I don’t really know how to start this one. From the baseball side, we played a game in great spirit and after the events that would come to light later that day, I am truly thankful to the guys from ET for the laughs and great competition we had. We played ok, did enough to win and everyone chipped in at some point to help our cause. Mates, playing a game together, having fun, that is what our Saturday afternoons are about.
As we congratulated each other on a well fought win, the news broke that we had just lost one of our great mates.
A couple of days on, and it is still hard to understand.
Heagerty, Hegs, Heglar, The Tenner, Big Red, Hegsy, The Hammer, Our mate, Our brother.
Finding the words right now is a difficult as I expected, you were a year younger than me, yet I looked up to you. We had the same batting gloves back in U/14s, except mine were blue and yours were fluro pink. When we played pickup games of basketball with the guys we were always on the same team. Catching up when you were back in town brightened my day and my week. These seem like distant memories, but they are among the ones I will now treasure forever.
I’ve seen more mates than you know whose hearts are left broken. The emotional roller coaster of sadness, guilt, anger and the questions seems an endless circle right now. I wish you could have understood how many of us would have done anything for you at the drop of a hat. You only needed to reach out and I would have done anything for you.
Two mates gone in under a year. It is 2 too many. This has to stop.
It starts with what seems a pretty small question – R U OK?
It sounds simple, but if it was that easy this wouldn’t keep happening. You might see changes in people that lead you into this, you might not. But just please speak to people, reach out, it’s a two way street. If you aren’t ok, that is ok, everyone has dark times, there is help out there if you feel you can seek it out. If you feel you can’t speak to your friends just find anyone, a stranger at a pub, a call to a help line, anything has got to be better than nothing, or the worst. People are much kinder than we sometimes give them credit for. Talk to guys, listen to people, watch your mates, check in, look out for each other.
The GBC family is hurting. Our love and support goes out to Mia, Fletch and Harvey, John and Jill, and everyone else effected by this tragic news.
We will miss you now and forever Hegs. When I think about everything I get overcome with emotions. When someone asks how I’m doing - I’m honest, I am not ok. I am struggling, many of us are, but this is the time we need to be there for each other. I don’t know when it passes, I don’t know when I get the chance to say anything to you, even though I won’t get anything back. The disbelief is real, the hurt and pain is real. The appreciation I have for my mates and family right now is more than I can put into words.
Stay strong, hug a mate.
RIP #10
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We took a banged up line-up into a tough road trip against the reigning back to back premiers, and came out on the wrong end of a 9-8 result.
Truth be told, we probably didn’t deserve to win as the Red Sox were the better team on the day. I was proud of our guys for toughing the game out and coming back from a 6-1 deficit, and to those who played under duress, thanks for toughing out when we had the bare numbers.
Having said that we have work to do, and work together we will. Thanks to Greg Abroe for stepping in when we needed a 10th player late in the game, this is a bloke that always plays the game right.
Now, on to a MUCH more important subject. We tragically lost ANOTHER GBC brother on the weekend, a cheeky bastard that was a damn fine ballplayer and a bloody good mate.
It is almost unfathomable that this has happened again, and this has to stop. Right now, plenty of us are feeling guilt, confusion and above all else a painful sadness. The game we love helps us forge bonds with many, and over time these bonds remain whether you share the field or not.
When something like this happens, you feel like you could have done more, you could have done SOMETHING to help. How could we not know? Why didn’t he say something when we were chatting last week? How can things get that bad? So many questions.
We will never get all of the answers, but we HAVE TO do whatever we can to hopefully stop it happening again. So PLEASE, if you are feeling dark thoughts, TALK to someone. Talk to ME. Talk to your mates. Just PLEASE talk to someone. Start a conversation.
Love you #10, RIP mate.
Tigers