Someone New...
On February 21, 2007, I got the pleasure of meeting a 5th Grade Student from Peachtree City, Georgia who really put things in perspective.
Cami Kelly is her name is she traveled to Orlando with her mom, her cousins and brother. They came because Cami is special, she is mildly autistic and has an incredible talent. She can name each player on the Braves team, their birthday and the name of their pets.
Over Here...
Cami and her mom, Jenny decided on this trip they would let the Braves know that they were there. They stayed up late on Tuesday night creating a sign, a sign wishing Brian McCann and Ryan Langerhans a Happy Belated Birthday.
They arrived at the Disney Wide World of Sports complex early on Wednesday, we met them around 8:30am. They were hanging out down the first baseline, just sitting, waiting for the team to take the field. Sign in hand and held at various times by Mom, Aunt, Cousin and Brothers, they finally got their first wish around 10, when the team finally took the field.
Cami, like any other kid was fidgeting all morning long. She and her cousins moved from behind the dugout, to right field, to first base and back again…the whole time waiting, waiting for McCann and Langerhans to see their sign.
A Little Help...
Sports Anchor Mark Harmon and I had already talked to Cami, spoken to her mom and had decided to do a feature on them for the day. We also had to do our other work of the day... stockpiling stories on the team, the players and what to expect this year…just like we do every year.
One of the players we spoke to was McCann. McCann, one of the “Baby Braves,” is also one of the nicest, down to earth 22-year old Major League Baseball players that you will ever meet. When Mark and I got finished talking to Brian, we told him Cami’s story and he said he saw the sign earlier in the day. He told us “That’s cool, I’ll go over there after we are finished.”
True to his Word...
It took awhile…this being the first day of Spring Training, the Braves practiced a little longer than normal. They finally finished around 1pm.
No sooner had they finished when Mark pointed down the 1st Base Line, where McCann was signing autographs. I quickly ran over there and got there about the time that Cami did. She held true, stood her ground and when McCann got over to her, she shyly handed him the small bat that she had been holding all day long. Brian looked up, smiled, signed the bat and handed it back to a beaming Cami.
Priceless...
The look on her face was priceless; she grinned ear to ear. I saw her walking away, down towards the right field corner. I don’t know if she realized it, but she looked right at me…smiled real big, then turned and kept walking. I couldn’t help but smile back…seeing the look on her face makes you really think about things, think about what you do, why you do it and what makes you happy.
Meeting people like that, making them happy does nothing but make you even happier. It really made me think back to my days as a kid, think back to what it meant to be around your heroes and to have them acknowledge you - that moment will live forever.
--Phil Cantor
“The time has come, my song is over…thought I’d something more to say” Time (Pink Floyd)
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