Inspiring young Tatis fans meets hero on a night neither will forget

SAN DIEGO -- Fernando Tatis Jr. has a penchant for rising to the occasion when the stakes are at their highest. Last Friday night at Petco Park was no exception.

Tatis was at the center of one of the more dramatic moments of this year’s postseason chase, delivering a walk-off double against the White Sox in the bottom of the 10th inning to keep the Padres marching toward a playoff berth.

It was the type of clutch performance Tatis makes look routine, and that Padres fans have come to expect from their All-Star. But for one young fan who had traveled all the way from the Dominican Republic to see his hero, it was the culmination of an incredible baseball journey that was once marred by tragedy, but now offers inspiration.

In the summer of 2019, Mayker “Mikey” De Jesus Martinez was an 8-year-old boy in love with baseball. His hero was Tatis, a Dominican rookie playing in San Diego, and his dream was to follow in Tatis’ footsteps to MLB stardom.

“He’s always been his hero,” said Mikey’s mother, Nicaury Martinez, about Tatis. “And every time Mikey has his birthday, everything is ‘Tatis, Tatis, Tatis.’”

On a July day that began like any other in the summers of his childhood in Puerto Plata, D.R., Mikey was doing what he loved to do most: playing baseball. He was at practice, hitting from the left side of the plate and playing first base in the field -- when he wasn’t pitching, that is.

“After practice, I picked up my glove and got on my bike,” Mikey said through an interpreter. “And then after I left the field, I was riding past an alley where I saw a truck that was going really fast.”

It was too late to maneuver away from the rapidly approaching truck, and Mikey’s bicycle didn’t have brakes. The driver of the truck sped on and didn’t see the boy in time.

Mikey heard screams from on-lookers as they implored the truck driver to stop. A split-second later, Mikey was underneath the massive vehicle, his right leg and left arm crushed.

“It was a six-wheel concrete truck,” said his father, Edwin De Jesus Lopez. “It was like a bulldozer.”

Mikey was transported to a hospital in Santiago, about 45 miles south of Puerto Plata, and the initial prognosis was dire.

“Every time I would see the doctors, they were saying that it wasn’t good news,” Nicaury said. “They were saying that Mikey was not going to survive.”

The doctors kept Mikey in a coma for 15 days, a span over which they performed several surgical procedures. On the fourth day, they observed that blood wasn’t circulating in his right leg from the knee down.

Eight days later, that portion of the leg was amputated.

On Day 16, Mikey woke up. He remembered nothing of the accident, and he had even lost memories from about two months leading up to it as a result of his head injuries.

Shortly after he realized he had lost most of his right leg, Mikey suffered a hematoma -- localized bleeding outside of blood vessels -- on his skull.

More surgeries followed, and in total, Mikey was in the hospital for 45 days before being discharged. After that, he had to return to the hospital on a frequent basis for the next 11 months.

It took eight of those months to reconstruct his left arm, for which several skin grafts were done and a steel rod was inserted from the elbow to the hand for stabilization.

Over that time, Mikey suffered from not only the physical pain that resulted from the accident, but the mental anguish of it all -- most notably, the loss of his leg. And he was having to endure it all at the age of 8.

One thought that never crossed his mind, however, was the notion that he’d never play baseball again.

“If others can do it,” he thought, “why can’t I?”

‘I just want to play baseball’

Mikey’s rehabilitation was a long and arduous process. He had to wear a brace on what was left of his right leg, he had to take several medications, and he had to have a cream applied regularly to ensure his wounds wouldn’t get infected.

As he was shuttled back and forth between home and the hospital for almost a year, Mikey was clamoring to claim as much normalcy as possible.

At the top of the list was baseball.

“The rehab plan was in process,” Nicaury said. “And one day, he told me, ‘Hey, I just want to play baseball.’”

Nicaury was understandably hesitant to let her son get back onto a baseball field with one leg and a disfigured left arm.

“No,” Nicaury said as she shook her head, able to laugh about it now. “After we got out of the hospital, I was always checking on Mikey to make sure he was OK and not having any problems. I wasn’t going to let him play baseball.”

Mikey wasn’t making things easy for his mom. Upon getting out of a wheelchair four months into his rehab, he began using crutches. Before long, he had broken several.

“With the crutches, he was just so fast,” Nicaury said. “He was running everywhere with the crutches. I was very anxious.”

Then, he picked up a glove and a bat.

“I kept saying, ‘No, Mikey!’” Nicaury remembers. “But he just kept saying, ‘Mom, I really want to play!’”

So Nicaury took Mikey in to see what the doctor had to say. To her dismay, the doctor was all for it since it would give Mikey a chance to develop dexterity around his disability.

Mikey had been cleared for all baseball activities, and soon thereafter, he was back on the field.

A video of him playing ball on crutches went viral on social media, garnering nearly six million views. One prominent viewer was deeply touched by the boy’s determination and the inspiration he had become to so many others.

“I was just really admiring the dedication that he has and his love for the game,” Tatis said of Mikey. “Just the passion he has to go through his business while battling what he has through his life.”

Tatis wanted to show Mikey support but didn’t know how to, at first. His mother suggested an encouraging video message, so he prepared one. It was played during an appearance Mikey and his family made on a Dominican television talk show, which had booked him after his viral moment.

Mikey was visibly overwhelmed when he saw Tatis’ face on the screen. He teared up before turning and hugging his mother. He buried his face into Nicaury’s side as he continued to listen to the personal message from his baseball hero.

In his first plate appearance after seeing Tatis’ video, Mikey doubled, making his way around first base and into second with incredible speed for a boy on crutches.

It wouldn’t be the only time a double connected him with Tatis in a special way.

‘I wish everyone could have this experience’

Mikey has continued to play baseball since the accident, and he’s currently playing above the Little League level at age 13, now with the help of a prosthetic leg.

Earlier this year, MLB contacted Mikey’s family in the hopes that they would be available to fly to San Diego so that Mikey could meet Tatis in person.

Last Friday, it all came together when Mikey: his mother; his father, Edwin, and his stepmother, Debbie, stepped onto the field at Petco Park before the Padres opened a weekend series against the White Sox.

A huge smile lit Mikey’s face as he took in the majesty of his surroundings. This was a far cry from the sandlots he played on back home.

As he walked with his prosthetic right leg along the warning track near the Padres’ dugout, Mikey was greeted by none other than Manny Machado, San Diego’s superstar third baseman.

Machado was just the first of many players who made their way over to Mikey. The steady procession included Jurickson Profar, Jackson Merrill, Dylan Cease, Luis Arraez, Ha-Seong Kim, David Peralta and Robert Suarez.

A few minutes later, the man Mikey was most eager to meet walked over to him.

Tatis greeted Mikey with a big hug. Before he knew it, Mikey was hanging out around the batting cage with Tatis, Machado and Profar as the Padres began taking batting practice.

As baseballs were being driven all over the ballpark during BP, Mikey was given some of the batting gloves used to hit them -- Profar’s, as well as others, including a pair from Tatis.

Before long, the Tatis jersey Mikey was wearing had been signed by the man himself, as well as several other Padres stars. Mikey also had a baseball signed by nearly all the Padres players, and he even came away with a pair of autographed bats, including one from Tatis.

“It was very emotional for me,” Mikey said. “He’s one of my heroes, and he gave me a bat. … I wish everyone could have this experience.”

Tatis said it was a privilege to meet Mikey in person, even indicating that the youngster’s determination and resolve to continue playing the game he loves helps him when he’s facing his own obstacles at the Major League level -- the most recent being a stress reaction in his right leg that sidelined him for more than two months.

As he stood next to a boy whose right leg was missing, he marveled at the inspiration that Mikey has become to so many people.

“We have all these moments of injury,” Tatis said. “And seeing him playing the game and the way he did it, you can see the passion and the genuine love that he shows for the game and how brave he is for all of that. I just want to be a small part of it.”

So much had already happened on this special day for Mikey, and yet it was far from over.

‘Get a hit for me’

Baseball is different from other team sports in that you don’t get to choose who gets the ball when the game is on the line. You can’t send your best hitter to the plate in the biggest moment if it isn’t their turn in the batting order.

So what took place last Friday night at Petco Park was special not only because of the outcome, but because of how the contest between the Padres and White Sox got there.

Early on, it was a duel between All-Star left-hander Garrett Crochet and the pitcher who threw the first no-hitter in Padres history, Joe Musgrove.

Mikey’s eyes, naturally, were trained on San Diego’s right fielder. Each time Tatis came to the plate, Mikey had his phone ready to capture the moment on video.

But Tatis’ first three plate appearances all ended in the same disappointing way: a strikeout.

“What’s going on with Tatis?” asked Mikey’s dad, Edwin. “He keeps missing that outside pitch.”

In his fourth trip to the plate, Tatis put the ball in play, but it resulted in a groundout to shortstop.

With the Padres ahead, 2-0, and the game headed to the eighth inning, the chances of Tatis being able to fulfill a pregame wish of Mikey’s were fading fast.

“Get a hit for me,” Mikey had said to his hero before the game.

With the White Sox down to their final out in the ninth inning, Chicago’s Lenyn Sosa hit a game-tying two-run homer. For most of the Friar Faithful, the stunning home run was reason for despair, but for Mikey, there was renewed hope that he would get to see Tatis hit again.

A perfect ending

As Tatis walked toward home plate to lead off the bottom of the 10th, his 0-for-4, three-strikeout line on the evening tempered the home crowd’s hopes somewhat, even despite his status as one of the game’s premier players.

Brandon Lockridge, pinch-running for Arraez as the automatic runner, took his lead away from second base as Tatis stepped into the batter’s box.

After fooling Tatis with a slider, reliever Justin Anderson went right back to it, but this time he left it over the plate. Tatis lined it into the right-center-field gap for a game-winning double, sending the Petco Park crowd into a frenzy. But for one special guest among the 45,000-plus in the ballpark, what had just transpired was more than a walk-off win for the Padres.

It was the perfect end to a perfect day.

“I asked him to get a hit for me,” Mikey said. “And he did.”

As he captured Tatis' second career walk-off hit on his phone, Mikey was lifted onto the shoulders of his father. And as they watched the sky above the ballpark light up with postgame fireworks to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Night, Edwin tried to find words to describe how he was feeling at the conclusion of such a surreal occasion.

Because in seeing his son have a dream fulfilled after all that he had been through, Edwin had a dream of his own come true, as well.

“Everything has a purpose,” Edwin said between exploding fireworks. “There’s a reason for everything. I see that tonight.”