iStock(NEW YORK) — Baltimore Orioles first baseman Chris Davis has found an unexpected motivator in the form of a young baseball lover and die-hard Boston Red Sox fan.
“I love baseball,” Henry Frasca, 9, of Massachusetts, told Orioles broadcaster Gary Thorne in a video that was posted on the Orioles broadcast Twitter page and Major League Baseball Twitter page. “It’s my life.”
When Henry noticed in April that Davis was 0 for 54 in hits — the longest slump in Major League Baseball history — he wrote him a letter.
“When someone’s hurting, I didn’t like it,” he told Thorne. “So, I decided to try to help him out.”
In the letter, Henry told Davis, in part: “There are two things I want you to know. First, the way you play baseball has nothing to do with how good a person you are. Also, you are incredible. You play in the MLB. You’ve done it for a long time and everyone goes through a slump. Don’t give up. We’re rooting for you. Sincerely, Henry Frasca.”
That same day in April, Davis broke the infamous record with three hits including two doubles. Davis told Thorne that he’d held onto the letter the entire season, carrying it in his Bible.
“It definitely caught me off-guard. But, it meant enough to me for me to carry it around the rest of the day. It was pretty cool. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t get a little choked up,” he said.
On Saturday, the two finally met when the Orioles played the Red Sox in a three-game series at Fenway Park in Boston.
The two were able to chat and hang out in the locker room and dugout before Henry took to the field to help catch the balls during practice. He was even seen on video throwing balls to fans. Before the two parted, Henry thanked Davis for the best “day of my life.”
“People don’t really realize how they impact us,” Davis said. “At that moment in time, going through what I was going through, to get a letter that was that encouraging — and from a 9-year-old — it was pretty special.”
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