Eli Joseph, 9, lives in a small neighborhood near the Bronx. He has everything a New York kid needs: a love of baseball, a dream of becoming a professional player, and… a pair of eyes that are slowly fading.
Eli has a rare degenerative retinal disease. The doctors told him bluntly: “He will be completely blind in two to three weeks.”
Eli’s mother asked him what he wanted to do most before he lost his sight. He didn’t hesitate:
“I want to see Gerrit Cole pitch at Yankee Stadium. Just once.”
News about Eli reached the Yankees locker room. Not through the media. But through a volunteer at the hospital where Eli was being treated. Gerrit Cole heard it and asked just one question:
“When is the next home game?”
July 14, the Yankees played the Mariners. A regular season game, not a playoff game. But that day, the Yankees wore a small “EJ” logo on their sleeves. The crowd didn’t notice.
In the first inning, when Gerrit Cole stepped onto the mound, everyone was expecting a fiery comeback from injury. But contrary to expectations, Cole threw a 72-mph ball, soft and curvy.
And what no one saw on TV was the way Eli—from his special dugout seats—followed that ball with his eyes that were about to die.
At the end of the inning, Cole walked over to the boy, placed that first ball in Eli’s hands, and whispered,
“Keep it, kid. That pitch is yours.”
A week later, and the story that made social media tearful
Eli’s mother wrote on social media:
“Eli can’t see my face clearly anymore. But every night he says:
‘Mom, I still see that pitch. It’s slow, very slow. But I still see it, right here.’
And he puts his hand on his heart.”
For Gerrit Cole, that day wasn’t a day of statistics. Not about ERA or strikeouts. But it was a moment when he marked a child with light – before that light left him forever.
And that child – Eli – will never forget the tall man, quietly stepping out of the bullpen, not saying much, but leaving the whole sky with a pitch.
“It’s not because people are famous. It’s because they know how to use fame to keep what time is about to take away.” – A commentator wrote on ESPN after that game.