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Under the cut is a copy/pasted article on Dontrelle Willis, and what makes him so special.
Willis' heart touches many
Dontrelle Willis will be pitching in tonight's All-Star Game in Detroit, and he carries with him the good wishes of the many people he has helped.
BY KEVIN BAXTER
kbaxter@herald.com
DETROIT - Robin DiFranco doesn't really care that Dontrelle Willis isn't starting the All-Star Game tonight. If you want to know the truth, DiFranco didn't even know there was an All-Star Game tonight.
''I'm not much of a sports fan,'' she admits.
She is, however, a big Dontrelle Willis fan -- has been ever since the Marlins pitcher spent two days with her sister as she was dying of cancer earlier this season.
''He's kind of my hero,'' she says.
Beth Rozeboom is a Willis fan too -- and not because of the All-Star Game. Shortly after her son Chase regained consciousness in an Iowa City hospital after heart transplant surgery last summer, he said his lone wish was to meet Willis.
''I really don't know why,'' she says.
She knew after she met him.
``He's so nice.''
Then there was the frightened kid from Boca Raton, the one diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. Willis spent a recent afternoon visiting with him, and when doctors operated on the boy last month, it turned out the tumor was benign. There's no doubt who that child's family thinks the National League's top pitcher is.
Same goes for the group of Hialeah kids who were playing on a ratty field with hand-me-down equipment until Willis found out and outfitted them with sharp new uniforms and equipment, then paid to have their field repaired. And the struggling T-ball players whose league Willis now sponsors. And the grade-school basketball team Willis coached near his mother's home in Alameda, Calif., and the . . . well, you get the picture.
A GENUINE MAN
It's likely few of them know -- or care -- that Willis leads the majors with 13 victories, five complete games and four shutouts this season. Or that Tony LaRussa will write Chris Carpenter's name and not Willis' on an All-Star starting lineup card tonight. They don't need to know his ERA or how many batters he has struck out to know Willis is special.
''I just can't say enough about Dontrelle,'' Linda Surloff said of Willis, who ignored the advice of the coaching staff and visited her dying sister-in-law at her Broward home just hours before he took the mound at Dolphins Stadium two months ago.
''You got to find out that he was the genuine thing,'' she said. ``It's not all jewelry and endorsements. He's the anti-ego.''
Which is exactly how Willis would like it to remain. That's why little of what he does off the field takes place before cameras or following press releases. Asked about cooperating for this story, Willis at first demurred.
''I don't want you to do this, to be honest,'' he said. ``I know what I'm doing. [Publicity] is irrelevant, That's empty. That's not really whole-hearted giving.
``I'm not doing it for that. I never did it for that.''
CAN'T SAY NO
Then Willis sat down and talked about it. Because as much as Willis hates discussing his charity work, he hates saying no -- to anyone asking him for anything -- even more.
''He wears his heart on his sleeve,'' said Angela Smith, the Marlins' director of community affairs. ``He's very interested and willing and able to do pretty much anything that ever comes up. It's definitely a breath of fresh air because he gets it. He understands what him stopping for a second to take time to shake a child's hand or whatever it may be, just have a conversation with someone, what it means to them.''
He took more than a second to visit with 14-year-old Chase last week. The Make-A-Wish Foundation flew the boy to South Florida to attend three Marlins game and before the second one Willis took him on the field to shag fly balls during batting practice, then gave him a tour of the Marlins clubhouse -- where the team had prepared a locker for him -- and studied tapes of opposing pitchers and hitters in the team's video room. The two were inseparable for nearly an hour.
''It's cool, man,'' Willis said. ``We all try to help and give back. You make one person's day like that, hopefully it'll change his life. He's been through a lot of adversity. So we have to thank him for keeping his head up.''
Ten minutes after Willis had left Chase with his family in the Marlins dugout the boy was still shaking.
''He couldn't have picked a better role model,'' Chase's father, Arlyn Rozeboom, said.
Maybe that's because Willis had a good one, too. Raised alone by his mother Joyce Harris, who used sports to help keep him out of trouble in a rugged neighborhood in Oakland's East Bay, Willis didn't meet his father until his rookie season in the major leagues.
DOMINATING PLAYER
So even though he has known mostly success as a big-leaguer, he is well aware that life isn't always fair.
''People helped me to get where I am so I figured I had no choice. I think it would be wrong if I didn't just try to be active,'' he said. 'I never thought anything like this would happen for me. I just played to stay out of trouble. I never said, `I want to be a major-league ballplayer.' I just played.
``To be able to be in Major League Baseball and touch people with what I do on the field and for other people that didn't even know me to enjoy the way I go about my work, it's truly a blessing. And if I can make someone happy by doing it, so be it.''
Of course, Willis is making the Marlins happy as well.
Two years ago his mid-May call-up gave the team the spark it needed to reach, then win, the World Series. Willis was rewarded with a championship ring and the NL Rookie of the Year award.
And he has been even more dominating this season. With five more wins, he would tie Carl Pavano's record for most victories in a season, and with seven more he would become the first 20-game winner in franchise history, as well as the only NL left-hander other than Randy Johnson to win 20 games since Tom Glavine in 2000
But that wasn't enough to get him the start in tonight's All-Star Game, Willis' second in his three big-league seasons. That honor will go instead to Carpenter, who has matched Willis' 13 wins and who has lost just once since May 29.
WATCHING THE GAME
No hard feelings, though. Even Willis has been pushing Carpenter to start. But back in Sioux Center, Iowa, young Chase Rozeboom, who will be watching tonight's game on television, will be disappointed. He'll get over it, though. He's grown used to overcoming obstacles.
Less than a year after his transplant, Chase Rozeboom is back on the baseball diamond -- he's a left-hander pitcher, just like Willis -- although his mother says it's way too early to call the boy's recovery complete.
''A heart,'' says Beth Rozeboom, ``can reject at any time and you don't know why or when that will be.''
And as Dontrelle Willis has shown, a heart can accept at any time too. Without need for a reason why.
Willis' heart touches many
Dontrelle Willis will be pitching in tonight's All-Star Game in Detroit, and he carries with him the good wishes of the many people he has helped.
BY KEVIN BAXTER
kbaxter@herald.com
DETROIT - Robin DiFranco doesn't really care that Dontrelle Willis isn't starting the All-Star Game tonight. If you want to know the truth, DiFranco didn't even know there was an All-Star Game tonight.
''I'm not much of a sports fan,'' she admits.
She is, however, a big Dontrelle Willis fan -- has been ever since the Marlins pitcher spent two days with her sister as she was dying of cancer earlier this season.
''He's kind of my hero,'' she says.
Beth Rozeboom is a Willis fan too -- and not because of the All-Star Game. Shortly after her son Chase regained consciousness in an Iowa City hospital after heart transplant surgery last summer, he said his lone wish was to meet Willis.
''I really don't know why,'' she says.
She knew after she met him.
``He's so nice.''
Then there was the frightened kid from Boca Raton, the one diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. Willis spent a recent afternoon visiting with him, and when doctors operated on the boy last month, it turned out the tumor was benign. There's no doubt who that child's family thinks the National League's top pitcher is.
Same goes for the group of Hialeah kids who were playing on a ratty field with hand-me-down equipment until Willis found out and outfitted them with sharp new uniforms and equipment, then paid to have their field repaired. And the struggling T-ball players whose league Willis now sponsors. And the grade-school basketball team Willis coached near his mother's home in Alameda, Calif., and the . . . well, you get the picture.
A GENUINE MAN
It's likely few of them know -- or care -- that Willis leads the majors with 13 victories, five complete games and four shutouts this season. Or that Tony LaRussa will write Chris Carpenter's name and not Willis' on an All-Star starting lineup card tonight. They don't need to know his ERA or how many batters he has struck out to know Willis is special.
''I just can't say enough about Dontrelle,'' Linda Surloff said of Willis, who ignored the advice of the coaching staff and visited her dying sister-in-law at her Broward home just hours before he took the mound at Dolphins Stadium two months ago.
''You got to find out that he was the genuine thing,'' she said. ``It's not all jewelry and endorsements. He's the anti-ego.''
Which is exactly how Willis would like it to remain. That's why little of what he does off the field takes place before cameras or following press releases. Asked about cooperating for this story, Willis at first demurred.
''I don't want you to do this, to be honest,'' he said. ``I know what I'm doing. [Publicity] is irrelevant, That's empty. That's not really whole-hearted giving.
``I'm not doing it for that. I never did it for that.''
CAN'T SAY NO
Then Willis sat down and talked about it. Because as much as Willis hates discussing his charity work, he hates saying no -- to anyone asking him for anything -- even more.
''He wears his heart on his sleeve,'' said Angela Smith, the Marlins' director of community affairs. ``He's very interested and willing and able to do pretty much anything that ever comes up. It's definitely a breath of fresh air because he gets it. He understands what him stopping for a second to take time to shake a child's hand or whatever it may be, just have a conversation with someone, what it means to them.''
He took more than a second to visit with 14-year-old Chase last week. The Make-A-Wish Foundation flew the boy to South Florida to attend three Marlins game and before the second one Willis took him on the field to shag fly balls during batting practice, then gave him a tour of the Marlins clubhouse -- where the team had prepared a locker for him -- and studied tapes of opposing pitchers and hitters in the team's video room. The two were inseparable for nearly an hour.
''It's cool, man,'' Willis said. ``We all try to help and give back. You make one person's day like that, hopefully it'll change his life. He's been through a lot of adversity. So we have to thank him for keeping his head up.''
Ten minutes after Willis had left Chase with his family in the Marlins dugout the boy was still shaking.
''He couldn't have picked a better role model,'' Chase's father, Arlyn Rozeboom, said.
Maybe that's because Willis had a good one, too. Raised alone by his mother Joyce Harris, who used sports to help keep him out of trouble in a rugged neighborhood in Oakland's East Bay, Willis didn't meet his father until his rookie season in the major leagues.
DOMINATING PLAYER
So even though he has known mostly success as a big-leaguer, he is well aware that life isn't always fair.
''People helped me to get where I am so I figured I had no choice. I think it would be wrong if I didn't just try to be active,'' he said. 'I never thought anything like this would happen for me. I just played to stay out of trouble. I never said, `I want to be a major-league ballplayer.' I just played.
``To be able to be in Major League Baseball and touch people with what I do on the field and for other people that didn't even know me to enjoy the way I go about my work, it's truly a blessing. And if I can make someone happy by doing it, so be it.''
Of course, Willis is making the Marlins happy as well.
Two years ago his mid-May call-up gave the team the spark it needed to reach, then win, the World Series. Willis was rewarded with a championship ring and the NL Rookie of the Year award.
And he has been even more dominating this season. With five more wins, he would tie Carl Pavano's record for most victories in a season, and with seven more he would become the first 20-game winner in franchise history, as well as the only NL left-hander other than Randy Johnson to win 20 games since Tom Glavine in 2000
But that wasn't enough to get him the start in tonight's All-Star Game, Willis' second in his three big-league seasons. That honor will go instead to Carpenter, who has matched Willis' 13 wins and who has lost just once since May 29.
WATCHING THE GAME
No hard feelings, though. Even Willis has been pushing Carpenter to start. But back in Sioux Center, Iowa, young Chase Rozeboom, who will be watching tonight's game on television, will be disappointed. He'll get over it, though. He's grown used to overcoming obstacles.
Less than a year after his transplant, Chase Rozeboom is back on the baseball diamond -- he's a left-hander pitcher, just like Willis -- although his mother says it's way too early to call the boy's recovery complete.
''A heart,'' says Beth Rozeboom, ``can reject at any time and you don't know why or when that will be.''
And as Dontrelle Willis has shown, a heart can accept at any time too. Without need for a reason why.