And the other three. Goosebumps and chills to see Jon Wilhite walking and talking. There wasn't a dry eye in my house.
The replay of a tribute to Nick, Henry, Courtney, and survivor Jon, with deldad and family, is about to start after this commercial break - Fox News channel, Huckabee.
Julie
Julie
Thanks MN-Mom for the heads-up. I scrolled through the TV schedule to see when it would air again and it looks like it will air again on New Years Day at 12:30 pm central time.
Fox News Channel - Show is called "Huckabee"
Fox News Channel - Show is called "Huckabee"
Just finished watching the Huckabee special. It was a great highlight of all the people who were involved in the car accident. The parents of the victims, as well as Jon Wilhite (who obviously made a miraculous recovery) spoke very eloquently and maintained a level of composure that was astounding.
As a person who does not yet have children, and has two parents still very much in their life, I think it is always a pleasure to watch the way parents glow when they speak of their children. This Fox News special was filled with tearful emotions and joyful smiles, recognizing the agony and love that these families shared with their children.
As a person who does not yet have children, and has two parents still very much in their life, I think it is always a pleasure to watch the way parents glow when they speak of their children. This Fox News special was filled with tearful emotions and joyful smiles, recognizing the agony and love that these families shared with their children.
There were no dry eyes here as we watched the program! Very touching to see deldad and family (I had talked with deldad by phone but had never met him). What a modest, sincere and warm family.
And I gasped with happiness to see Jon Wilhite walk. The program didn't cover this in great detail, but Jon's neck injury was extreme and it is amazing that he survived, and way beyond expectation that he can now walk.
ClevelandDad, thank you for alerting us to this program.
Julie
And I gasped with happiness to see Jon Wilhite walk. The program didn't cover this in great detail, but Jon's neck injury was extreme and it is amazing that he survived, and way beyond expectation that he can now walk.
ClevelandDad, thank you for alerting us to this program.
Julie
As Jon said, his doctor cried. I'm sure that doesn't happen very often.
Jon Wilhite is a miracle. Everybody knows about the injury to his neck (internal decapitation) what they haven't heard that much about is the broken ribs, the bruised organs, the brain sheer (a type of brain injury 100 times as severe as the worst concussion). The fact that he has become a friend to Nick's family. That he carries his three lost friends on his chest in the form of a tattoo but most importantly that he carries them in his heart. That he never fails to mention that he would not be here today without the love of "his three angels." Continue to pray for this young man, he still has miles to go but I wouldn't bet against him.
deldad, I am so sorry for your loss.
Nick's story along with others including an appearance by Jon Wilhite is happening right now on Fox's show Hucklebee.
Nick's story along with others including an appearance by Jon Wilhite is happening right now on Fox's show Hucklebee.
Deldad
I think of you and your family often,stay strong.
I think of you and your family often,stay strong.
Deldad, thank you for the update, brain shear is very dangerous. Amazing to survive it considering the other injuries.
All of Nick's family continue in my prayers.
All of Nick's family continue in my prayers.
This is an incredibly classy family. I had the pleasure of meeting Duane and Henry this past summer. And after watching the Fox show last week, those feelings were confirmed yet again.
I've been trying to figure out how to word this...I hope it comes across right.
They say everything happens for a reason. I am surely not qualified to tell you the reason three people died, why one person is making the long road back to a normal life and four families are changed forever.
But I felt good after watching the Fox show. I felt sad for the loss these people have suffered but it was so heartwarming to hear these parents (and brother!) reflect on their loved ones' lives. The smiles on their faces as they recalled their sons and daughters were magical. To see the reaction of the Angels, Nick's teammates, manager and agent brought those people who live in rarefied air, down to earth and a little more reachable.
The show made me look at my boys and pray that, obviously, nothing like this ever happens to them, but also that they can use their personalities, talents and, yes, baseball, to bring joy to other people's lives. Even at a very young age, they can be positive influences on people around them both on and off the field.
Jon surviving is nothing short of a miracle and a blessing. And the short lives of the other three are also miraculous and they have blessed all of us. And they will continue to bless all of us through the smiles of their families.
I've been trying to figure out how to word this...I hope it comes across right.
They say everything happens for a reason. I am surely not qualified to tell you the reason three people died, why one person is making the long road back to a normal life and four families are changed forever.
But I felt good after watching the Fox show. I felt sad for the loss these people have suffered but it was so heartwarming to hear these parents (and brother!) reflect on their loved ones' lives. The smiles on their faces as they recalled their sons and daughters were magical. To see the reaction of the Angels, Nick's teammates, manager and agent brought those people who live in rarefied air, down to earth and a little more reachable.
The show made me look at my boys and pray that, obviously, nothing like this ever happens to them, but also that they can use their personalities, talents and, yes, baseball, to bring joy to other people's lives. Even at a very young age, they can be positive influences on people around them both on and off the field.
Jon surviving is nothing short of a miracle and a blessing. And the short lives of the other three are also miraculous and they have blessed all of us. And they will continue to bless all of us through the smiles of their families.
Biggerpapi,
The first paragraph of your post is something that I bet a lot of our members feel.
Many of us have noticed all through the years what a classy and modest member deldad is here in our forums, and some of us have had the opportunity to get to know him a little better offline as well. So it was no surprise to see on the Fox show what a classy family he has. His wife is lovely and very warm and gracious, and Henry sure makes me smile with his determination, modesty and excellent poise for a teenager.
They truly seem like a special family.
Julie
The first paragraph of your post is something that I bet a lot of our members feel.
quote:This is an incredibly classy family. I had the pleasure of meeting Duane and Henry this past summer. And after watching the Fox show last week, those feelings were confirmed yet again.
Many of us have noticed all through the years what a classy and modest member deldad is here in our forums, and some of us have had the opportunity to get to know him a little better offline as well. So it was no surprise to see on the Fox show what a classy family he has. His wife is lovely and very warm and gracious, and Henry sure makes me smile with his determination, modesty and excellent poise for a teenager.
They truly seem like a special family.
Julie
Thank you for the very kind words. Trust me when I say that my wife is the one with all the class. She just lets me go along for the ride. She had a tough job raising two boys and a husband. Nick's dad was such a big part of our lives that I wish he could have been on the show but work called him away.
Again thank you.
Again thank you.
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Wow. This thread is what makes me proud to be a baseball mom. Most of the people my family and I have met during our son's playing days have been the most caring folks we know. Thanks to all for making baseball so much more than wins and losses.
Just wanted to say something about the Angels as an organization. I attended their LOW Class A affiliate's Hall of Fame Ceremony and Banquet in Cedar Rapids, IA last night. It was a nice little venue with a silent auction before dinner and a live auction after it. Pretty fun little time.
I had heard that Howie Kendrick (current Angels player) was being inducted into their Hall of Fame that night. I was very surprised when I actually saw him in attendance with his wife up front by the stage. I sensed that the rest of the small-town crowd was pleasantly surprised as well. A few friends and I joked to each other wondering how much he had been paid to appear at the event until he got up and gave his acceptance speech. He gave some very kind, off-the-cuff remarks about how much he enjoyed his time with the club and made some specific references to townies he had met and seemed genuinely honored of induction. He was very articulate too.
I thought that was impressive enough but I was absolutely shocked when their current GM, Tony Reagins, showed up to accept his induction as well. He and their Director of Player Development had been delayed in Dallas for a number of hours by weather and could have easily decided to turn around back to CA (especially when the temps are around zero here). But he showed up just minutes before he was to speak and gave a 4-5 minute speech specifically about the Cedar Rapids team and its staff saying some very warm things about the team and the town. I came away very impressed.
If you didn't believe it already from deldad's comments, believe it now: the Angels are a World-class organization!
---------------------
I had heard that Howie Kendrick (current Angels player) was being inducted into their Hall of Fame that night. I was very surprised when I actually saw him in attendance with his wife up front by the stage. I sensed that the rest of the small-town crowd was pleasantly surprised as well. A few friends and I joked to each other wondering how much he had been paid to appear at the event until he got up and gave his acceptance speech. He gave some very kind, off-the-cuff remarks about how much he enjoyed his time with the club and made some specific references to townies he had met and seemed genuinely honored of induction. He was very articulate too.
I thought that was impressive enough but I was absolutely shocked when their current GM, Tony Reagins, showed up to accept his induction as well. He and their Director of Player Development had been delayed in Dallas for a number of hours by weather and could have easily decided to turn around back to CA (especially when the temps are around zero here). But he showed up just minutes before he was to speak and gave a 4-5 minute speech specifically about the Cedar Rapids team and its staff saying some very warm things about the team and the town. I came away very impressed.
If you didn't believe it already from deldad's comments, believe it now: the Angels are a World-class organization!
---------------------
Fanhouse Article on One Year After the Passing of Nick Adenhart
One Year After Nick Adenhart's Tragic Death, Angels Move On
4/8/10 by Tom Krasovic
NAHEIM, Calif. -- A year ago Friday, the lives of major league pitcher Nick Adenhart and two people with him ended tragically when their car was broadsided by an alleged drunk driver.
Adenhart was 22. A few hours before his death, he walked out of Angel Stadium -- triumphant. He'd pitched six scoreless innings, far and away the best outing of his promising career with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
At Angel Stadium Friday night, Jered Weaver will receive the Nick Adenhart Award, given to the team's best pitcher from the previous season.
The bronze statue depicts Adenhart, a 6-foot-3 right-hander, following through on a pitch.
"He was a great kid, a great friend and a great teammate," says Weaver, chosen for the award by Angels players. "Obviously it's a little bittersweet. Obviously you wish we didn't have to hand the award out. But for it to be named after Nick, and for it to be for the Angels' pitcher of the year, I think it's a great name to go along with that award. It's going to be a tremendous honor."
Baseball fans grieved Adenhart's death throughout the 2009 season. On a brick pitcher's mound in front of Angel Stadium's main entrance, they left hand-written notes, framed photographs of Adenhart, candles, baseball caps, balloons and teddy bears.
Onto Angel Stadium's center field wall, the Angels affixed a picture of Adenhart and his jersey No. 34. There last September, after winning the American League Western Division, Angels players assembled for a celebratory photograph.
Time has marched onward, whisking with it many of the symbols of grief and acknowledgment. To Adenhart's family, the Angels offered the shrine's artifacts. Other items will go into a display case at Angel Stadium, along with a larger version of the statue that Weaver will receive. Adenhart's visage no longer adorns the outfield wall.
"You have to move on," says Tim Mead, the club's longtime Vice President of Communications. "In '78, when [Angels outfielder] Lyman Bostock was killed, the team moved on the next year. You have move on to the next year, and that's what we're doing. We honored Nick Adenhart as an organization and as a club.
"We think creating the Adenhart award will stand on its own merit."
Adenhart's closest friend on the team, catcher Bobby Wilson, says that Adenhart's presence is still felt.
"He has not left this clubhouse," Wilson says. "He has not left the lives that he has touched in this clubhouse, and the friends and family around him.
"I don't think any of us need a picture or anything around him. He's in our heads and he's in our hearts."
These are still emotional days for Wilson, whose birthday falls one day before the date of Adenhart's death. The backup catcher, drafted by the Angels eight years ago in the 48th round, recently made the team's Opening Day roster for the first time.
Only a week ago, Wilson was sitting at a ballpark in Scottsdale, Ariz., welling up as he watched a 16-year-old right-hander from the Chicago area pitch in a high school tournament.
The pitcher was Adenhart's half brother, Henry Gigeous.
"It was weird to watch, because everything was similar," says Wilson, 27. "The motion, the pitches, the big curveball, the pregame warmup.
"The signaling of pitches, he gave it the same way Nick did. The same mound presence. You could tell he wanted the ball, just like Nick always did. Seeing Nick do that so often and being part of it -- it was tough to watch. It was definitely difficult."
Wilson went to dinner in Arizona with several others who were close to Adenhart: Henry, Adenhart's stepfather Duane Gigeous, Adenhart's mother Jane, and Jon Wilhite, a former Cal State Fullerton catcher who survived the Adenhart crash.
To hear Wilson, Adenhart's family, friends and former teammates still have Nick in their lives.
"I know he's watching down," Wilson says. " I know he's taking care of me, looking out for me, looking out for his family, looking out for his brother Henry. And, looking out for the Angels."
When Adenhart shut down the Oakland Athletics the night before he died, Jim Adenhart was among the 40,000-plus fans at Angel Stadium. Nick had told his father to fly out from Maryland, saying he would see "something special."
Jim Adenhart, who lives in Hagerstown, Md., met with Angels manager Mike Scioscia and several Angels players and coaches last August before a game at Camden Yards in Baltimore.
At that time, Adenhart told the Los Angeles Times that he had been coping with his son's death as best as he could, going to bereavement counseling and reading several books on the subject.
"But there is really no blueprint on how to deal with this," Jim Adenhart told the Times. "Sometimes you feel like you're getting a grasp on it, and then something will come out of the blue that will set me back."
The father told of dreams.
In one, "I will see Nick in a restaurant," Adenhart said. "I'll go in, I'll get within a close vicinity to Nick, I'll see him from the back, and then he's gone. That one stuck with me for three or four days."
In another, "my wife called and said Nick will be at the house," he said. "She said, 'They made a mistake; he didn't really die.' I was really excited. Then I woke up, and reality hit. I don't know what to expect every time I lay my head down at night, but it's got to get better."
The trial for the 23-year-old man charged with killing Nick Adenhart and two others is scheduled for July.
An attorney for Andrew Thomas Gallo recently filed a motion in Orange County to change the venue.
Gallo has pleaded not guilty to charges including three counts of murder, driving under the influence of alcohol and driving with a suspended license because of a prior DUI conviction.
Also killed in the crash were Courtney Stewart, 20; and Henry Pearson, 25.
Shortly after midnight last April 9, Adenhart and friends were headed to a dance club. Their journey ended on a Fullerton street, seven miles from Angel Stadium.
One Year After Nick Adenhart's Tragic Death, Angels Move On
4/8/10 by Tom Krasovic
NAHEIM, Calif. -- A year ago Friday, the lives of major league pitcher Nick Adenhart and two people with him ended tragically when their car was broadsided by an alleged drunk driver.
Adenhart was 22. A few hours before his death, he walked out of Angel Stadium -- triumphant. He'd pitched six scoreless innings, far and away the best outing of his promising career with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
At Angel Stadium Friday night, Jered Weaver will receive the Nick Adenhart Award, given to the team's best pitcher from the previous season.
The bronze statue depicts Adenhart, a 6-foot-3 right-hander, following through on a pitch.
"He was a great kid, a great friend and a great teammate," says Weaver, chosen for the award by Angels players. "Obviously it's a little bittersweet. Obviously you wish we didn't have to hand the award out. But for it to be named after Nick, and for it to be for the Angels' pitcher of the year, I think it's a great name to go along with that award. It's going to be a tremendous honor."
Baseball fans grieved Adenhart's death throughout the 2009 season. On a brick pitcher's mound in front of Angel Stadium's main entrance, they left hand-written notes, framed photographs of Adenhart, candles, baseball caps, balloons and teddy bears.
Onto Angel Stadium's center field wall, the Angels affixed a picture of Adenhart and his jersey No. 34. There last September, after winning the American League Western Division, Angels players assembled for a celebratory photograph.
Time has marched onward, whisking with it many of the symbols of grief and acknowledgment. To Adenhart's family, the Angels offered the shrine's artifacts. Other items will go into a display case at Angel Stadium, along with a larger version of the statue that Weaver will receive. Adenhart's visage no longer adorns the outfield wall.
"You have to move on," says Tim Mead, the club's longtime Vice President of Communications. "In '78, when [Angels outfielder] Lyman Bostock was killed, the team moved on the next year. You have move on to the next year, and that's what we're doing. We honored Nick Adenhart as an organization and as a club.
"We think creating the Adenhart award will stand on its own merit."
Adenhart's closest friend on the team, catcher Bobby Wilson, says that Adenhart's presence is still felt.
"He has not left this clubhouse," Wilson says. "He has not left the lives that he has touched in this clubhouse, and the friends and family around him.
"I don't think any of us need a picture or anything around him. He's in our heads and he's in our hearts."
These are still emotional days for Wilson, whose birthday falls one day before the date of Adenhart's death. The backup catcher, drafted by the Angels eight years ago in the 48th round, recently made the team's Opening Day roster for the first time.
Only a week ago, Wilson was sitting at a ballpark in Scottsdale, Ariz., welling up as he watched a 16-year-old right-hander from the Chicago area pitch in a high school tournament.
The pitcher was Adenhart's half brother, Henry Gigeous.
"It was weird to watch, because everything was similar," says Wilson, 27. "The motion, the pitches, the big curveball, the pregame warmup.
"The signaling of pitches, he gave it the same way Nick did. The same mound presence. You could tell he wanted the ball, just like Nick always did. Seeing Nick do that so often and being part of it -- it was tough to watch. It was definitely difficult."
Wilson went to dinner in Arizona with several others who were close to Adenhart: Henry, Adenhart's stepfather Duane Gigeous, Adenhart's mother Jane, and Jon Wilhite, a former Cal State Fullerton catcher who survived the Adenhart crash.
To hear Wilson, Adenhart's family, friends and former teammates still have Nick in their lives.
"I know he's watching down," Wilson says. " I know he's taking care of me, looking out for me, looking out for his family, looking out for his brother Henry. And, looking out for the Angels."
When Adenhart shut down the Oakland Athletics the night before he died, Jim Adenhart was among the 40,000-plus fans at Angel Stadium. Nick had told his father to fly out from Maryland, saying he would see "something special."
Jim Adenhart, who lives in Hagerstown, Md., met with Angels manager Mike Scioscia and several Angels players and coaches last August before a game at Camden Yards in Baltimore.
At that time, Adenhart told the Los Angeles Times that he had been coping with his son's death as best as he could, going to bereavement counseling and reading several books on the subject.
"But there is really no blueprint on how to deal with this," Jim Adenhart told the Times. "Sometimes you feel like you're getting a grasp on it, and then something will come out of the blue that will set me back."
The father told of dreams.
In one, "I will see Nick in a restaurant," Adenhart said. "I'll go in, I'll get within a close vicinity to Nick, I'll see him from the back, and then he's gone. That one stuck with me for three or four days."
In another, "my wife called and said Nick will be at the house," he said. "She said, 'They made a mistake; he didn't really die.' I was really excited. Then I woke up, and reality hit. I don't know what to expect every time I lay my head down at night, but it's got to get better."
The trial for the 23-year-old man charged with killing Nick Adenhart and two others is scheduled for July.
An attorney for Andrew Thomas Gallo recently filed a motion in Orange County to change the venue.
Gallo has pleaded not guilty to charges including three counts of murder, driving under the influence of alcohol and driving with a suspended license because of a prior DUI conviction.
Also killed in the crash were Courtney Stewart, 20; and Henry Pearson, 25.
Shortly after midnight last April 9, Adenhart and friends were headed to a dance club. Their journey ended on a Fullerton street, seven miles from Angel Stadium.
Thinking of you and your family deldad
Deldad, you and your family are being thought of and prayed for today. May God grant you great joy as you recall Nick's life and the happiness that he brought all of you.
Yes, thinking of Nick's family and saying a prayer or two for them all.
Prayers to Nick's family on this difficult day
Praying for Nick's family and friends, for comfort and sweet memories of a very special young man.
Julie
Julie
.
Well said Julie...very well said.
.
Well said Julie...very well said.
.
....just wanted to stop by....definitely thinking about Nick and his family recently....wishing peace to you all.
I will never log on here again and not think of Nick and Deldad. I will never see anyone wear that number and not think of Nick and his family. And of course there are so many things that make you stop and think and say a prayer for them. My heart goes out to Deldad and the family and I know they will never get over this. My hope is as time goes by they will just be able to live with it a little better each day. God Bless.