A winning moment that will endure -- Baseball Talk

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Date Posted: 20:23:24 02/23/03 Sun
Author: Kathy
Subject: A winning moment that will endure

Just wanted to share a heart warming story...
(((((((((( Ohio ))))))))))

The Cleveland Plain Dealer 02/23/03
Regina Brett

A winning moment that will endure

The dad wanted his son to see the big game, so they arrived at the high school gym early to get a good seat. "The Chosen One" would play that night, but no one knew it except the coach...

The dad and his son sat in the bleachers, waiting for the Junior Varsity game to end to see whether Wadsworth High School would clinch a league title - and set a school record - with its 17th straight win.

Suddenly, with one minute left on the clock, the JV game came to a halt. Wadsworth was winning by 10 points when the Cloverleaf High School coach stopped the game.

The crowd buzzed, wondering why the coach called a timeout when the game wasn't close enough to win, when everyone was anxious for the REAL game to begin - the game that mattered.

That's when the dad noticed the short, thin player sitting at the end of the bench wearing the green No. 10 jersey for the Cloverleaf Colts. When the player rose from the bench, the dad noticed the boy's limp, the slight tilt of his head, the way his eyes looked a tad off, the scarred ear that had never finished growing in the womb.

The dad didn't know that a shunt in the boy's head kept him alive, drained the water from his brain and kept him from playing sports to the fullest. The boy couldn't afford to be hit in the head.

Doctor's orders.

The coach had planned to put Adam Cerny into the game, no matter how close the score. He knew how badly Adam wanted to play against the school's big rival and figured Adam had earned the right to play. Adam was the first to arrive for every practice and the last to leave. He cleans the floor, lugs water bottles, and gets the basketballs out.

The dad and boy in the bleachers watched as Adam caught a pass and launched a shot from well beyond the three-point line. He missed.

Instead of pouncing all over the ball to charge down the court and rack up more points, the teens on the opposing team didn't move.

They wanted Adam to have another chance.

The clock ticked down. Adam shot and missed. Twelve seconds. He missed again. And again. Ten seconds. Nine seconds. The Wadsworth team refused to take the ball. One player even motioned for Adam to come closer, but the boy declined.

By now, everyone was standing and cheering for Adam Cerny. The people who knew him shouted, "Come on Adam!" and "Cer-nee! Cer-nee!" With four seconds left, Adam launched the ball. The buzzer split the air as the ball swooshed through the net.

The crowd went wild.

Fans from both teams stood to cheer and clap. The Wadsworth players shook his hand and patted his back. The two referees on the gym floor applauded. One turned to the other and said over and over, "Man, was that nice."

The dad in the stands began to cry. He cried over what high school basketball had become in a different arena, with ESPN and autograph seekers and Hummers and $800 gift jerseys in the hands of a teenager surrounded by security guards and legal teams ready to negotiate tennis shoe deals in the millions for a boy dubbed "King James" who will skip college and head straight to the NBA.

The dad cried over seeing a three-pointer that was better than any in any pro, college, or high school game he'd ever watched.

When he looked up, his son, a child of 5, asked if the tears were because Cloverleaf had lost the game.

The dad just smiled.

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