The Ninth Inning

From: Philip Graitcer
Length: 06:11

Baseball brings about a chance discovery of life and death Read the full description.

Piece Audio

Playing: The Ninth Inning
From: Philip Graitcer

Dscf0248_small *** 2008 Edward R. Murrow Award regional winner - Best Feature, large market radio *** Atlanta's Turner Field is a lively place. It's the home of the Atlanta Braves, where thousands cheer young men playing baseball. But less than a fly ball away from home plate sits another kind of home, a hospice for cancer patients, where much older men and women play out the game of life. A good piece to air during baseball season.

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Piece Description

*** 2008 Edward R. Murrow Award regional winner - Best Feature, large market radio *** Atlanta's Turner Field is a lively place. It's the home of the Atlanta Braves, where thousands cheer young men playing baseball. But less than a fly ball away from home plate sits another kind of home, a hospice for cancer patients, where much older men and women play out the game of life. A good piece to air during baseball season.

Broadcast History

Previous version on Georgia Public Broadcasting (8/07) and Weekend Edition Saturday (9/07). Included on NPR Driveway Moments - Baseball CD (2008)

Transcript

[amb courtyard]

Our Lady of Perpetual Care Home is just across the street from Turner Field. An iron fence surrounds it, and a 250-year old oak tree shades the brick and glass building. It?s one of 5 homes run by the Hawthorne Dominicans, an order of Catholic nuns founded 100 years ago by Nathaniel Hawthorne?s daughter. Sister Edwin, the home?s director, has been a sister for almost 43 years.

(ed01) Our mission it to take care of people dying with cancer who cannot afford to pay for care elsewhere.

About two-dozen residents are here, and along with loving care, they get daily doses of baseball. When a game is being played, they can hear the cheers and fireworks from inside the chapel.

sfx: baseball cheers

One of the residents is Willie Kendrick. He?s been at Our Lady of Perpetual Care four months.

I have throat cancer and stroke on my left side.

Kendrick uses an...
Read the full transcript

Timing and Cues

Atlanta's Turner Field is a lively place. It's the home of the Atlanta Braves, where thousands cheer young men playing baseball. But less than a fly ball away from home plate sits another kind of home, a hospice for cancer patients, where much older men and women play out the game of life.

Philip Graitcer [GREAT-sir] has this story about two men whose lives were touched when they crossed the street that separates the hospice and the stadium.