News
Lesson of a lifetime for Hill, two boys
Hitting tutorial turns into memories for everyone involved
By Jordan Bastian / MLB.com
11/29/09 10:30 AM EST
TORONTO -- Amil Shapka did not know what to expect. All he wanted to do was provide his two young boys with a baseball experience they would always remember: a hitting lesson with Blue Jays second baseman Aaron Hill.Even now, recalling that day his sons spent with Hill in August, Shapka has a hard time believing how much everything exceeded all possible expectations. With the holiday season under way, Shapka knows his boys, Jonathan and Tanis, already received the gift of a lifetime.
"It was like a baseball Christmas," Shapka said.
The Blue Jays, in conjunction with the Jays Care Foundation, held a live charity auction during a radio broadcast on Rogers Sportsnet in June, offering the hitting lesson with Hill as one of the items. Shapka -- a doctor from St. Paul, Alberta -- posted the winning bid of $5,000, with all the proceeds from the auction being used to support Jays Care.
The foundation only expected Hill to spend a brief amount of time with Jonathan and Tanis before a game against the Yankees on Aug. 5, and Shapka did not expect much more than that either. Hill wound up spending more than two hours with the family, showing them the clubhouse and taking them onto the field to watch batting practice long after giving them some hitting tips.
Hill, who became a new dad himself with the birth of his daughter in September, said he did not think twice about spending extra time with the Shapka family.
"That was real. It really was. It was just so true," Hill said. "Obviously, any time you bring a smile to anyone's face is fulfilling, but especially for those two kids. They were just so well-raised. Their father was amazing. Just seeing their reactions and how much fun they had, it was the thrill of a lifetime.
"It was neat, because it's every kid's dream to be able to do that, and they were just a wonderful family. I was definitely humbled to be a part of that. It was a special thing."
The 15-year-old Jonathan, who spends much of his spare time playing baseball back home, and the 12-year-old Tanis, who has Down syndrome, were both overwhelmed by the whole experience. They met many of Toronto's players, received multiple autographs and jerseys with their name on the back and were given a few pairs of Hill's batting gloves.
Shapka could not believe the generosity that came their way.
"It's beyond words," Shapka said. "As a parent, I was expecting a very organized, clinical kind of experience. Stand here. Take a picture here. Shuffle over here. Then out-the-side-door kind of thing. It was the complete opposite. Aaron took those kids into his heart.
"If you've got baseball running through your veins, it was crazy. It was great."
Not even the Jays Care Foundation expected so much from Hill.
"It was supposed to be a 20-minute hitting lesson," said Danielle Silverstein, the executive director of Jays Care. "Aaron spent two hours with them. He had them in the batting cage, he had them in the clubhouse, he had them stay for batting practice. They just had a blast, and Aaron really did as well. It was a really touching time.
"The little guy said, 'Thank you. Thank you, Aaron. This is my dream come true.' Aaron said, 'This is my dream, too.'"
Shapka said it took time for things to completely sink in for his sons.
After the family returned to St. Paul -- a community of about 5,000 people -- the boys began to realize how special the experience was after seeing television reports on a handful of national sports broadcasts. That's when calls and text messages began to stream in from family and friends all across Canada.
"We had people from across Western Canada going, 'Hey, we saw you on TV,'" Shapka said. "Once they saw themselves on the TV, it kind of really made the thing real. They've still got a buzz from that."
Three times a week during the summer, Shapka said his son, Jonathan, spend four hours commuting back and forth to baseball practices, with tournaments on the weekends. It is a tough schedule made necessary by their small-town location, but Shapka said meeting Hill helped show the benefits of dedication and hard work.
"Just being there and seeing these guys are real," Shapka said, "I think that has kind of inspired him to realize that these are just everyday guys who work hard. Like Aaron told him, 'Chase your dream and go after it. I think it just made all the possibilities real for him.'"
Shapka and his boys weren't the only ones who walked away from the experience with a smile.
"It was more fulfilling than I thought it was going to be," Hill said. "What stood out for me was just watching the father hug them and kiss his boys. I think that was pretty neat. I can picture it now. He would pick his youngest son up and hug him and kiss him, and it was just beautiful."
Jordan Bastian is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
