During the Athletics-Rangers game yesterday, I saw somebody (one of the Oakland reporters) retweet this:

Stephanee Neshek is the wife of Pat Neshek. Pat Neshek is a right-handed reliever for the Oakland Athletics, notable for his rather quirky delivery. He came up through the Twins system, and he’s one of the most fan-friendly guys in baseball. He had (and still has, although it isn’t updated much anymore) a website that is about his love of autograph collecting, with an address for fans who want to trade signed cards or if anybody had anything to be signed. During one of his stints in Rochester, after he had lost his spot in the Twins’ bullpen following Tommy John surgery, he brought his dog to the ballpark on a “Barks in the Park” day and played toss with the dog for the “first pitch”. For some reason that stuck with me: he’d lost his spot in the big leagues, he’d gone through Tommy John surgery, and he was stuck in AAA four years after he had been seemingly called up for good. And yet he was good-natured enough to bring his dog to the ballpark as part of a promotion.

Neshek found his way back to the majors, first with San Diego, and then this season in Oakland. And now it looked like he was going to have the best day of his life: his team was about to pull off a miracle final-week comeback to win the AL West, and he was becoming a father for the first time.

Which is why it was sad to see this in my Twitter feed this morning:

Suddenly, there was a realization everything that had happened yesterday, from the results on the field, to Miguel Cabrera’s Triple Crown, to even the presidential debates, were just so trivial. It was the best day of Pat Neshek’s life, and it turned into what was probably his worst.

So keep that in your thoughts when you think you are having a bad day. And keep the Nesheks in your thoughts as they go through this horrible tragedy.