John McDonald is in his 12th season in Major League Baseball and had hit a grand total of 13 home runs over his career. So when his dying father, Jack, asked him to “Hit your next one for me,” you can imagine the pressure he must’ve felt. As the Toronto Star reported, McDonald’s father had been diagnosed with liver cancer back in November, and the cancer resurfaced in March. McDonald’s team, the Toronto Blue Jays, showed a great deal of humanity by letting him take off for 11 days to spend time with his dad. It was time well spent for John, who was very close to his father.
As he was quoted in the Star about his final night with his dad, “That was a great night for both of us, because we knew what was going to happen the next day when we went home. He knew what direction it was going and so did I. It was a special night for both of us. I said, ‘Dad I wish I had something to tell you that I never told you but you know everything.’”
Jack McDonald died this past Tuesday at the age of 60 and was laid to rest on Friday. With what had to be a heavy heart, John McDonald returned to the team on Saturday morning. As MLB.com reported, his teammates gave him a Blue Jays jersey with all their signatures. And it wasn’t John’s name on the jersey, but Jack’s, with the number 25, the number Jack wore as an umpire in Connecticut.
“Hit your next one for me,” must have been echoing in McDonald’s mind when he came to bat in the 9th inning on Sunday with a man on base, the Blue Jays down 9-3. As MLB.com noted, he had told his father, “They’re not that easy to hit.” But with an 0-1 count, McDonald did just that, taking a Jeremy Affeldt pitch just over the left-field wall, honoring his dad on, of all days, Father’s Day. You can watch the video here.
When McDonald got to the dugout, teammates surrounded him, offering their congratulations, as the crowd chanted “Johnny Mac! Johnny Mac!” Toronto would end up losing 9-6 to the San Francisco Giants, and for one day, the loss was irrelevant. As teammate Vernon Wells was quoted, “When it went out, it was instant goosebumps. It kind of puts everything in perspective on whether you had a good day or a bad day at the plate or in the field. Wins and losses don’t matter at this point.”
After the game, when asked about what was going through his mind as he rounded the bases, McDonald fought back tears and said, “Probably the fact that I couldn’t call my dad after the game to tell him.”
Something tells me Jack knows.
Screengrab from johnlott28 via YouTube.