PIKEVILLE, Tenn. — Jimmy Tarver wasn’t in the best of moods Wednesday afternoon. Bledsoe County’s baseball team had just endured a lopsided loss to rival Sequatchie County with most of Bledsoe’s student body in attendance.
His mood changed, though, the minute he stepped into the sunshine from the small scorer’s box where he had tracked each ball, strike, hit, error and run, including the plays and at-bats of his son, Zack.
Every day is a good day for Jimmy Tarver, a devoted husband and father who was diagnosed in November 2007 with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis — commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease because it claimed the life of pro baseball’s legendary “Iron Man.”
ALS is a progressive, fatal disease caused by the degeneration of nerve cells in the central nervous system that control voluntary muscle movement. The disease causes muscle weakness and atrophy through the body, and there is no cure.
Tarver walks now only with the aid of specially fitted braces and a four-pronged cane. He breathes more easily because of a vent inserted in his throat through a tracheotomy. A former drug enforcement officer, he now lives for his wife, Beverly, and Zack. Beyond their love for each other and the ongoing battle to survive as long as possible, baseball plays a major role in the family’s comings and goings.
Less than a month ago Jimmy emerged from the hospital still weak from a bout with pneumonia — ALS victims are more susceptible — and weak from nine bedridden days, but he talked Beverly into driving up the mountain to Grundy County for a Bledsoe baseball game.
“He promised he’d stay in the truck, but to know Jimmy, well, he decided he wasn’t close enough so off we went,” Beverly recalled.
Baseball was a family link long before Lou Gehrig’s disease butted in. Jimmy coached Zack in youth leagues and beyond.
“I’ve coached him since he was 4 years ago,” he said.
When asked when he had turned his son’s baseball tutelage over to others, he laughed and responded, “Really, never.”
And Zack, laughing just as easily, added, “I’ve had a good 12 years of it. We have always been close, but baseball is a way we have connected.”
Zack has learned well the lessons that parents traditionally have tried to impart. He plays guitar and has played drums in the school band. He took up golf because of the time together it gave him and his father, and he wound up playing varsity golf for Bledsoe. He is being recruited by the likes of Ivy League member Penn because of his academic prowess — a 4.0 high school grade point average, an ACT score of 28 as a sophomore and a 3.75 GPA in college classes he is taking as a junior.
“One B,” Zack said. “An online course in psychology. I remember taking some of the quizzes last fall at the hospital when he got his ‘trach.’ I knew I should have taken the course in person. There isn’t enough communication with the professors.”
Zack doesn’t often venture far from his father’s side.
“They’re not only a father and son, but they also have a best-friend relationship,” Beverly said. “Zack respects his father and does everything his dad asks, but at the same time they’re like pals.”
It was tough being pals for a while. Beverly said the family was in denial for more than a year following Jimmy’s diagnosis.
“We tried to research other things that could be wrong if for no other reason than to keep his spirits up,” she said. “Our attitudes changed when we almost lost him (to respiratory failure).”
Jimmy could breathe out but had trouble exhaling and had carbon dioxide poisoning. That’s when they did the tracheotomy.
Life changed once he was in recovery from the surgery.
“It was at that point that we came to accept it,” Beverly said. “We’re no longer angry about why it happened to him. We’re just happy to have him. Every day we have him is a blessing.
“And Jimmy’s attitude changed. His whole attitude on life has changed. That’s why I can’t keep him still. He wants to really live life every day.”
Said Zack: “I know no matter what, that he always finds a way to smile or laugh.”
They have discussed the disease and the future, although Zack says quickly, “I don’t want to hear something I already know. Limitations? He doesn’t know limitations. They said he might never walk, but there he is walking. And after the tracheotomy, the nurse said he might never talk again. I said, ‘You don’t know my dad.’
“He tries to get me to think about what he has taught me more than what’s coming. You live each day for the best and take what you can from each.”
Before the family knew of Jimmy’s illness, Zack had been inclined toward civil or electrical engineering. He since has changed to a medical career or biomedical engineering.
“I want to spend my life helping others,” he said. “I had a fighter to teach me, and I want to help people. A lot of people say that, but I really mean it.”
What’s to come is a touchy subject, even when it’s just the parents talking, Beverly said.
“Jimmy wants to be here for Zack’s senior year and graduation. He says if he can hold off until Zack graduates,” she said. “He says he isn’t worried about Zack’s future because of what he was taught growing up, and he said he knew he didn’t have to worry about Zack’s future because he knows he’ll make the right decisions.
“Zack knows he can talk with Jimmy about anything. Jimmy has taught him to never quit something once it’s started and to never give up.”
But for Jimmy Tarver it has always been the showing rather than just telling, and he’s doing it every day — and day by day.