by Jeffrey Marx | LSU Sports
Photo Credit: Steve Franz, LSU Athletics Staff Photographer
Jeffrey Marx is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, New York Times best-selling author and popular keynote speaker. In addition to his writing and speaking, Marx is co-founder and director of the non-profit Wendy Marx Foundation for Organ Donor Awareness (established in 1990). The foundation is named for his sister, a liver transplant recipient who parlayed her own health challenges into a powerful message of hope for others. Wendy died, at the age of 36, in 2003. But Jeffrey Marx and the Wendy Marx Foundation will always continue her important work.
If baseball romantics have it just right, if the start of their season is indeed a poetic symbol of renewal and even rebirth, then the sport has a new poster child. That is what happens when you are a college baseball coach and you choose to donate the Gift of Life, in this case a kidney, to one of your players. You unwittingly become a poster child not only for all that is good in your sport, but also for a cause - organ donor awareness - that desperately needs help.
Wake Forest baseball coach Tom Walter was just starting to learn about all this Friday evening when he walked - somewhat gingerly - into Alex Box Stadium for the start of the 2011 season. After all, only 11 days had passed since doctors removed a kidney that had always been good to him and transplanted it into the body of freshman outfielder Kevin Jordan, who was in need due to a rare autoimmune disorder called ANCA vasculitis.
The story quickly became national news with the 42-year-old Walter rightly being celebrated for his remarkable selflessness and generosity. "Giving One for the Team," declares a headline in Sports Illustrated.
Much to his credit, LSU baseball coach Paul Mainieri eagerly shared the bright spotlight of the season opener with both Walter and his new cause. During pregame ceremonies, Alexandria native and recording artist David St. Romain sang one of his favorite originals - "That's Love" - as a tribute to Walter. And representatives of the Louisiana Organ Procurement Agency offered fans information about becoming an organ donor.
Meanwhile, the national waiting list of people who need an organ transplant is longer than ever before. At the same time a school-record crowd of 10,055 high-energy fans was cheering the opening pitch on a beautiful evening in Baton Rouge, 110,504 people in the United States were waiting for a transplant of some kind. Each day in our nation, 19 of those people die waiting, due simply to the shortage of donors.
The season opener quickly turned into a rout for LSU. The final score was 15-4. But the most important statistics had nothing to do with hits and runs.
Thanks to a poster child coaching in one dugout and an equally caring man coaching in the other, the only truly enduring statistics could be measured in two categories that are much broader and more difficult to define: Lives touched. Hope gained.
If baseball romantics have it just right, if the start of their season is indeed a poetic symbol of renewal and even rebirth, then the sport has a new poster child. That is what happens when you are a college baseball coach and you choose to donate the Gift of Life, in this case a kidney, to one of your players. You unwittingly become a poster child not only for all that is good in your sport, but also for a cause - organ donor awareness - that desperately needs help.
Wake Forest baseball coach Tom Walter was just starting to learn about all this Friday evening when he walked - somewhat gingerly - into Alex Box Stadium for the start of the 2011 season. After all, only 11 days had passed since doctors removed a kidney that had always been good to him and transplanted it into the body of freshman outfielder Kevin Jordan, who was in need due to a rare autoimmune disorder called ANCA vasculitis.
The story quickly became national news with the 42-year-old Walter rightly being celebrated for his remarkable selflessness and generosity. "Giving One for the Team," declares a headline in Sports Illustrated.
Much to his credit, LSU baseball coach Paul Mainieri eagerly shared the bright spotlight of the season opener with both Walter and his new cause. During pregame ceremonies, Alexandria native and recording artist David St. Romain sang one of his favorite originals - "That's Love" - as a tribute to Walter. And representatives of the Louisiana Organ Procurement Agency offered fans information about becoming an organ donor.
Meanwhile, the national waiting list of people who need an organ transplant is longer than ever before. At the same time a school-record crowd of 10,055 high-energy fans was cheering the opening pitch on a beautiful evening in Baton Rouge, 110,504 people in the United States were waiting for a transplant of some kind. Each day in our nation, 19 of those people die waiting, due simply to the shortage of donors.
The season opener quickly turned into a rout for LSU. The final score was 15-4. But the most important statistics had nothing to do with hits and runs.
Thanks to a poster child coaching in one dugout and an equally caring man coaching in the other, the only truly enduring statistics could be measured in two categories that are much broader and more difficult to define: Lives touched. Hope gained.
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