A Promise Kept

September 8, 2008 9:20 AM

A Promise Kept:"When two medical flight helicopters collided near a Flagstaff, Ariz., hospital June 29, a promise died. It was a sacred promise from a Red Sox-loving father to his three young sons. On his 37th birthday in August, they would make the 2,100-mile pilgrimage to see the Red Sox play in Fenway Park."

James W. Taylor, Jr.'s promise was kept, thanks to hundreds of strangers, most of whom his family would never meet, some of whom are known to Red Sox fans everywhere.

Read the story from Traci Johnson's perspective.
Listen to Traci describe the day.
Read Red Sox blogger Cyn's version of the story.

If you'll excuse me some sentimental editorializing: that this came together, and that we can see it from so many perspectives, is truly the best of the web.

posted by dirtdirt (21 comments total)

As a Mets fan, I hate the Red Sox with the passion of a thousand suns. But I gotta admit, this was a pretty classy move and a touching story.
posted by jonmc at 9:30 AM on September 8, 2008

Hsssss!!!!Mets, Red Sox? My Cardinals heart shudders.

But yeah, neat story.
posted by notsnot at 9:32 AM on September 8, 2008

Mets?! What'd the Red Sox ever do to you, besides roll over and play dead in WS game 7, 1986?
posted by dirtdirt at 9:34 AM on September 8, 2008

Another Mets fan who was moved. Great story!
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 9:35 AM on September 8, 2008

dirtdirt, my buddy Jim, who's from Bevahly on the Naath Sho-ah, delights in coming into work in Sox and Pats tee-shirts and me and my buddy Eric (who has the Mets logo tattooed on his neck, delight in busting his balls about it. I call him 'schnapps' as in 'Mr. Boston.' It's a symbiotic relationship.
posted by jonmc at 9:38 AM on September 8, 2008

Since there's no crying in baseball, I think something must have gotten in my eye.
posted by pardonyou? at 9:45 AM on September 8, 2008

Good for everyone involved.....

All I could think of after reading this was, if we each could have that much compassion for EVERY stranger, this world would be an amazing place....
posted by HuronBob at 10:25 AM on September 8, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

Nice story. A lot of people spent a lot of moeny (the flights, the box seats, the souvenier store shopping spree), good on them.
posted by jamesonandwater at 10:28 AM on September 8, 2008

After reading that I required two separate tissues.
posted by ericb at 10:34 AM on September 8, 2008

the same thing happened in my family, only it was more of a slow booze death and arena football kind of scene.
posted by breakfast_yeti at 10:36 AM on September 8, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

Nope, not going to get misty eyed. Ok, that's a lie.

But man.. to have a little baggie of Fenway soil? Definitely not worth the price those kids paid, but their father granted them a totem to hang onto for dear life. Years from now after they can no longer remember the sound of his voice and his mannerisms fade, the importance of that game will hold fast.
posted by drewbage1847 at 11:29 AM on September 8, 2008

Really nice story.

But did this punctuation freakout bother anyone else? "... eight box seats just up from the Red Sox' on-deck circle." Just me? Sorry. Nice story, though.
posted by heyho at 11:31 AM on September 8, 2008

very touching.

I don't understand the non sequitur about the youngest child having autism, though. I kept expecting there to be some point to that revelation, like he was miraculously cured through baseball, but it never came.
posted by desjardins at 11:50 AM on September 8, 2008

punctuation freakout

I am always amused by people, players particularly, trying to talk about a singular member of the team. A Red Sock? A Red Sox? Um?
posted by dirtdirt at 11:54 AM on September 8, 2008

dirtdirt, I always fall back on "a carmine ho".
posted by yhbc at 12:07 PM on September 8, 2008 [3 favorites has favorites]

That even Red Sox fans can be this classy is proof of...something.
posted by recoveringsophist at 12:26 PM on September 8, 2008

That even Red Sox fans can be this classy...

Yankees suck!!!
posted by ericb at 1:53 PM on September 8, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Indeed.

METS RULE!!
posted by jonmc at 1:56 PM on September 8, 2008

It was a moving story. I cried.
posted by wv kay in ga at 5:14 PM on September 8, 2008

Thanks for posting this, really. It was a very sweet story, and I did love hearing it from so many different angles. Reading the whole thread in the Red Sox forum and realizing how quickly it came to the attention of the right people, who all chose to do the right thing, was really astonishing.
posted by donnagirl at 7:58 PM on September 8, 2008

Awh...see folks, we *can* be compassionate caring humans. Good on everyone involved.
posted by dejah420 at 5:41 PM on September 9, 2008