Feel Good Story From Last Year

Indulge me while I tell my favorite minor league story from 2010. Last May, the family and I were heading to North Carolina to tend to some family business. After checking the schedule, we decided to spend the night near Greensboro in order to see the Grasshoppers play the Lexington Legends. We were pumped to see former G-Stros such as Altuve, Mier, Meyer,Martinez, Bray, Hinze, Garcia, Leon & Hogue on the diamond.

The starter for the Grasshoppers was Curt Peterson. I didn't know anything about him and the Legends lit him up for 4 runs in 5 innings. After he was removed from the game, they brought him out to the mound and made a presentation to him.

Here is the story behind the presentation according to the Greensboro News & Record. Peterson had gone to WalMart to by some toilet paper (I am not making this up). As he is coming out of the store he reports he saw the following:

"This guy came up behind her and grabbed her purse and her keys," Petersen said. "She was yelling, 'Help! Help! Help!' I thought maybe it was just a joke. ... I thought maybe they were messing around. But then she got knocked down, and I knew it wasn't a joke."

Petersen said he dropped his things, ran to Dixon's car and grabbed Conrad before he could get in.

"I was like, 'What are you doing?' And he said, 'I'm taking her car.' And I was like, 'No, you're not,' " Petersen said. "I had a hold of him, and he threw the keys back to the lady and said, 'All right, all right, just let me go.' And I said, 'I don't think so.' "

Petersen said a crowd gathered, including Walmart employees, and they detained Conrad until police arrived...

"It was interesting," Petersen said. "I just went to the Walmart for toilet paper, and then all this happens."

In honor of his good deed, WalMart had sponsored Curt Peterson night. They gave away 1000 tickets to local charities and presented him with a plaque and a gift card. The crowd gave a nice standing ovation to Peterson.

By the way, Peterson got revenge on the Legends about a week later when he held the Legends scoreless for 7 innings.

If you ever get a chance to go to Greensboro and catch a game, they have a nice ball park and great bat dogs. Scotty Smalls over at Minor League University wrote about the canines recently. Check out his article here.