We got to go to the World Series. I expected it would be an amazing experience, but thanks to Progressive Field, Albert Almora, Jr., and Kyle Schwarber, our experience was life changing. (Click images to see larger version.)

Because of the generosity of an amazing friend of mine since high school, Kathryn, my son and I had the opportunity to go to Cleveland to see game 6 between the Cubs and the Indians. This is a shot of us from our seats.

What REALLY surprised me, though, was when we entered Progressive to watch batting practice, they let the fans go right down behind the dugout. The header picture above is of my son, Trey, standing behind the dugout and realizing we were at the WORLD SERIES. Below is a shot of us together by the dugout.

I was in awe as the Cubs came out for batting practice. I was pointing out all the players I recognized – Kris Bryant, Addison Russell, Javy Baez, Grandpa David Ross, and they just kept coming. I got some great shots of them stretching out and a few cool shots of them hitting. My son was getting a little restless – he wanted to get to our seats. Then, something amazing happened.

My son was next to me, and I was trying to point out more of what was going on around us, when a guy in a Cubs jersey walked up to the dugout and pointed… AT ME. He made sure I was paying attention, pointed at my son, and threw a baseball at us. I was so in awe I totally missed it.

One of the Indians’ crowd control people walked up and picked up the baseball, and all of the great Cubs fans around me let him know the ball was meant for my son. Everyone wanted a picture of Trey and his baseball, or a picture with Trey and his baseball, and one lady even asked to look at the ball so she could take a picture and send it to her kids who couldn’t be there. My son was a little celebrity, and he was grinning from ear to ear. The player disappeared into the dugout, and I started asking all the fans around who that was. I was told it was Albert Almora, Jr. – one of the Chicago Cubs.

My son wanted to thank him, but all we had were the paper printouts of our tickets. We were in the stadium already, so we didn’t really need them anymore. I ripped off a section and started writing a quick thank you and explanation of what this meant to us.

I then handed the paper to Trey, and I told him to write whatever he wanted to say to Mr. Almora. He wrote it up and I told him to sign it so that when Trey became famous, Mr. Almora would have his signature. He signed the paper and we laughed. Then I realized I had NO idea how I was going to get this thank you to one of THE CUBS. I asked the nearby usher, and he laughed and said that they’re not even allowed back there. I looked around trying to figure something out, then gave up and started taking pictures again.

Kyle Schwarber came literally a few yards away from us, so I started taking burst shots of him with my iPhone. As I was taking the pictures, I noticed something:

Mr. Schwarber was waving off the other nearby fans and was pointing… at ME. I’m glad I have proof, I’m not sure I would have believed it otherwise. I put my phone down, and he threw me another baseball for my son. I was speechless. He then looked around for other people to throw baseballs to. After the initial shock, we remembered we already had a baseball and we didn’t want to be greedy. I kept yelling, “Kyle!” and tried to throw the ball back to him. I can only imagine what he thought I was doing, but he completely ignored me. (Hundreds of people were yelling Kyle – what did I expect?) He finished throwing balls and ducked into the dugout.

As nearby Cubs fans were telling me it was OK to have two balls, that they were special for my son, Trey grabbed the ball out of my hands and turned around and handed it to the lady whose kids couldn’t be at the game. “Here, give this to your kids.” I was speechless, and so was everyone around us. The lady got our name and address to thank my son later and was practically crying. Fans all around were telling me how awesome my son was, and how he was going to be the lucky charm that helps us win the World Series. I was fighting hard to hold back tears.

I didn’t get a picture of the Kyle Schwarber ball, it all happened so fast. But I at least had the picture of us with my son holding the Almora, Jr. ball from earlier.

We then headed up to our seats. As we were sitting there and I was processing everything, my son said, “Dad, God did something to my heart at that moment.” Not wanting to assume and wondering what he meant, I asked. He explained that he couldn’t really put it in words, but giving that ball to that lady was special.

I couldn’t agree more.

If anyone knows how to let Mr. Almora and Mr. Schwarber know about what they did for me and my son, I’d love to let them know. I’m sure when they toss balls out to fans they never know what happened, and I want them to know that it meant something to this 9 year old and his father.

By the way, the Cubs won the game and went on to win the World Series!