On the recordJune 13, 2024
I thank the gentleman for yielding. It is special to be here tonight, and I thank my friend for calling us together to remember this day. To me, it is like it was yesterday. I got up that morning just like we all did, got ready, and went to practice. My situation was that I was hitting ground balls to Trent Kelly. I finished with Trent and went around and started hitting balls. I said to Scalise: ``I am coming at you.'' I remember I threw the ball up, and as soon as I hit it with the bat to Scalise, a shot went off. Little did I know that the shooter was probably 30 feet or 20 feet behind me. I did not know that. A shot went off, and Trent Kelly yelled: ``He has got a gun. Head for cover: When he said that, my instincts told me to get to the dugout. Fortunately for all of us, the dugouts were dugouts. They were dug into the ground, not like today where they are flat. I remember I ran to the dugout and jumped, and it was like jumping into a swimming pool with no water. I remember as I was in the air heading into the dugout, what went through my mind was: I am not surprised because of the anger we have up here. When I hit the dugout, I slid all the way on the concrete to the dugout and slid into the arms of two of my teammates, Jeff Flake and Mo Brooks. We three were in the corner, and as Brad said, this guy was firing. There were actually some shells going into the dugout. Two of the coaches, Larry Hardy and Donnie Watson, were in that dugout.…





