Emotionally Spent

We had our "This One's For You" telecast for our U.S. military tonight. I look forward to this show every year. Not a single telecast throughout the season has as many elements in it as this show does. There are "shout outs" from the troops in Afghanistan, 4-"This One's For You" keyable elements, live interviews between soldiers in Afghanistan and their spouses, interviews in the booth, Twitter messages throughout the telecast and so on. We even had a live marriage proposal in the pre-game show. The Cardinals had a girlfriend of a soldier serving in Afghanistan throw out the first pitch. Little did this woman know but her boyfriend (who she thought was still overseas) caught the pitch at home plate. When he took off the catcher's mask and she saw him it created one of the most remarkable moments ever in Cardinals baseball television. Her look of utter surprise and then unbelievable happiness was priceless. If you didn't tear up at that moment you don't have a heart. In fact, there was at least a half a dozen times throughout the show that I choked up with a huge lump in my throat. There was a beautiful little girl holding up a sign that said half of my heart(love) is deployed. Soldiers in Afghanistan recognizing family in the stands and pointing to the TV monitor with huge smiles on their faces was wonderful to witness. As I stated in yesterday's blog, I was mentally spent after that huge offensive game. Tonight I am emotionally spent.