it all back.

“You’ve got to live every second,” he said Friday as the Sox were losing the opener to the Orioles, 3-0. “I also realized it takes a pretty special person to react the way Jim Rice did that day.”

It was a game in early August of 1982 when Keane was sitting with his brother and dad along the first-base line when a foul ball hit by Dave Stapleton smacked him right in the head. Rice, a Hall of Famer, moved quickly to lift Keane to safety.

Keane recovered, adding he doesn’t remember much from that day. What he does recall is the pure joy of seeing a game at Fenway Park and cheering for a lovable team that just couldn’t seem to win a World Series in those days. (Stapleton, a sure-handed first baseman, wasn’t put in late during the sixth game of the 1986 World Series. That’s when Bill Bucker let one roll through his legs. But that’s a story for another day.)

Keane said what matters to him are the smells of the park — from the hot dogs to fried onions for the sausages — and the field that’s “green unlike any green in the world.”

This year, he added, baseball is needed more than ever.

“Playing baseball again in front of fans means life is going to be back,” he said. “We can kind of get back to normal things. But we can’t take anything for granted.”

Sure, the Sox lost 3-0. But it’s baseball season when hope springs eternal.

Keane is co-founder and CEO of CustomerHD. He helps companies outsource telephone services and business is good. His wife is a nurse and his young children — like so many others — have been mostly learning remotely during the pandemic.

But he remains optimistic. “Every moment matters,” he said. That’s what the game, Jim Rice and Fenway instilled in him. I guess it’s true, a picture is worth a thousand words.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3rLCmIo