Hometown All-Star?
Everyone at the Children’s Center in Bethany loves J.T. Realmuto — and the feeling is mutual.
BETHANY — There are no Miami Marlins pennants tacked to the walls at The Children’s Center Rehabilitation Hospital. No posters or shirts or hats either.
You wouldn’t expect it 1,517 miles from Marlins Park.
But the Marlins have fans at the Bethany facility.
All because of J.T. Realmuto.
The former Carl Albert High standout now in his fifth big-league season with the Marlins has become a familiar face at The Children’s Center. Along with his wife, Lexi, he visits the hospital several times during the offseason, meeting patients and families, donating diapers and toys. Many around the hospital say the way he interacts with the kids borders on magical.
A patient who hadn’t spoken in two months talked to Realmuto for 30 minutes.
Perhaps there is something innate between the children and the 27-year-old who spent the first 10 days of his own life in intensive care.
Whatever the explanation, Realmuto has made fans out of doctors, nurses, therapists and just about anyone who he’s interacted with at the hospital. Now in midst of his best pro season — on Sunday, the catcher could be named an All-Star for the first time — anything he does on the field has become a hot topic of conversation.
“I need to tell you what J.T. did today,” Melissa Richey, the hospital’s director of communications and marketing, finds herself saying regularly.
The connection between Realmuto and The Children’s Center started with Richey, who also graduated from Carl Albert. Her parents knew his parents, and a couple years ago when she asked Dave and Margaret Realmuto if they thought J.T. might be interested in coming to the hospital, they put Richey in touch with him.
“What do think?” she asked.
“Absolutely,” he said. “I’d love to come out.”
Even though Realmuto never spent time at The Children’s Center, he was once a child in need of special care. He was born with Group B streptococcus infection, also known as Beta strep. The blood infection most often occurs in adults and older children where it does not cause significant problems, but in rare instances that it occurs in newborns, it can make them extremely sick.
It can even be fatal. The Real mutos had a son born before J.T. who had Beta strep. Three days after that baby was born, he died.
There were touch-andgo moments with J.T., but after a week and a half in intensive care, he was given a clean bill of health. Even though he doesn’t have conscious memories of that, his parents have told him the stories.
He understands, then, the fear and the pain that families at The Children’s Center are enduring, an intuition that’s obvious when he steps into a patient’s room now.
On his first visit to The Children’s Center— he stayed for a full two hours that day two years ago— he went into the room of a boy who’d been hit by a vehicle. It was a horrible accident. It caused traumatic injuries.
The boy andthe ballplayer talked for nearly half an hour. There was talk of the accident. There was a comparison of scars. But as they talked, a therapist silently stood to the side with tears streaming.
Richey, who was accompanying Realmuto during his visit, didn’t know all the details about all the kids, so she asked the therapist for some explanation.
“What am I missing?” Richey whispered.
“He hasn’t spoken in two months.” the therapist said of the boy. “This is huge.”
After they left the room, Richey explained the situation to Realmuto and his wife.
“You were able to do something we hadn’t been able to do yet,” she said. “That’s special.”
The connection was strong both ways. Now a member of the hospital’s honorary board, Realmuto reaches out to the hospital to schedule visits, not the other way around. He wants to be there. No wonder he’s turned so many at The Children’s Center into Marlins fans.
They admit, though, their allegiance will go wherever he goes, and he may well be playing elsewhere in the nottoo-distant future. Even though the Miami Herald reports the Marlins want to keep Realmuto, who entered Thursday hitting .306 with 38 RBI and 11 home runs, he is expected to be a hot commodity leading up to the trade deadline at the end of the month. The Marlins are in rebuilding mode after trading away many of their best players during the off season, and they may well command some significant assets in exchange for Realmuto.
His value may only increase if he’s named an All-Star.
Nowhere would news of his selection be cheered any louder than at the rehab hospital in Bethany.
“For us, gosh ... “Richey said with tears in her eyes, “it would be amazing. I know that’s such simple terms, but for somebody that’s given so much back to us, he deserves it. He deserves to be rewarded for all his hard work.
“And to know that he’s such a good guy, you root for him even more.”
Jenni Carlson: Jenni can be reached at 405-475-4125 or jcarlson@oklahoman.com. Like her at facebook.com/ JenniCarlsonOK, follow her at twitter.com/jennicarlson_ok or view her personality page at newsok.com/jennicarlson.