Nicely done: Drayton McLane and his Houston Astros raised some spirits recently.
The Houston Astros won their game against the Washington Nationals on Friday night, but earlier that morning they scored in an even bigger way.Posted by Alan at July 23, 2005 11:17 AMSeveral players, along with owner Drayton McLane and a half-dozen members of the Texas congressional delegation, lit up the faces of seriously wounded soldiers when they visited and hosted a barbecue at Washington's Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
"These are the heroes, these are the guys I feel privileged to meet," relief pitcher Brad Lidge said. "They were so optimistic about everything. You don't feel sorry for them at all because they won't let you."
The visit, during the Astros' four-game series against the Nationals this weekend, was McLane's idea. Reporters were not permitted to attend.
McLane sounded like a proud papa as he described the sight of his athletes eating hot dogs and hamburgers with soldiers their own age who are learning how to get by without arms and legs, or the lives they knew before the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"At first, they were apprehensive because these are soldiers who are badly injured," said McLane, who, visiting on his birthday, shared a surprise cake with a young soldier who lost most of one leg and all of the other. "But when they got here, they just lit up. It lifted my heart."
The Astros also hosted several soldiers from Walter Reed at each game and will visit the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md.