Will Middlebrooks tweets his way into Boston’s heart
The pain and anxiety of last week was felt throughout Boston and the entire nation. For the Red Sox, a team getting on a plane at the time of the Boston Marathon bombings, they watched in horror on the plane’s TV’s as the city they represent unraveled in turmoil. The Sox didn’t return to Boston until Friday of last week, but they “put on for their city” during their road trip, and Will Middlebrooks (@middlebrooks) took to Twitter to connect with Red Sox Nation. In doing so, it’s safe to say he found a new place in our hearts.
Here’s a selection of his tweets from the past week:
Now, I’m well aware that in the grand scheme of things, these are just tweets. But last week was a time when something like that was all it took to put a smile on someone’s face for a minute. Middlebrooks isn’t new in town, but it’s only been a year since the Sox brought him up from the minor leagues in May of 2012. You’d definitely expect this display of pride from someone like David Ortiz who’s basically a Boston institution himself. But Boston is the only city Middlebrooks has played professional baseball in, so it’s easy to see why the city has captured his heart the same way he’s captured ours.
If it’s any indication of what he means to this team and city, Middlebrooks caught one of the honorary first pitches in the team’s first game back at Fenway Saturday alongside Ortiz and Dustin Pedroia. And while the tweets were definitely a display of his love for Boston, Middlebrooks took it a step further and displayed that love with actions rather than words before Monday night’s Sox matchup against the Oakland A’s.
Middlebrooks was told Mike Chase, a high school soccer coach, was in attendance at the game. Chase was on Boylston Street Monday and when the blasts went off he helped his wife to safety inside a restaurant before returning to the chaos outside, according to ESPN. Chase offered up his belt and shoelaces to use as a tourniquet for a small boy whose leg had been injured. He then helped carry the boy to an ambulance.
So, Middlebrooks went looking for Chase at Fenway Park.
“I wanted to go over and shake his hand, thank him for being brave and sticking around to help people out,” Middlebrooks said, via ESPN.
“I want to try and meet as many people as I can who were involved,” he said. “We’ll see. Hopefully we can get some more people here, visit some people, see if we can put some smiles on those faces.”
The third baseman came into Monday’s game in the middle of a massive slump, but crushed it with a three-run homer in the fourth inning.
After all, Middlebrooks was due. What goes around comes around, and he had some seriously good karma headed his way. If we had any say in it, he wouldn’t be leaving the Red Sox organization any time soon, both for his on-field performance and off-field attitude. We’re just as proud to have him in the jersey as he is to wear it.
