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ANAHEIM, California. – There is another young man on the fence of the central field, another ghostly photo of a captured young man such as he was, never launch this pitch, never look back, never grow old .
Terribly familiar with this place on this wall, with a young man there and gone forever, the Angels of Los Angeles faced another page of the calendar, managed another day when they did not know what and held head to the family of Tyler Skaggs – his mother, Debbie, his wife, Carli, all these brothers, new and worn, blood and otherwise, themselves included.
At a ceremony Friday night at Angel Stadium, players wore his number – 45 – and his name on the back, in the image of the jersey that is still hanging in a clubhouse locker. They tilted their heads for another 45 seconds. They bid farewell again, in case he missed the first million times, and hugged his mother, his wife, his father-in-law and his brother-in-law. Debbie, the former softball player, threw a violent knock on Tyler's best friend, Andrew Heaney, and then glanced at the sky.
How many times have they played catching together. How often did she drive to a sand court, baseball stadium or stadium? How many hymns she had defended! How many times she has greeted her teammates. How many baseball games she has seen with him on this mound, 10 inches above the rest. Now her teammates held her in her arms and told her how sorry they were, how much they loved her, and she rested her head on their shoulders.
Eleven days after Tyler Skaggs' death in a Texas hotel room, ten years after the first on Nick Adenhart's wall, the angels themselves had another complaint. For him. For themselves. For his widow. For his mother.
Moments before the ceremony, Carli sits on the dugout bench next to a underwire jersey. She put her hand on the frame.
<p class = "canvas-atom web-text Mb (1.0em) Mb (0) – sm Mt (0.8em) – sm" type = "text" content = "Next, the angels played a game of baseball almost perfect two pitchers – & nbsp;Taylor Cole& nbsp; for the first two runs and & nbsp;Felix Peña& nbsp; for the next seven games – combined at the 11th edition of the club, which has no hitter. Angels beat the & nbsp;Seattle Mariners, 13-0. At night, they were all Tyler Skaggs, baseball player # 45, who would have loved that. "Data-reactid =" 25 "> The Angels then played in a nearly perfect baseball match with two throwers – Taylor Cole for the first two runs and Felix Peña for the next seven – combined on the club's 11th no-go The Angels beat the Seattle Mariners 13-0. One night they were all Tyler Skaggs, number 45, baseball player would have absolutely adored that.
A child is high. He is decent and kind. He finds a world that fascinates him. He does the work of his life, which sometimes does not look like a job at all, which is the best. He calls a lot, remembers what he is supposed to remember, laughs at what he always laughed at. It hardly changes in the eyes of his mother. There are simply more, until there are no more.
The Angels of Los Angeles all wore the number 45 Friday night in honor of Tyler Skaggs. (Getty Images)
A friend arrives. He is shy at first, but for the mischievous smile that betrays him. He seems to know when to lead, when to follow, when to stand at the shoulder of his friend. He is the first to celebrate, the first to cry, this true gay and good-natured friend who hardly changes at all in a complicated world. It's always, always, just him, until it's not.
A teammate grows up. He is a good baseball player and that is good, it is expected. He is here, after all, a great player. He cares too. It helps to push or pull or do what is necessary, sometimes what is not necessary, then a little more. He is there for them often enough that they are, even if his picture is there on the fence. Especially when he is at this place on this fence.
A commemorative monument stands at the entrance to the stadium, another commemorative monument on the bricks where the flowers, caps and trinkets are placed, as well as the messages written in the children's calligraphy.
So Mike Trout marks the first pitch he got and looks for the family because he needs them to know that Tyler is concerned. Garret, Tyler's half-brother, wears Tyler's white number 11 at Santa Monica High School, when the angels chose him and made him his own.
Thus, a group of men, a baseball franchise, a fraternity and a sport try to hoist themselves up, to catch their breath, to continue.
"We obviously lost somebody too early," union boss Tony Clark said earlier in the week. "What is difficult for me, as I suppose for many of you, is that at age 27, you go to bed one night and you do not wake up."
He wondered if Tyler had telephoned home to say good night, to tell him I loved you. He assumed that he had. And the thought sank somewhere in his throat.
An improvised shrine in honor of Los Angeles Angels pitcher, Tyler Skaggs, stands in front of Angel Stadium prior to the team's baseball game against the Seattle Mariners on Friday, July 12, 2019, in Anaheim , in California. (AP)
Angels' leader, Brad Ausmus, shrugged and said he hoped another day would pass and that a grieving public could perhaps "ease the pain a little", although He does not seem convinced.
And chief executive Billy Eppler said that he kept a document on his desk containing the organizational depth chart at every position, including at the pitcher's.
"I did not even look at it," he said. "I did not even open the document. I can tell you that. "
As they have done almost every day since, the angels played the baseball game that was planned. That night, they rounded the memorial. They passed the locker on the other side of the room. They gathered the family of Tyler Skaggs to draw strength, giving them strength. They said goodbye again.
They paid tribute to the young man who was there on this wall of this stadium, which they helped to educate, whom they had seen happen, that they had seen growing up. He was their friend. Is their friend. Is it their brother, by blood and otherwise.
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