McCalvy's article on McGehee and Clayton Wollner- it deserves its own thread

[molitor fan]

http://brewersbeat.mlblog...urns-bright-for-clayton/

 

A tough summer turns bright for Clayton

 

Casey McGehee’s lucky charm is 7-year-old Clayton Wollner of

Sussex, Wis., whose shyness led to a bold request from his mom, which

led to one of the best days of McGehee’s baseball life.

McGehee told Clayton’s story after belting three home runs in the

Brewers’ series-clinching, 10-5 win over the Cardinals on Wednesday at

Miller Park. He’d met Clayton — McGehee didn’t know the boy’s last name —

on the field before the game, and was trying to draw out some

conversation. Clayton was shy, so his mom, Jennifer, and dad, Ben, tried

to drive some conversation. Mom blurted out that McGehee should hit a

homer for Clayton.

“Honestly, I feel a little bad about it now,” Jennifer Wollner said

Thursday morning. “I didn’t know he hadn’t really been hitting this

season.”

McGehee had not homered since July 6. He had one home run in his previous 65 games.

Then something special happened.

McGehee hit a go-ahead two-run home run off Cardinals starter Edwin

Jackson in the first inning. McGehee hit another go-ahead two-run homer

off Jackson in the third for his second career multihomer game, and then

connected on a solo shot in the seventh for what McGehee believes is

the first three-homer game of his life.

He called it “one of those out of body experiences,” and before

reporters broke away from McGehee’s locker on Wednesday afternoon, he

urged them to stay for the story about Clayton.

“I want to bring him to Houston with me, and then we’re going to go

to St. Louis,” said McGehee, perhaps joking, perhaps not, about the

team’s upcoming road trip. “I want to get him a locker — we have a

little space right here. Hopefully, we’re going to track Clayton down.”

Mission accomplished.

It turns out that Clayton Wollner loves baseball, but was forced to

sit on the bench this summer. He was born with a condition called

craniosynostosis, which prevents his skull from growing properly. He’s

had seven surgeries, the most recent on July 13 at Children’s Hospital.

He will need more surgeries in his life.

“It’s not a life-threatening condition, but it’s one you have to keep

up on,” Jennifer Wollner said. “As he continues to grow, his skull

won’t grow right, and that means his brain can’t grow right.”

The Wollners were hoping that someone might simply be able to call

Clayton with a message of support, to keep his chin up, and through some

family ties with Fox Sports Wisconsin, their request reached the

Brewers. An invitation to a ballgame followed, along with a surprise

tour of Miller Park and an even more surprising opportunity to stand on

the field while the Cardinals took batting practice.

Suddenly, there was McGehee, a Brewer in the flesh. He wanted to meet

Clayton because this is a cause dear to his own heart. Casey and Sarah

McGehee’s first child, a bundle of energy named Mack, was born with cerebral palsy.

McGehee spent 15 minutes talking with the Wollners, and then it was game time. Who knew it would be such a memorable game?

The Wollners had not even made it home to Sussex before McGehee’s

story about Clayton aired on the radio and the phone calls started

coming. Everybody wanted to know: Is this your Clayton?

“We never expected any of this,” Jennifer said. “And we’re not

expecting anything further than this. We’ve read the articles and joked

about [meeting McGehee again], but we’ve kept the expectations very low.

We appreciated our time with him, and were just blown away by our whole

day.

“When he hit the first home run we were like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is so fun!’ When it got to three, we were kind of speechless.”

*

[Dragonbait]

McCalvy's write up on this story was WAY better than the reporter from the js partner site.

[StearnsFTW]

McCalvy's write up on this story was WAY better than the reporter from the js partner site.

I agree. A really great story.

[SoCal Brew Crew Fan]

I put this in the other thread, but agree this needs it's own. Here's one with a picture of Clayton...

 

http://www.livinglakecoun...taffblogs/126744848.html

 

 

Yay for Sussex!

[FoxyFoxes]

Where was Clayon in April ? I kid I kid.

[kestrel79]

Did anyone notice after each of Casey's homers he looked into the stands and sort of nodded before he came back into the dugout? I wonder if this Clayton kid was sitting close and he was sort of saying thanks. At first I thought maybe it was Casey's kids sitting there. Good story!