Kragthorpe: Ute motivator, baseball ?Miracle,? memorial ace are favorite stories

Jerry Sloan retired and Greg Ostertag came out of retirement. Deron Williams and Mehmet Okur were traded. Jordan Wynn was injured and Jake Heaps transferred.

The big stories just kept coming, as they always do. Yet when I look back every year, the breaking stories are usually not the ones that stick with me. So these are my favorite stories of 2011:

?The Ute motivator

Jay Rudd would have found a way to join Utah?s football team in El Paso, Texas, for the Sun Bowl, I?m sure. The Utes? season was not the same without Rudd, who died in March after a lengthy illness at age 37. Born with Down syndrome, he was incurably upbeat, as reflected in the short speeches he would deliver to the team after Thursday practices.

The relationship that coach Kyle Whittingham developed with Rudd said a lot about each of them, while illustrating how much a developmentally disabled person could contribute, all because Whittingham treated him as capable and dependable.

Rudd loved being around the Utes. He would have addressed the Utes in El Paso, led the team onto the field and celebrated the victory over Georgia Tech ? and probably taken some credit for it.

? The baseball ?Miracle?

The Miracle League game was one of those events that had an obligatory feel, as an auxiliary part of the Triple-A All-Star Game festivities at Spring Mobile Ballpark. It turned into the best hour of the summer for me.

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The patients from the Shriners Hospitals for Children used plastic bats to take whacks at rubber balls, tossed slowly from a few feet away. Most of them used motorized chairs to make their way the around the bases. It was an emotional experience, simply because the children were having so much fun.

?These kids don?t need our pity or us to feel sorry for them,? said Omaha?s Clint Robinson, one of the players who was assigned to act as a buddy, standing with a boy or girl (ages 4-15) in the field and escorting the child around the bases.

Participation was pretty much mandatory for the All-Stars, but they may have benefited the most.

? The memorable ace

Brett Lazar and four other friends of Rick Crankshaw were playing a round in memory of him at Mountain Dell Golf Course in October, carrying a picture of him and acting out how he would play certain shots.

So as Lazar stood on the Lake Course?s No. 9 tee, his teammates in the scramble format were invoking help. ?We really need one, Rick,? one of them said.

Imagine the response when Lazar delivered a hole-in-one. ?I?m not a real religious person,? Bob Haywood said later, but it was like Rick was there. I don?t know how to explain it.?

My story emerged from a simple, special request. Lazar asked if this version of the standard hole-in-one report could be published. Here it is:

Next Page ?

Source: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/sports/53216955-77/lazar-stories-miracle-rick.html.csp

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