JT - Jeff Taylor Sr.

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By Dave Thompson

Published: April 29, 2009

LU professor, son bonded through baseball

Jeff Taylor Sr. had been throwing batting practice for his son since Jeff Jr. was in youth league in Asheville, N.C. The two practiced together through the younger Taylor’s junior year at Lynchburg College.

Taylor Sr.’s widow, Mary Clare Taylor, recalled on Wednesday the circumstances surrounding her husband’s tragic death this week.

Father and son were having just such a batting practice on Tuesday afternoon at Lynchburg College’s Fox Field, she said, when a line drive hit her husband near his jaw or throat area, and he collapsed on the pitcher’s mound.

Taylor was pronounced dead shortly thereafter at Lynchburg General Hospital.

“I received the phone call at 3:35 at work,” Mary Taylor said.

“After he got hit and Jeffrey ran up there,” she said, “he said he was OK, but then his eyes rolled back. So his son, my son, was actually trying to do CPR.”

Taylor Sr., 44, an assistant professor of health sciences and kinesiology at Liberty University, was in the process of working on his doctorate in education from Liberty, his wife said, and always had been an avid baseball fan.

Taylor Sr.’s feelings about baseball manifested themselves in most aspects of his life, his wife said, down to the family dog’s name — “Slider McGwire VonRyan,” named after a type of pitch, slugger Mark McGwire and Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan.

“I’m not a die-hard baseball mom, but I do try,” she said.

“I will freeze to death out there watching Jeffrey,” she added, “but I wouldn’t do it if it weren’t for him.”

Her husband and son were practicing so her son wouldn’t get rusty before he started playing summer ball with the Martinsville Mustangs, a summer collegiate baseball team.

“My son, who is a go-getter, didn’t want to get lazy,” she said, “so they were throwing batting practice yesterday.”

Four other Lynchburg College players also had been on the field that day, said LC Vice President John Eccles in an e-mail to faculty, staff and students at the college Wednesday. He did not identify the players.

Eccles said college emergency workers were the first on the scene and administered CPR to Taylor.

Lynchburg emergency crews transported Taylor to Lynchburg General Hospital.

“Lynchburg College sends its deepest condolences to the Taylor family in the wake of this accident,” the e-mail read, adding that counseling is available to the LC community.

Eccles said LC baseball coach Percy Abell knew Taylor Sr. from interaction with him at the college’s baseball games.

“He was at every game,” Eccles said. “Coach Abell said he was at most practices. He was an enthusiastic supporter, just loved baseball.”

Taylor said her husband passed that love on to their son, through his earliest experiences in the game.

“Once he did his first official year of little league when he was 6, he was hooked.”

When the younger Taylor was in fourth grade, in Asheville, his mother said, he used to shag fly balls on occasion with Baltimore Orioles third baseman Ty Wiggington, then playing for the University of North Carolina Asheville, where her husband was the head trainer.

Her son’s fate, she said, was pretty much decided even before he knew what baseball was.

“He had seven baseball outfits within a month of being born.”

Mary Taylor said she remembers a string of major life events intertwined with baseball.

“My 40th birthday was on a baseball field. Our 15th anniversary happened on the baseball field, our kid turned 11,” she said, all within about two weeks of each other.

The couple would have celebrated their 25th anniversary in June.

James Nutter, an associate professor of English at Liberty, heads up the school’s quiz bowl program on which Taylor Sr. participated last year, as a graduate student.

“We had a quiz bowl scrimmage between the varsity team and the faculty,” Nutter said, noting Taylor was one of the first to respond.

“He just loved it so much, and he was so good,” Nutter said. “He had a photographic memory, and just knew every type of sports trivia imaginable.”

Liberty Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr. addressed students at Liberty’s convocation Wednesday, saying Liberty had lost a “great professor.”

“We just need to remember that family in our prayers,” he said.

Falwell said Tuesday night that he received a call from Lynchburg College President Kenneth Garren after the accident, notifying him of Taylor’s death.

Taylor, Falwell said, was leader of the student group known as the LUnatics, and was loved by many students.

By Wednesday evening, dozens of well-wishers had posted comments to the Liberty sports-fan Web site http://www.flamefans.com.

Liberty students also painted the “Spirit Rock” on campus in memory of Taylor.

“He obviously touched more lives than I was ever aware of,” said Mary Taylor.

Visitation for Jeff Taylor Sr. is set for 6 to 8 p.m. Friday.

Heritage United Methodist Church will hold a service at 10 a.m. Saturday, Mary Taylor said.

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It includes a beautiful picture of Jeff, Mary Clare and Jeff, Jr.

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I was in line by 6:15 pm, and the wait to get in was at least a full hour. They had a PowerPoint of pictures going, everything from black & whites when Jeff was a little boy, to college pics when Jeff had some 1970s hair, wedding photos where I swear Jeff and I had the same mid-'80s white tux (with matching shoes), to team pics of Jeff coaching his son in Little League, to even a Quiz Bowl pic we took standing with a statue of the Hokie bird at Virginia Tech...

In Jeff's casket were 2 baseball bats--one wooden & one aluminum, a very worn baseball glove, an autographed baseball from somebody's grand slam (I'm guessing his son's), batting gloves, and a pencil drawing of Christ on the cross dated 1973.

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Originally posted by Coach May:
Happy Fathers day Jeff. I miss you. I miss reading your posts and learning from you each and every time. The Lord is watching over your boy. He will be fine. Thank God for people like you. You are the type of person that makes baseball the greatest game on the planet. I know you are still watching your son play. God would have it no other way!

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Anyway, Jeffrey and I are doing well...as I say to people who ask, "we haven't crawled under a rock yet". When you can still count your blessings during times like this you know God is watching over you! Jeff and I were married 25 years (June 9th...I celebrated for the both us!). I think Jeff was having more fun planning my surprise 50th birthday party though. He would have pulled it off I am sure.