Tragedy & Hope: The McCarty-LSU Connection To This Story

Marilyn McCarty and our two sons, Andrew and Thomas on the morning of "Tim's Grand Slam Day" outside the room where the LSU players were having their breakfast.

Lifelong LSU baseball fan dies seconds after big win

BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) - As LSU heads to Omaha for the College World Series, the family of a lifelong LSU baseball fan says he will have the best seats in the house.

Curt McCarty was just outside Alex Box Stadium last Sunday as the Tigers launched a nail-biting come-from-behind victory in the Super Regional. He was sitting under an oak tree, listening to the game on the radio. His teenage son was inside, sitting in the stands.

Seconds after the team's big win, Curt McCarty died of a massive heart attack. "He was taken home to rest on Sunday, June 8, 2008, at age 55, while doing what he enjoyed most, watching the LSU baseball game when the Lord called him home," read his obituary. Read more and watch video coverage of this story here.

CWS Notes: LSU tries to ease teenage fan's pain

BY STEVEN PIVOVAR AND DIRK CHATELAIN
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITERS - Published Saturday June 14, 2008

Logan McCarty had hoped to attend the College World Series with his father to watch their beloved Louisiana State Tigers.

Tragedy changed that plan. Curt McCarty, 55, died Sunday of a massive heart attack outside Alex Box Stadium in Baton Rouge. The elder McCarty was stricken shortly after the Tigers had saved their season with a ninth-inning rally against UC Irvine.

Before leaving for Omaha, several LSU players were watching a news broadcast Wednesday when they learned of 17-year-old Logan's plight.

"Our guys started calling me, saying they wanted to do something for the family," LSU coach Paul Mainieri said. "They wanted to give up their meal money in order to buy him a plane ticket so that he could come to Omaha with us.

"We were all moved by the story. And I was moved that my guys were willing to do whatever they could to try to help ease this young man's pain." Read more.


On the morning of the day of Tim's Grand Slam another article appeared in the Omaha Herald as follows:



Published Friday June 20, 2008

Tiger family sticks together
BY CHAD PURCELL
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

Nobody is naive enough to think that baseball or any of this Rosenblatt Stadium hoopla is going to erase the McCarty family's pain.

But can the College World Series actually ease the grip of unimaginable grief?

Marilyn McCarty is here in Omaha to say yes, it can.

The tragedy that struck the McCartys last weekend has been well-chronicled in Bayou Country. But the outpouring of support from the Tigers faithful for McCarty and her son, Logan, only has intensified since they arrived in Nebraska. Read more.

While driving back to our hotel with our boys I thought of Marilyn and her son, Logan. I tried to put myself in their shoes. The pain of losing a husband & father - at just 55 years young - must have been unbearable, but there was a corresponding pain of witnessing LSU's bitter-sweet lost to UNC earlier in the evening.

When we got back to the Crown Plaza Hotel where we and the LSU players were staying I caught up with Marilyn McCarty and got the chance to meet her son, Logan, for the first time. Since leaving Rosenblatt Stadium with Tim's grand slam ball I received this idea to give the ball to Marilyn and her son with the suggestion that they offer the ball back to Tim Federowicz.

After I caught Here's a picture of Marilyn and Logan McCarty with our son, Thomas, right after I gave them the grand slam home run ball hit by Tim Federowicz:

Here's a video of me making the offer to Marilyn and Logan:



I received a call from Marilyn McCarty early the next morning. She thanked me/us for the ball and offer to present it to Tim Federowicz, but upon overnight reflection acknowledged that she would not be able to present the ball to Tim as she and her son, Logan, had to be at the airport for a flight back to Baton Rouge LA later in the morning. I met her in the lobby with local LSU volunteer coordinators, Ed Armfeld and Terry Devlin, who helped me to locate the local UNC Team coordinators and Hotel.



I ended up calling the hotel where the UNC team was staying and asked the operator to connect me with Tim's room. When Tim answered I introduced myself, saying something to the effect that I was "Fred Smart from Evanston, Illinois. I caught your home run ball last night. How would you like to get your ball back?" Tim responded with a "yes" and we made arrangements to gather up the kids and parents from our oldest son's team so they could participate in this event.

Here is a short video of the introduction I made to Tim Federowicz prior to presenting him the ball over in the lobby of the Regency Lodge 909 S. 107th Street, Omaha NE - later on Saturday morning, June 21st, the morning after "Tim's Grand Slam":

An Introduction Prior To Presenting Tim's Grand Slam Ball



Here's the team shot - Frozen Ropes in Niles, IL - with myself and Tim standing in the foreground:

(you can click the image to enlarge any of the pictures in this blog)