"It was perfect because we've always been baseball," Christopher Merry said as he sat for a moment with a cherished memory. The game for which he developed an insatiable passion at a young age while watching the Atlanta Braves and Chicago Cubs on the national superstation broadcasts alongside his great grandmother is more than a pastime to him now. It is at once an unspoken member of the Merry family, a driving force in the culture of the household, and the clock by which much of the annual calendar is set.

Christopher, now a data engineer for Major League Baseball, readily recalls a childhood of makeshift baseballs and make-believe ninth innings in the Wrigley Field of his own mind. His is a story as teeming with Americana as a Norman Rockwell masterpiece, except that it's not. A child of a single mother who could scarcely afford an actual baseball, Christopher's story is one of his relationship to the game he loves and what it has meant in his life and that of his family. His is a story of what the game can be for so many: a sanctuary, a refuge, a purpose, a passion.

He talks about the game with joy, from the brief bio on his LinkedIn profile that describes getting paid for a hobby to the fantasy league that features himself, a dozen coworkers, and a 15-year-old boy who has found his own zest for baseball as well as a love for a particular NAIA program 2,318 miles away from the tiny town of Orofino, Idaho.

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

As residents of Orofino, the drive to Lewiston some 45 minutes away is commonplace. The home of Lewis-Clark State College, Lewiston serves as a commercial hub for the Pacific Northwest town. It also serves as the home of the NAIA World Series, an event that largely takes over Lewiston for some three weeks each year. In 2016, Christopher saw an opportunity to help foster the budding affection the game had found in the heart of his son, Reese.

"Over the years I had attended a few NAIA World Series games, but not many. That year I saw an advertisement for a free kids' clinic. I took Reese," Christopher recalled.

"It was like a World Series camp where all the teams had a few players. Faulkner was the one team that I liked more than the others," Reese remembered.
Reese is quiet, unassuming, a truth that is evident in even the briefest interactions with him. As such, Christopher took notice when the nine-year-old boy returned from the clinic with a newfound friend.

"That's when he met Ivan Pelaez.  I'm not sure what attracted Reese to Ivan, but he talked about him after the clinic," Christopher said. "That year my alma mater, Bellevue University, had also made it to Lewiston, so we decided to attend a few games. While at one of the games, we were waiting in line at a food truck when Reese got excited. Standing in front of us was Ivan. I don't remember how the conversation got started, but somehow a hat was promised if Reese was there after the final game."

Reese wanted to see Ivan, wanted to cheer for Faulkner and, mostly, wanted that hat. So the family made it a point to attend every Faulkner game for the duration of the tournament. From Saturday, May 28 through Friday, June 3, the Faulkner played six contests at Harris Field in Lewiston with the run culminating in a 12-11 loss to Lewis-Clark State in the national championship game. Along for the ride was a hopeful and committed nine-year-old from Orofino, Idaho.

"He was playing on a team and he told them that he wasn't going to be at one of the games. It was getting toward the end of the season, so it was one of those where it mattered. The coach wasn't really happy," Christopher said of his son's commitment to his new favorite team. "The assistant coach gave him a lecture about responsibility and being where he needed to be. He just kind of felt like that was where he needed to be. It was something important to him. He actually got benched for a game for going."

Take Me Out to the Crowd

Maybe it was destiny or fate or providence or serendipity. Maybe it was just one of those things that only happens in baseball. As Reese forged ahead as a declared Faulkner fan, two other schools of significance to the family also made their way through the jam-packed field.

"As it turned out, the last three teams standing were Bellevue, Faulkner, and LCSC, which is where Reese's mom, Lynette Dobson, went to school. That was a fun rivalry year," Christopher said. "Lynette wasn't the biggest baseball fan, but she would go with us and she would kind of humor us a little bit. Once our three teams were there, it got to be a little bit more of kind of taking jabs at each other. It was a fun family rivalry. We each kind of thought our team was going to win it. We all went for those last few games. Our daughter also was there with us. It was a fun family thing. It was perfect because we've always been baseball. It brought us all together and it was just fun."

The final game saw Patrick McCarthy's Faulkner Eagles and Lewis-Clark State combine for 11 home runs. The hosting Warriors carried a 12-8 lead into the bottom of the ninth when Faulkner mounted one last rally. After plating a run, the Eagles got a single from Dario Polanco to cut it to 12-11. Onix Martinez went from first to third on the hit but was called out in a bang-bang play at third base to end the game.

In all of the emotions of the moment and with the disappointment doubtless heavy on his heart, Ivan Palaez did exactly what he said he would do. A gesture so simple as gifting his cap to a dedicated young fan allowed Ivan Palaez and the Eagles to make an impression upon the Merry family that continues to ripple some six years later.

"Despite the emotions of the moment, Ivan made good on his promise and gave Reese his hat," Christopher recalled.

It was heartbreaking for Faulkner. It was disappointing for Reese. Yet, the experience remains a cherished one for the family as they sat among 5,000 avid LC fans: father and mother and daughter and son and baseball.

Root, Root, Root for the Home…err…Road Team

Bellevue did not make the return trip to the NAIA World Series in 2017 but the Merry family did. With his alma mater not in the mix, Christopher went all in alongside Reese in rooting for the Eagles. Reese returned to the kids' clinic, proudly donning his Faulkner cap. Micah Brown, the Lewis-Clark State third baseman that tagged out Martinez to end the NAIA World Series a year earlier, took notice of the black lid with the blue F outlined in white. Reese remembers the ensuing discussion as a friendly disagreement regarding the call that ended the game.

By 2018, the family found itself more invested in the team from Montgomery, Ala. as they began tracking NAIA Opening Round results to see if Faulkner might make the return trip to Lewiston. The Eagles did. So, too, did the family from Orofino.

"That year was the first year we started really giving up going to work and school during the World Series. We watched most of the games," Christopher said.

...It's a Shame

A little more than a month after the conclusion of the 2018 NAIA World Series, Lynette Dobson learned she had stage three Triple Negative Breast Cancer. By the time the 2019 NAIA World Series opened, Lynette was in a serious battle with cancer. The family traveled back and forth to Seattle for treatments. The grandest event in Lewiston went on without the Merry family.

There's a custom Wilson baseball glove Reese keeps nearby. He took some money he had saved up and had it made. The webbing and palm are pink. The outside is light blue and the laces are purple.

"It has some meaning behind the colors. The blue was my favorite color. The purple represented my mom's favorite color and the pink was for breast cancer awareness," Reese explained before turning his attention to the inscription sewn into the thumb. "It says 'LD Never Give Up'. That stands for 'Lynette Dobson Never Give Up'."

On Aug. 21, 2019, Lynette Dobson passed away at the age of 43. She never gave up.

Reese was just 12. His sister, Peyton, was 14.

Against the backdrop of such significant loss, the Merry family was eager for the return of the normalcy that baseball brings. Yet, the game that is so noteworthy for always having a tomorrow suddenly ran out of tomorrows in 2020 as COVID-19 shuddered the NAIA season along with the rest of the athletics world and much of society at large.

When the NAIA World Series returned in 2021, Christopher saw an opportunity to allow baseball to be part of the healing process for his son.

"In 2021, I wanted to make that year extra special if I could. I reached out to Coach McCarthy. At the very least I was hoping to get a hat or T-shirt to wear while we supported the team. Maybe Reese would even get to meet a player or two. We had been watching the team in the opening round on YouTube," Christopher said. "It was amazing. It has by far surpassed anything that I could've imagined. When I reached out last year, I really just wanted to kind of rebound from a year where we didn't have anything and I wanted to try to make it a little more special. I'm always looking for opportunities to make things memorable. We've had some loss and some tough times. I thought this might be a way it to just kind of be an extra special year for us because we like to go and hang out at the games. We like to root for the teams. So I thought maybe we could get a hat or a shirt and show our support, be in the stands, and kind of wearing it loud and proud. It went so far beyond that."

"I was staying in the room with Patrick. We were going out for the picture day. Everybody has to put on a uniform and they go make pictures at the stadium," Faulkner assistant coach Jerry Greene said. "I noticed Patrick is loading up this backpack with Faulkner gear. I said, 'Mac, what are you doing with all that?' He told me there's a kid that, first time he came, he just decided that he was going to be a Faulkner fan. There were 5,000 LC fans and he was going to be a Faulkner fan."
Little did Reese know at the time, but he was moments away from being completely embedded into the Faulkner baseball experience at the NAIA World Series. McCarthy invited him to take part in batting practice, allowing him to shag balls and take a few swings. McCarthy posed with Reese for his official picture that appeared on the scoreboard during each Faulkner game. He stood at the backstop and exchanged high fives and fist bumps with Faulkner players in pregame. The Eagles even allowed Reese to receive the team medal following the last game.

"When Coach Mac asked us to go to the batting practice, we weren't sure what to expect. He was pretty intimidated. He's a little shy. They brought him out and he was right on the field with them. He was around the guys. The players embraced him. They were all very supportive. It touched me. I got a little emotional, in fact, when we were there," Christopher said. "After the fact, they had Reese involved with everything from being on the scoreboard to receiving the medal at the end. It was amazing. He was brought in as part of the family."

At the Old Ball Game

Friday, May 28, 2021. A raucous crowd filled Harris Field that night. After nearly two full years away, the Merry family found itself in attendance at the NAIA World Series. And their beloved Faulkner Eagles faced off with the home team, the Lewis-Clark State Warriors.

"Last year, there's 5,497 LC fans and three Faulkner fans in the stands," Greene recalled, bemused by the memory of one family wholeheartedly cheering against the crowd.

"You typically get a few fans that get a little excited. They'll get on the umpires for calls. When good plays happen for them, they're pretty vocal. They get a good turnout. They get a good crowd," Christopher said. "I know for me, when you're kind of sitting in that sea of LC fans, there's that sense that it just feels good when you're the underdog or your team feels disrespected or isn't being rooted for. It just feels good."

It felt good for the Merry family that night. Antonio Frias, the NAIA Pitcher of the Year and holder of most of Faulkner's single season and career pitching records, put on a performance for the ages. He struck out 13 Warriors over eight innings of shutout work. Isaac Phillips and Shawn Ross homered. Faulkner won 4-0. It made for a merry memory for one family from Orofino.

"It's just that all the LC fans can get kind of crazy sometimes. It was cool to see them beat LC and everyone was just mad about it," Reese said.

The Merry family is looking forward to making the drive to Harris Field in Lewiston again Friday.

"We try to not do anything for this entire Memorial Day weekend, so we can only watch baseball. We have the pass so we can go to all the games," Reese said.
They'll take in the day as they ready for their favorite team to take the field against the Warriors of Webber International. They've tracked Faulkner's journey back to this point from a 2-7 start to an Opening Round victory that guaranteed a return trip to Idaho.

"After we won, Juan Trinidad said he wanted to send a video to Reese. I videoed him and he said, 'I told you in March that we were coming to see you. We'll see you next week.' Those kinds of relationships that the players are forming with them are cool," Greene said.

Those relationships grew ever stronger in March as Greene, via The Meredith Greene Foundation, brought the Merry family to Faulkner for a Spring Break visit that allowed them to take in a game and see the place the Eagles call home.

"Jerry asked me if there was a way that we could get them out here, would I be for that," McCarthy said. "I was like, absolutely. If they can come on their spring break, we'd host them and take care of them, stay with the family, take them around and let them see everything. It was pretty cool."

"The follow-up with Jerry and having us come out, it has become something that is a big part of our lives now. It's people that have become like family and we can't give enough thanks to what they've done," Christopher said.

For McCarthy, the opportunity to extend love to the Merry family landed at the intersection of so many of the aspects of his mission personally and professionally. One of the most successful collegiate coaches in the country, McCarthy eschews praise and defers credit to his players for the victories on the field and many of the successes off of it.

"We believe we impact our guys on a daily basis and their character grows as they're here. We just tell them to be who they are. We always get compliments about how our guys took extra time out to make sure they signed an autograph or talked to a kid, or spent some extra time with somebody," McCarthy said. "Every team does that. Our guys know they're having an influence on guys that are younger than them and are watching them."

McCarthy saw that manifested as Ivan Palaez forged a friendship with a nine-year-old boy some 2,500 miles away from home. He still sees it as his players continue the legacy of their predecessors, making certain to minister to the Merry family through a shared love of baseball.

"I've always believed everything we do is about relationships. With my faith and Coach Greene's faith, it's always about how we show the love of Christ to everybody we meet and how do we care for their needs," McCarthy said. "Obviously, a young guy losing his mom at an early age has a traumatic impact. We were just trying to do a small, tiny, tiny gesture to say, 'Hey, you're not alone. We have players on our team that have lost their moms that are successful. They go to college.' We wanted to allow him to see that, as you get older, you can still cope with it and still handle it. We wanted him to see examples of that on our team."

McCarthy has a knack for seeing the common threads that bind people. Whether disappointment or struggle or profound loss, he has experienced it himself and seen it in his players. Throughout his career, the shared love of baseball has provided him a vehicle through which to minister to the needs of the young men in his program. Extending that love to a young family in Orofino, Idaho came just as easily for him.

"I just am sort of sitting and waiting now on how God is going to use this," Greene said. "It's sort of a friendship from out of nowhere."  

Lynette Dobson served as a beloved teacher in Orofino, Idaho renowned for a particular affinity for students deemed challenging by many others. In honor of her spirit, the family operates the Lynette Dobson Memorial Scholarship Fund for students in Idaho Joint School District 171. To learn more about the fund or to donate, visit: http://www.lynettedobson.org/.