Colorado Rockies pitcher Jeremy Guthrie needed someone to play catch with on the team’s off-day, so the nine-year veteran turned to his over 34,000 followers. 21-year old Woody Roseland just happened to be checking his Twitter stream when he tweeted, “I live downtown, I have my glove. So I said, let’s do this,” Roseland said. Within 15-minutes, Roseland was at Coors Field with the Rookie’s newest acquisition.
Playing catch with a major leaguer wasn’t even the best part of Roseland’s day. Earlier that afternoon Roseland found out he won his 5-year battle with cancer. After two-and-a-half years of chemotherapy and losing his left leg to a rare-form of bone cancer at age 16, Roseland was officially done with treatment.
Ironically, it wasn’t Roseland’s life that was changed it was Guthrie’s. After meeting Roseland, Guthrie said, “I went out to make a fan’s day and instead he made mine. I not only met a fan, I made a friend for life.”
Baseball values sportsmanship but is teaching its young fans it values tattling too! It was announced in November that MLB players are no longer allowed to chew tobacco in games. Under the agreement reached by the league and the players association, major-league players, managers and coaches are not allowed to carry a tobacco tin or package in their uniform at any time fans are in the ballpark. This includes during interviews, autograph sessions and team events.