Police, firefighters, military recognized at baseball's 'Hero's Day'
As fans entered the Theunissen Stadium on Friday afternoon, they saw police cars and fire trucks.
There was no accidents, only claps.
The Central Michigan baseball team honored several members of the Michigan health, safety and Armed Forces community with "Hero's Day" on Friday during the team's 14-2 victory over Toledo.
According to the team's Facebook page, all active, reserve and veteran members of the Armed Forces, police, firefighters and first responders were allowed into the game free.
Head Coach Steve Jaksa took a photograph with policemen, firefighters and members of the military before Friday's game. He said the idea of "Hero's Day" was a collaboration between sport management faculty Nick Williams, former Assistant Athletic Director for Corporate Sales/Marketing, and the CMU Athletic Department marketing staff.
Jaksa said it was special to recognize the efforts of those who sacrifice.
“They put themselves into harms way so many times, whether it’s a police officer or firefighter or anybody that works in that kind of work," Jaksa said. "That’s a tough one, being out there. Sometimes things happen that aren’t always good. We need to appreciate that.”
David Leos, a military veteran and sophomore at CMU, threw out the ceremonial first pitch.
Throughout the game, several groups were honored to standing ovations from the crowd. The Tribal police, CMUPD and State Police were recognized, as well as the MPFD.
At the end of the seventh inning, Kelsey Willoughby and Hunter Gross of Mobile Medical Response were recognized.
“It’s just a good thing to get recognized with a bunch of other local people," Gross said. "As far as heroes, we don’t really think of ourselves as heroes. We just go to do by the best of the people of the city that we work for. It’s not our emergency, it’s their emergency and we always treat it that way.”
Willoughby said standing on the third-base line was "nerve-wracking."
“It was nice to hear but its’ definitely not something that’s needed," Willoughby said. "We don’t need the appreciation. We do it because we like it.”
Jaksa said it was a special event and added it helped the Wounded Warrior Project.
“Those people that allow us to play a game like this and the things that they sacrifice, sometimes with their own lives, is something that you can’t really fully imagine until your close to it," Jaksa said.
CMU baseball will host a Community Service Day on Saturday (2:05 p.m.) and a Little League Day on Sunday (1:05 p.m.).
