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Stealing home: a rare glimpse of baseball and family gave U.S. soldiers in Iraq something to hold on to

Sporting News, The, July 1, 2005 by Joe Buck

I recently had one of the most exhilarating nights of my broadcast career. As part of our Red Sox-Cardinals coverage on FOX Sports Midwest, we had a live satellite feed from Camp Speicher military base in Tikrit, Iraq.

In case you forgot, Wolf Blitzer told us years ago that Tikrit is the hometown of Saddam Hussein. Some of the soldiers stationed there are in the 1035th Maintenance Company of the Missouri National Guard. What made this night special was that we were able to talk live with the young men and women during the game. There were a ton of Cardinals fans and at least one Red Sox fan. To close the circle, I had a laptop in front of me that I used to receive e-mails from family and friends who wanted to send messages to loved ones watching the game from across the world.

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The broadcast centered on that interleague game, but baseball was only part of the bigger picture. There were no politics involved in the messages back and forth, just mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, sending their love and blessings.

One e-mail caught my eye about the fifth inning. It was from a woman named Joni Wanner, who was at home watching the game while her husband, Bob, and three of her six children watched at Busch Stadium. One of her other three kids was watching the game as well--in Iraq. The message she sent was simple. It said that her boy Bob was a great son, the pride of the family and a wonderful young man whom she missed dearly and prayed for every day.

About 15 seconds after I finished reading that e-mail on the air, our cameras found a man and three children in the upper deck holding up a sign that read, "We love Sgt. Bobby Wanner--Go 1035th." Taking a shot in the dark, I asked during the commercial break whether Bobby happened to be in the room at Camp Speicher in Iraq where our camera was stationed. When I said his name, a hand went up from the back of the pack of soldiers crowded around their television and in front of our camera. When we came back from the break, a mother in Affton, Mo., was able to see her son, and the son saw his father and sisters on television holding up a sign that told him he was loved and missed at home. We were all proud to be a part of that unique family reunion. That night we all got a chance to say thanks to kids serving their country in a land where words such as Yankees and Rangers take on different meanings.

As a parent, I cannot imagine what it would be like to send a child off to war. I also cannot imagine what it would be like to be a 20-something in Iraq, dodging danger every day, and see my hometown team playing the world champs in my hometown baseball stadium. The Red Sox won that night behind a great pitching performance from David Wells, but it hardly mattered. Hopefully, for that short time in the wee hours of the Iraqi morning, those brave men and women got a break from the daily grind. In a way, I hope they were transported back to a place where who wins and who loses isn't such a dangerous and serious proposition.

Stealing home: a rare glimpse of baseball and family gave U.S. soldiers in Iraq something to hold on to

Sporting News, The, July 1, 2005 by Joe Buck

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