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Big League Stew

Fri Aug 13 04:32pm EDT

Great news: One year later, little Luke Holko is doing well

By 'Duk

Listen up, Stewies, because I'm issuing some required reading for the weekend.

And it's definitely worth your time.

Over on MLB.com, Cleveland Indians beat writer Anthony Castrovince has written a great story about 5-year-old Luke Holko and his recovery after being hit by a ball at a minor league game last season.

As you might remember, the incident at the Mahoning Valley Scrappers game on Sept. 2, 2009 was a truly frightening one. Luke was sitting with his parents Chad (above, with Luke) and Nicole when he was hit directly in the head by a line drive from a Scrappers player named Ben Carlson. The impact fractured Luke's skull  and his brain immediately started to swell. Paramedics quickly jumped into action and Luke was taken to a hospital in Akron where doctors worked to save his life. His condition improved from critical to serious over the next few weeks, but it was uncertain if Luke would ever fully recover.

Now, almost a year later, Luke is doing as well as can be expected. He still walks with some unsteadiness, but he is back to talking and acting like a normal boy his age. He got to visit with the Indians earlier this year (as detailed in this other great piece by Fanhouse's Pat McManamon) and the Scrappers held a "Luke Holko Night" last weekend. Luke was the guest of honor, a special Luke baseball card was made up and given away to fans and Luke threw out the game's first pitch.

But perhaps the most amazing product of the entire story was the relationship that bloomed between the Holko family and Carlson after the freak occurrence brought them together. Castrovince spends a lot of time detailing how the 22-year-old ballplayer dealt with the complicated feelings of being in that position and it's a big part of why I'm telling you to go read the piece. Hearing that Luke has been able to fight through such a scary situation is an uplifting story and, really, your weekend will be all the better for it.

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