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Yordano Ventura's kindness remembered by two young fans
Major league baseball players are people, too. They may seem untouchable and far away, but they exist from day to day just like everyone else. Two brothers from Leawood, Kansas remember the day that Yordano Ventura stopped by their lemonade stand and became a real person to them. And now that Ventura has died in a tragic car accident on Sunday, the memories of Ventura’s kindness will be with them for a very long time.
Kansas City TV station KSHB talked to 10-year-old Rahmeen Hirsch and his eight-year-old brother Solomon Hirsch about the June day that Ventura stopped by their lemonade stand. Things had been really slow — only two customers — until Ventura came to buy some lemonade from them. He pulled up in his car and and asked for one cup. Neither brother could believe it at first, as Solomon recalled.
“…My brother came up with the lemonade and looked at him for a second and he was like ‘Yordano Ventura?’ And he went crazy.”
The boys’ mom Sarah remembers Solomon running into the house, shouting that he needed a baseball for Ventura to sign. They found one and Ventura signed it, and gave them a crisp $100 for the lemonade.
Since hearing of Ventura’s death, the family has been remembering the player who gave some of his time to make two young boys very happy. From KSHB:
News of Yordano’s death in a crash in the Dominican Republic hit Rahmeen especially hard. With tears in his eyes, he said Ventura, “Was really, really nice and he was like one of my favorite players and he died.”
The boys’ parents, Rahmeen and Sarah, are helping their boys understand what happened while trying to process it themselves. But no matter what, Sarah knows what Ventura’s kindness meant to their family.
“He didn’t have to stop and he did so that really shows a lot about his character to me,” she told KSHB. “It was something we really are going to cherish from now on.”
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Liz Roscher is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at lizroscher@yahoo.com or follow her on twitter! Follow @lizroscher
