Wiedmer: Homers for Heroes is a grand slam of an idea

Staff Photo by Doug Strickland/Chattanooga Times Free Press - Gloves lie in a pile in the Lady Trojan Invitational softball tournament Friday, March 29, 2013, in Soddy-Daisy, Tenn.
Staff Photo by Doug Strickland/Chattanooga Times Free Press - Gloves lie in a pile in the Lady Trojan Invitational softball tournament Friday, March 29, 2013, in Soddy-Daisy, Tenn.
photo Mark Wiedmer

In future years, as the anniversaries hopefully mount, Cameron Doody envisions big things for Homers for Heroes. The inaugural edition of the home run derby for charity is from noon to 5 p.m. Saturday at AT&T Field, home of the Chattanooga Lookouts.

"We hope it will become the biggest philanthropic event in town," said Doody, the co-founder and president of Bellhops, the Chattanooga-based, tech-enabled moving company that's organizing the fundraiser.

It would certainly seem to have the makings of a long-term grand slam. Sixteen Chattanooga businesses - everyone from TVA to EPB to this newspaper - are fielding two-man teams (one full-time employee and one recruit, which some might refer to as "ringers") with the sole goal of hitting as many balls as possible over a temporary fence 300 feet from home plate.

Beyond that, former Atlanta Braves longball artist Ryan Klesko will be on hand to sign autographs from 2 to 5 and take a few batting practice cuts, though he won't be swinging for the fence during the competition.

There will also be activities for kids, as well as the promise of 16-ounce beers for $2.50 each for those who've already celebrated their 21st birthdays. Talk about a home run.

In fact, the derby filled up so fast that Champy's Fried Chicken owner Seth Champion - a University of New Orleans catcher during his college baseball days - wound up on our Times Free Press team because all 16 business slots were already taken. (At least, that's our story and we're sticking to it.)

But for Doody and the rest of Bellhops, this first Homers for Heroes is both painful and personal, given that the hero it hopes to help this year is Nathan Sexton, a Bellhops employee battling a stage 4 brain tumor that's no longer responding to chemotherapy and radiation.

"Actually, as I sit here at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, I have IVs in both my arms," Sexton wrote in an email Wednesday morning. "The standard treatment (radiation and concurrent chemo for six weeks, followed by monthly cycles of maintenance chemo) didn't work, so I am just starting a phase one trial today."

To further underscore the graveness of his situation, when asked his prognosis, Sexton replied: "Hopefully, if this trial works, another couple of years or more. No doctor has ever told me 'you have X years or months to live.'"

A year ago at this time, most everyone on the planet would have traded their lives for Sexton's. Young, bright and handsome with a beautiful wife and a bubbly baby, he was the American dream personified.

Then came June 4, 2015, the first day Bellhops moved into their posh offices in Warehouse Row. While attempting to address his staff before taking them to lunch, Sexton suffered three massive seizures. When he next awoke, he was in the hospital, hooked up to feeding tubes and all matter of machines. Surgery at Vanderbilt removed 95 percent of the tumor, but the remaining 5 percent has stubbornly refused to disappear.

Yet despite his many challenges, he bravely captured the hearts of the entire world when he somehow willed his broken body through a half marathon earlier this spring.

Asked to comment on the outpouring of support he received, Sexton instead focused on a single email from a friend, one that turned to the sculpture of a duck by South Carolina artist Grainger McKoy and its focus on the bird's vulnerability during a recovery stroke just before it makes its next power stroke.

According to the email, "Grainger found that although the recovery stroke is when a wing is at its weakest point, it happens to be the position with the most grace and beauty a theme that a lot of us can relate to in our lives."

There is certainly great grace in Sexton's handling of a tragic situation. But there is also great need. Doody has previously estimated that Sexton, his wife Elizabeth and 2-year-old son Jack will need at least $100,000 for the clinical trials and the associated hotel, food and travel costs.

"The Lookouts have been tremendous, they've been with us every step of the way," said Doody, who explained every dime past expenses will be placed in Sexton's bank account. "AT&T Field will have the full concessions open. It will be just like a home game, even though the team is on the road."

Anyone wishing to attend can order a ticket before Saturday for $5 at homers4heroes.com or lookouts.com. Tickets will be $10 at the gate.

"I wanted to get involved because it's a worthy cause," said the 36-year-old Champion. "I've been practicing with my kids for a week or so. My 15-year-old son Joey plays baseball for Signal Mountain High School and my 9-year-old son Jack plays travel ball for D-1. Klesko was one of my all-time Braves, and it would be great to hit a few home runs at AT&T Field."

Yet Champion's expectant wife Crissy could also throw him a curveball if she delivers their newest addition on or before Saturday.

All Sexton wants, of course, is for someone to deliver him some good news about his tumor. He's even gone on a ketogenic diet of late with hopes of wiping out all sugar intake in order to "help negate the negative side effects from my seizure medication, and also (help) to starve the tumor of the glucose needed to thrive."

We all need encouragement to feel alive and thrive. Near McKoy's sculpture is a plaque that reads, in part: "All of us are in recovery somewhere in our lives."

Come Saturday, our town gets its chance to help Sexton's recovery by knocking the cover off cancer.

Could there be a better reason to spend a spring afternoon at the ballpark?

Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.

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