There's No Crying in Baseball

“There’s No Crying in Baseball”

Those are the words spoken by Tom Hanks’ character to Bitty Scram's character in “A League of Their Own”.

I have witnessed many emotional moments in baseball as a player and a spectator. None can ever come close to the moment I experienced with about 40,000 other people on June 17th, 2001, at Bank One Ballpark in Phoenix, Arizona.

Baseball has a special place in my heart and in my memories and whenever something like his happens it really hits home, and the emotions are stirred up.

I saw a lot of games in Arizona and became a hometown fan for several reasons. The first was that I arrived in the inaugural season and saw them from the beginning. Another reason was that the Diamondbacks were a family-oriented organization and that carried through the years that I was there. I witnessed the World Series victory in 2001 and many other records setting events, just sitting in the stands by myself or with my friends.

Nothing compares to a day at the ballpark for me and probably nothing ever will. Whenever I get the chance you’ll see me sitting in the stands watching and analyzing the strategy and trying to outguess the manager and other times I just want to take in the atmosphere; the cheering, the chatter, and the excitement of the fans, especially the little kids seeing, perhaps, their first game.

It was a special event for the Diamondbacks, Father’s Day. So, there were families throughout the ballpark and everyone who could be was with their dad. For the Diamondback’s Tony Womack it was an empty feeling to see the players with their dads in the clubhouse, for he had gotten the call on April 22nd that his dad had passed away unexpectedly.

Tony left the team for a week before he returned and struggled to be what he was before his dad’s death. Tony had not only lost his dad that day in April, but he also lost his best friend. Tony’s wife told him he had to grieve, but Tony refused because he felt that he had to be strong for his mom and he did not want his kids to see him struggle with his dad’s death. Bob Brenly the Diamondback’s manager moved Tony around in the lineup to try to help find the groove again. That would help for a while, but Tony always went back to struggling.

The Tigers were in town for inter-league play and Tony was in his usual position at 2nd base although he was struggling with his bat.

The rest is history.

Tony proceeded to hit two doubles and a Grand Slam Home Run that helped Arizona defeat the Tigers 8-3. This day, however, the score didn’t matter because everyone there that day experienced a once-in-a-lifetime emotion-packed moment that I doubt any of them will ever forget.

When Tony hit the Grand Slam and rounded the bases, it was obvious to everyone in the stadium that day how emotional he was. Tony approached home plate and he put both feet on the plate. He pointed toward the sky as if to say, ‘that was for you, dad’.

I had a great seat to see what would happen next. I was next to the Diamondback dugout and as Tony approached the dugout the tears were streaming down his face. Like a pebble thrown into a pond the ripple effect was tremendous. The fans stood and applauded and cried with Tony. The word is that there wasn’t a dry eye in either dugout that day.

The score? I had to look it up because it really didn’t matter.

So, when you hear the quote from the movie; “There is NO crying in baseball”, there are 40,000 + fans and players that were in the stadium that day who will disagree.