Why a game of catch with Pujols was so meaningful

ST. LOUIS -- Dan Bryan stood in foul territory at Busch Stadium, wearing the glove and holding the ball he had recovered from the site where his son had died. Every day this year, Dan has used that glove and that ball to play a game of catch. It’s his way of honoring Ethan Bryan’s passion for baseball, of keeping his spirit alive, of sharing his story.

Many of these games of catch are with friends and relatives who have their own memories of Ethan, who was only 16 years old when he was killed in a car accident on his way home from baseball practice nearly two years ago. But on one scorching summer afternoon last month, when Dan, who lives an hour south of St. Louis in Bonne Terre, Mo., was invited to Busch to throw out a ceremonial first pitch before a Cardinals game, his catch partner was someone he had never met yet knew quite well.

“Are you kidding me?” Dan said as Albert Pujols came bounding out the dugout.

The two men -- two fathers -- slapped hands and hugged.

“It’s pretty amazing what you’re doing,” Pujols told Dan. “I appreciate you. Thank you for letting me be a part of your journey.”

Dan’s journey a project he named “Baseball Seams to Heal” -- has been well-documented. He has been profiled on NBC’s “Today Show” and ESPN among other outlets. On the day of the Pujols catch, he was featured on the front page of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. There is power to Dan’s pain and the way he has used this simple, relatable activity to rise above it, and it is only natural that media outlets want to share the story.

At MLB Network and MLB.com, we wanted not just to tell that story (in a feature that airs on the Network today) but advance it, to arrange a unique experience for Dan involving his favorite team. And so, for weeks, producers at the Network worked with representatives from the Cardinals to schedule Dan’s first pitch and a surprise game of catch.

Once Pujols, a father of five kids aged 5 to 25, was made aware of Dan’s story, he was an eager participant. But finding a date on the Cardinals’ home schedule that worked for the team, for the film crew and for Dan (who, in addition to organizing his project, works full-time as the city administrator in Desloge, Mo.) proved difficult.

Finally, producer Jed Tuminaro called Dan and pitched a date.

“June 24 works for us,” Tuminaro said. “Does that work for you?”

“I need to tell you something about that date,” Dan replied. “It’s Ethan’s birthday!”

So that’s how Dan wound up playing catch with a future Hall of Famer on the day his son would have turned 18.

“What’s your first memory of baseball as a young boy?” Dan asked Pujols as the two began tossing Ethan’s ball back and forth.

“Well, I was like about 5 or 6 years old, following my dad around,” Pujols said. “He used to play softball, so I used to take his glove and he used to give me ground balls and play catch with me between games. Really young. Started really young.”

“Ethan was the same,” Dan said. “He was about 4 or 5. I coached him as he grew up. But then I wanted him to find his own identity with a new coach and not be a coach’s son. Does that make sense?”

“Oh yeah,” Pujols said. “I feel sometimes they listen more to their coach than their dad.”

That’s how it is with our children. We will do anything to protect them, but they don’t belong only to us. They belong to a world that will shape them and teach them and, if we are fortunate, take care of them.

After West County High School’s intrasquad scrimmage on Sept. 16, 2020, Ethan, fresh off a two-run double, was driving on Highway 8 in St. Francois County with his teammate and best friend, Tycen Price, in the passenger seat. When the car in front of them slowed to make a left-hand turn on Harmon Road, Ethan swerved to the left to avoid rear-ending it. The front side off Ethan’s car struck the rear of the other car, then crashed head-on into a pickup truck traveling in the other direction.

Ethan was pronounced dead at the scene. Tycen survived.

For more than a year after Ethan’s death, Dan was sad, angry and insulated. Then he picked up a book sent to him by an author who, in an incredible coincidence, bears the name Ethan Bryan. “A Year of Playing Catch: What a Simple Daily Experiment Taught Me About Life” documented the author’s journey of interpersonal transformation. Dan read it around the holidays in 2021 and decided to devote 2022 to his own daily games of catch.

Dan invited Tycen out for his first catch on New Year’s Day. He has not missed a day since. As his story has attracted attention, he has used his Facebook page to schedule catches weeks in advance. Some folks have arranged to travel from other parts of the country to Bonne Terre to play catch with him.

When Dan plays catch, he finds it easier to open up to people.

“Before this, I was really a closed-off guy,” he told me. “But you know, I’ve opened my heart to everybody, and I think people may feel [during catch] that there’s no judgment, there’s no expectation. It’s just a couple people getting together and talking about whatever’s going on in their life, good or bad. We got away from that for a couple of years with the pandemic, and I think that’s a huge part of getting back together, communicating with people, bonding with people and making a connection.”

Dan has learned that the connection that comes from a game of catch is more than the ball meeting the glove. It is two human beings intertwined.

To “catch,” in traditional baseball terms, means “to take and hold.” But the verb can also mean “to hear clearly and comprehend.” Dan’s games of catch bring both definitions to life.

That’s what happened with Pujols.

“Ethan was really starting to grow into himself, you know?” Dan said to Pujols. “He was kind of a scrawnier little kid growing up. He started getting stronger, started growing. He was hitting second for the varsity team as a sophomore. … He was fun to watch. It was getting exciting.”

“There’s always that point where you start developing yourself,” Pujols replied. “You start getting stronger, start getting better. I’m sure that was right around that time for him.”

Dan won’t get to see what his son would have become on the ballfield. Yet all these months after his untimely death, Ethan is still creating memories for his dad through the sport.

The catch with Pujols, a legendary player on his last lap with the Cardinals, was certainly a standout.

“What an honor and privilege to be joined by such an amazing baseball player,” Dan wrote on his Facebook page a few days later. “Thank you Albert for honoring Ethan and just having the interest to be one of the 365 catch sessions here in 2022. Soak in all the moments this season and the times with your children in the next chapter of your life.”

For Dan, this chapter, this project, will close eventually. He’ll reach his goal of 365 days of catch, and he’s not entirely sure what the next chapter will look like.

He’s already learned and demonstrated and important lesson, though. The world won’t always take care of us and those we love. But if you put your heart out there, well, someone special might just be there to catch it.