HOMER, Mich. -- The Homer baseball team is playing in the first ever Memorial Day Heart Classic, Thursday at Comerica Park against Grosse Point Woods University Liggett for a very special cause.
Homer head coach, Scott Salow, said the game was a long-time coming. "You know, I've really had the idea for a number of years and so reached out to Dan over at Liggett who had a similar experience, maybe a little scarier than mine and reached out to him and January. He has some contacts there at the Tigers and just threw it out there. I said it was a dream and a couple months later he made it happen. So again I appreciate, Dan and the Ilitch family and the Tigers for pulling this off and certainly all the proceeds to be donated to the American Heart Association means a lot to myself, my family and certainly Dan and his family."
Salow is a two-time state champion coach at Homer and had a double-bypass surgery in 2009, setting a record at the time for the youngest patient to undergo that surgery at the hospital he attended. Unversity Liggett's coach also has had a heart scare, when he had a serious heart attack in 2011. One of the many similarities between these two schools.
“It feels great because our coach had heart problems and their coach had heart problems, but put our schools together and it’s just another common thing we had for the game and it’s a cool experience," senior Cody Drumm-Turner said.
Senior Caleb Chamerlain agreed. “We have a lot in common with our coaching staff as well as baseball related, so it’ll be a great experience and it’ll be a lot of fun to go head to head with him. They’re a great team.”
Two great teams who are celebrating their success with some pretty cool experiences for their players.
“You know, part of our baseball family, I mean part of playing baseball here is trying to build on those experiences, so things that we can do like this," coach Salow said. "Going to Florida we’ve done three times now, playing at Michigan this year and now at Comerica is the icing on the cake."
The game is set for Thursday at 7pm at Comerica Park in Detroit.
