Wednesday, July 28, 2004

Pen Pals


Casey and Emily

Casey and Emily, originally uploaded by mattyv424.



By Emily Walthouse

Not many people that read this web site know who I am. I’m a 10-year old girl from Woodstock, GA. But, like a lot of people, I knew Casey.

The first time that I met Casey, was when my Nanny (my grandma) took me to a Denny’s Diner to have lunch and meet her. It was three years ago when I was in the second grade. I was told by my Nanny that she did not have hair but it was different when I saw her in person.

We had to meet her half way between South Carolina and Georgia for lunch, so we were in the car for a long time. I’m not a big fan of sitting in the car with my two little brothers for a long time, but after I met Casey, I knew that the car ride was worth it.

When we met her and I first saw her I felt a little bit funny. A little bit funny because she had no hair. But after five minutes talking with her, she was an inspiration to me. She inspired me because I love to write.

While I was talking with her, the last thing that you would think about was that she had no hair. My brothers liked her, too. Billy, one of my brothers, talked baseball with her. Matthew was too young to talk about much. They both liked her and so did I .

By the end of lunch, Casey and I decided to be pen-pals. I found out that she was a sportswriter. I had been writing stories since kindergarten. Since we both liked to write, we thought that we should write to each other.

I kept in touch with Casey over the year by letters. She wrote back to me, too. We became friends by our letters. I was always happy when I got a letter from her.

A couple months later, I had my first communion. Casey came down to see it. She drove me home after. She gave me a beautiful bracelet with my name on it. I wear it all the time. I loved it when she was at my house.

Last Christmas, all fifteen of the cousins, all twelve aunts and uncles, and two grandparents were at the Springfield Country Club for brunch. Casey came, too. She gave me a wonderful necklace. That was a great Christmas.

I loved to see everyone in that room together. Most of all, I loved seeing Casey in that room with everyone. It was one of the best days of my life.

That was the last time that I saw her in person. It was so sad to hear that she was sick. I talked to her a couple days before her death on the telephone. It was a little hard to understand her with her mask on but it still meant a lot to me that I was talking to her. The last thing that I said to her was that she was a great cousin and that I loved her.

I wore both pieces of jewelry to her funeral. I cried so much. I met many of her friends at the funeral. They were sad, too.

Casey gave me courage. She inspired me and taught me many things without trying. She taught me to be a good friend. She taught me to be strong.

She taught me how much you should dislike the Yankees. Every game that the Red Sox win, I am certain she is watching. She’s probably got a Red Sox cap on over her halo.

I love Casey. I knew she is watching over me and many of us. I think that people like Casey live on in our hearts forever. I know she does in mine. I will never forget her courage or anything else about her. I love Casey.

A dream fulfilled

By Chris Keaney

I have been reading with great interest these many wonderful stories about Casey and the impact she had on so many of your lives. There is a constant thread, however, that runs through each of these recollections, a concern that Casey had so much to offer and that she never really had a chance to fulfill one of her dreams.

I want to dispel that notion by recalling for you a very special day in Casey’s life.Casey is my niece. She is also my godchild.  Last summer, my daughter  Sarah,  who is Director of Fan Services  for the Red Sox, had arranged for Casey to meet and have her picture taken with Lou Merloni. Two years ago Casey had written an article about Sarah which had been published in the Providence College Alumni Magazine.

Casey and Sarah are about the same age and shared both a friendship and a passion for sports.In late April the Yankees were coming to Boston and  I asked Casey if she would like to attend one of these games. Without hesitating, she said," I’d love to go."I called Sarah and asked her to make the arrangements for us   to attend, and on Saturday, April 17, I  picked her up at her home in Holyoke and we made our way to Fenway Park.

Casey could not move very easily and so Sarah had made arrangements for us to park in the players lot. Sarah then took us to the new right field seats where Casey camped herself under the new Budweiser sign and watched her  Red Sox take their batting practice. I think that she would have been perfectly happy to remain in these seats, but in her condition she could not remain in a crowd and so, as game time approached, Sarah escorted us to our seats for the game.

I had no idea where we were going to sit but we soon found ourselves approaching a door which read "Red Sox - Executive Press Box."  I looked at Casey as she walked through that door and I know that she stood up taller. She looked out of the box in one direction and identified the faces of reporters from the Globe, the Herald, and a number of journalists that she knew by name.

Immediately to her right she could see Jerry Remy and Don Orsillo getting ready to broadcast the game. After seating herself in the front row of the box an attendant came in and opened the window in the front of her and immediately, the box was flooded with the sights and sounds of Fenway Park.

The Green Monster loomed to her left and in the right field grandstand she could identify the seat where Ted Williams had hit his legendary home run. There it was – Casey’s own field of dreams.

Within minutes, however, Casey was on her cell phone. She wasn’t about to let this moment pass without advising whoever she could contact that she was sitting in the Executive Press Box.

"Turn on the game", she shouted. "Look up at the Press Box. I’ll wave to you."Shortly after the end of the first inning the door to the Press Box opened and in walked Larry Lucchino, the President and CEO of the Red Sox.

"Hi Casey, I heard you were coming to the game. It’s great to see you" He immediately followed up his greeting with a question. "Where’s your Press Kit?"Casey smiled at Lucchino and said, "That’s OK, I’m not doing much writing these days". 

Lucchino responded, "Hey Casey — you’re a reporter." He picked up the phone and within minutes Casey had a complete Press kit delivered to her seat, and for the next three innings he remained by her side and debated with her about how the game should be scored.

For that hour the President of the Sox took no phone calls and diverted any attempts to take him from his seat. Here she was sitting in a Press Box, talking with the guy who had built Camden Yards and who now ran one of the most storied franchises in the history of Major League sports.

You would think that this would have been enough, but there’s more. She went on to consume not one, but two Fenway hot dogs. She followed up with two sodas, and an ice cream. In fact, she probably consumed more food that day than she had eaten in the past month.When the game had ended, (The Red Sox won of course), we waited for the crowd to clear and then made our way to the players parking lot.

When we arrived, several of the team members  were getting ready to leave. The attendants were bringing up a Hummer, A Lexus and a Caddy convertible. Out strode Manny Ramirez, Pedro Martinez and David Ortiz. The fans behind the fence were screaming at each of them and the trio was responding to these fans who were waiting to greet them as they left the park.

At this moment the attendant drove up with my little Honda and the crowd fell silent as they watched Casey performed the arduous task of climbing into the front seat. They recognized that with her mask and physical appearance she had to be battling Cancer. They gave each of the ballplayers a hearty round of cheers as they drove by, but their loudest ovation was saved for the girl who had just covered her first game as a major league reporter.

I’m grateful for having been a part of Casey’s day. I’m grateful to my daughter who made it happen. I will never forget the kindness shown to Casey by Larry Lucchino and every member of the Red Sox organization who were so kind to her on that Saturday.  But I also want each of you, who knew and loved Casey for your own special reasons, to know that for that one brilliant afternoon, she was truly happy.


Tuesday, July 27, 2004

Happy Birthday

As I'm sure many of you are aware, Casey would have turned 29 today.

On the tree her Dad planted in her memory in the Kane's backyard, a single pink flower is blooming high on top. It felt like her smiling at us.

Lou Merloni homered last night. Lance Armstrong won his sixth Tour de France and the Red Sox took two out of three from the Yankees this weekend so wherever she is I think she's happy this birthday. So raise a Bass Ale to her this week if you get a chance. I think she'd like that.

 

Monday, July 19, 2004

Lance Armstrong

I've had a few people tell me that they're following the Tour de France more closely this year because of the inspiration Casey drew from Lance Armstrong (see lower on this site).  So this seemed an appropriate addition here. Armstrong's top competition for winning the tour this year is his close friend Ivan Basso, whose mother is battling cancer.
 
This is from cycling news.
 
On Tuesday's rest day in Limoges, Armstrong and Basso met to discuss Ivan's mother, who is currently battling cancer in Italy. Armstrong paid homage to Basso today. "Ivan deserved to win the stage today...he's a hell of a good guy and he was super-strong today. We have been friends for a long time...we're working on helping to treat his mom's cancer."
 
From Eurosport.com:
 
"He and I have been friends for a long time. Now off the bike we're working on his mom's situation to see if she can win the fight against cancer."
"It was special for me to be out there with him. In the last week we haven't talked about the race but talked about his mom."
"It was a pleasure for me that I didn't win."


Sunday, July 11, 2004

Merloni News

Stacy Schorr Chandler passed this along:

This isn't so much a memory as a news flash, on a topic that will forever interest me and likely many of you because of Casey's love for her sweet baby Lou:

------------
Cleveland beats Oakland in final at-bat again

By The Associated Press

Even with a new closer, the Oakland Athletics couldn’t put away those pesky Cleveland Indians.
Pinch-hitter Lou Merloni’s two-run single off Octavio Dotel in the ninth inning gave Cleveland another thrilling victory over the Athletics, 5-4 on Friday night.

---------------

So if the sun is shining extra brightly today, you know why...

Thursday, July 08, 2004

Lots to bond over

By Jim Pignatiello

It seems silly now, but I’ve been putting this off for most of the same reasons that Seth Koenig wrote about earlier on this site. It just didn’t feel right to put myself on this board alongside Casey’s closest friends.

I didn’t know Casey before she was sick. I never spent time along with her. I probably saw her in person only a dozen times or so. But then I remembered that Casey would have kicked me in the rear for thinking that way.

As a Collegian writer who came along a few years after Casey graduated, I only knew about her through word of mouth. They still talk about some of the legends down there as the older folks pass along the stories and Casey was someone we heard a lot about in the Sports section.

It wasn’t until my senior year that I met her through Matt at a Steve Lappas Show and I was instantly taken with how the two of them played off each other. As you could all imagine, she was quick to make me feel both comfortable and like a fool at the same time.

We became friends through Matt, each passing along our hellos and catching up to watch an basketball or Red Sox game together at Rafters or Smokeybones.

We bonded over our love for Duke basketball (her favorite player was Bobby Hurley, mine was Grant Hill), the Red Sox and sports writing. She always had a different, and generally more intelligent, way of looking at things.

A few months back, she learned that I was a finalist for a reporting job I really wanted. Over lunch a few days prior to the interview, Casey met up with us at Rafters with prepared questions to quiz me with. She wasn’t letting me go in unprepared.

Not surprisingly, a few of the questions she asked — and stumped me on a bit — were brought up during the interview. Total Casey. I learned later (after I was hired for the job) that Casey was trying to plan a congratulations dinner for me at my favorite restaurant. Apparently, the plan was to tell me she and Matt were taking me out and then to have two more of my best friends from the area surprise me. Unfortunately, she became sick before we could get together, but I’ll never walk into that restaurant without thinking of her and how generous she was to me.

That mock interview was the last time I saw her, and I’ll never forget that she was giving her time to me that day.

As we were leaving, she said her good-byes and gave me hug and told me she loved me for the first time. Our "I love yous" were the last words we spoke to each other.