Whether it’s recovering from an injury or surgery, or treating an illness, a stay at the hospital can become draining and often repetitive. But it’s the moments that patients have with visitors that brings smiles to their faces and uplifts their spirits.
For Paul Nelson, who is a frequent patient at UCHealth Highlands Ranch Hospital, having a visitor always brightens his day.
“It gets pretty boring sitting here in the hospital,” Nelson said.
However, a mid-April hospital visitor is one that Nelson is going to remember – and for a good reason. He was one of many patients to sit down and chat with Michael Toglia, a first baseman for the Colorado Rockies.
Baseball is a generational love in Nelson’s family. Not only did he take part in creating the random “booms” and “crash” sound effects used at baseball games across the country, his grandson, who plays for Mountain Vista High School, is a baseball fanatic.
Nelson quickly grabbed his phone to capture the moment that Toglia, sitting about a foot away, signed a baseball for him.
“I like baseball – it’s America’s pastime,” said Nelson. “My grandson is very excited.”
Oftentimes, patients at the UCHealth Anschutz campus in Aurora have the opportunity to meet their favorite athletes, but this spring, some of that same love got shared with the patients at the UCHealth Highlands Ranch hospital.
Toglia was drafted by the Colorado Rockies in 2019 and made his debut with the team in 2022 as a switch-hitter.
This was not his first time visiting with patients since he made his Major League Baseball debut. Last year, Toglia and his fiancee, Jenna, took time to be with patients at the Infusion Center at UCHealth Anschutz campus.
“There’s no reason not to (come back),” said Toglia. “They couldn’t wait to share stuff about their grandchildren and their baseball interests, and so it was really easy to talk with them.”
As he went room to room, Toglia and the patients shared all kinds of stories with one another – one being why Toglia has the number four on his Colorado Rockies jersey.
Toglia told a patient that his father is a New York Yankees fan and that one favorite player’s was number seven, Mickey Mantle. That number was already taken, so he went with another of his father’s favorites, Lou Gehrig, number four.
Toglia and another patient began talking about some of the original Colorado Rockies players when the patient mentioned that he was at the first game played on Coors Field in the spring of 1995.
One of the most memorable patients was 99-year-old Mary Bushman. The two spoke about hockey, history, Japanese culture and dogs. Bushman was taken aback when Toglia signed a baseball for her.
“I’ll show everybody,” Bushman said about her signed baseball.
It was a surreal day for Mark Gill, a patient and avid Colorado Rockies fan, who was able to shake hands with the athlete he has been watching on the field and screen for years.
“I’ve been following him ever since he came into the majors,” said Gill. “Being a left-handed first baseman is what you look for as a professional and so he’s got the talent.”
Gill has been playing baseball since high school and has played in a few of the Colorado Rockies fantasy camps. Together, they talked about the team’s slow start to the season, game play, player statistics and about some of the prospects.
“It’s always uplifting when somebody like that comes in and meets you and wants to talk to you,” said Gill. “(It) gets people in a good mood.”
While the patients had an unforgettable day, Toglia said that it was a refreshing experience to meet one-on-one with some of his fans and hear about their life stories.
“It’s easy to get kind of trapped in this narrow tunnel vision that’s just baseball,” said Toglia. “Then you come to a place like this and you realize that there’s just so many people out there with different life experiences and interests – that it’s not just about baseball.”
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