Awesome Scene: Soldier Returns Home, Surprises Family At White Sox Game Last Night

I was at the game last night and saw this first hand, as it happened a section or so over from us. The White Sox do a "hero of the day" video tribute like this every game, and it's usually a home run, for lack of a better word. On Saturday, they had a WWII vet who fought in the Battle of the fucking Bulge. Needless to say, he was the most badass dude in the stadium that night. Anyone who's seen Band of Brothers knows exactly what I'm talking about. That dude has seen some SHIT and he reinforces what a gigantic pussy I am.

That guy didn't make me choke up really, though. The family from last night? They almost did. Not quite, but almost. At first, when the PA announcer was going over the Sgt. LaCosse's decorations from overseas, I didn't understand why the camera was piped in on a little kid at first. Figured it was a mistake and they just had the wrong camera turned on or some shit... but when Sgt. LaCosse snuck up behind his family and the family + entire stadium realized it was a sort of set up? The ENTIRE STADIUM went nuts and gave the family a well deserved standing O. It was truly beautiful. Everyone forgot there was a baseball game being played for a split second. 

Not only that, but I scanned the field real quick and the Pirates completely stopped their mid-inning warmups, put their gloves on the ground, and gave the guy a standing O as well while on the field. It was a really, really cool scene. The happiness of the family's faces during the reuniting made me realize that some things, in fact, are bigger than sports as one of my current (former?) coworkers would say.

This one especially hit home for me because my sister is in the army and is stationed in San Antonio right now. Her husband is currently on his first tour in Iraq and they have 5 year old son and 20 month old daughter. My nieces and nephews won't get to see their pops other than a fucking zoom call or FaceTime until next year (when they're off to Germany for 3 years) and I gotta imagine their reactions would be just like this. 

Some things indeed. 

I'm gonna 3chi my face off and start "Band of Brothers" again for the 30th time tonight. I just now decided that as I write this blog.