Teamwork that Saves Lives.

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Pass It On®

Teamwork that Saves Lives.

How a high school baseball team lifted a car off one of their classmates pinned underneath.

By The Foundation for a Better Life

The magic of baseball is its fluid connection between players, each in the right position at the right time, playing their part to perfection; the flawless relay throw, the squeeze play, the three-bagger and the rally-killing cry of Tinkers to Evers to Chance on the double-play. When a team is in sync, there is nothing more breathtaking than baseball. But it takes a lot of practice to look effortless.

That’s what was happening — practice — one afternoon when the Valley High School team was distracted by a scream for help. Coach Brett Sawyer heard the commotion and saw the entire team sprinting toward the parking lot, jumping over fences.

One of their schoolmates was pinned under a car that had accidentally backed over her. One of the players, Chas Roberts, remembered afterward, “You had to do what you had to do to save someone’s life.” The players quickly surrounded the car, each taking a hold, and lifted the car. An assistant coach was then able to pull the girl out from underneath the car. She is expected to make a full recovery.

Maybe it’s the connection human beings have with each other, rushing in to help when it’s needed. And maybe playing together as a team became instinctual because each knew what to do. Or maybe it’s both. Maybe, deep inside, we all know that we are on the same team.

The next day, the varsity team lost their last game of the year. But winning was a little less important to them that day. The coach was proud of them for what they accomplished and said, “To be honest, we might not have the best baseball team around, but we sure do have a great group of guys.”

The magic of life is the fluid connection between people: how they love, how they share, how they help. There is nothing more breathtaking than the game of life well played.

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Copyright ©2022 The Foundation for a Better Life. All rights reserved. Available under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License (international): https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License

Pass It On®

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