Team USA's victory strikes a special chord for Iraq war veteran

Team USA's dramatic come from behind 6-5 victory over Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic had special meaning for one dedicated fan.  AFter the game, Sgt. Felix Perez, an Afghanistan and Iraq war veteran, asked a security guard if some of the players would sign his American flag.   

 

Brian Finnegan was only doing his job on Tuesday night when he saw Felix Perez in the handicapped section of Dolphin Stadium. Finnegan's son, Tommy, had spent his life in a wheelchair battling cerebral palsy, and recently had passed away at age 20.

So when Finnegan, working security for the World Baseball Classic, realized that Perez was hoping some of the players would sign his American flag, he didn't hesitate.

"It was like divine intervention," Finnegan said. "In some ways I saw Tommy in Felix and wanted to help."

Finnegan took Perez's flag -- the one Perez carried with him through tours of Afghanistan and Iraq as a sergeant with the 82nd Airborne -- and brought it into a raucous clubhouse filled with American players who were wearing that flag on their chests. The players had just scored three runs in the bottom of the ninth inning, the last two coming on a David Wright single, to avoid elimination at the WBC and secure a 6-5 win against Puerto Rico, and now they were partying together as a team.

Finnegan came into the clubhouse and announced that there was a veteran who'd love to have his flag signed.

"We said, 'Send him in,'" Jake Peavy said.

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Submitted on Mar 18, 2009 9:45 am by [submitter anonymized] | comments (0)
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