Mike Sweeney Helps Raise Funds For Family Of Slain Victim

Thu, 12 Feb 2009 11:30:00 +0000

Despite the fact that MLB’s Seattle Mariner Mike Sweeney has been dealing with health issues surrounding his own kids, he didn’t hesitate when asked by a student at his alma mater, Ontario High, if he would help organize a fundraiser for Michael Ortiz’s family. Michael was one of the school’s baseball players who had been among the nine killed in a Christmas Eve massacre in Covina.

“When I heard the story repeated to me; when they told me Michael valued himself as a student first and athlete second, like myself, and that he was a wonderful Catholic kid who lived his faith, it absolutely broke my heart,” Sweeney said. “When I held my 3-week-old baby in my hands all I could feel was his spine and ribs, he was shriveling away, below his birth weight of eight pounds. I didn’t really know what his disease was…I was a terrified father…I knew I was going through a crazy time, but someone had a heavier burden than me.”

Sweeny’s son Donovan had just undergone surgery for pyloric stenosis, a rare condition that stops food movement from the stomach to the small intestine.

More: http://www.looktothestars.org/news/2039-mike-sweeney-helps-raise-funds-for-family-of-slain-victim

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Mike Sweeney Helps Raise Funds For Family Of Slain Victim