Ryan Westmoreland: An Incredible Story

If you follow the Red Sox and their farm system, you know that one of their highly-touted prospects, Ryan Westmoreland, underwent extensive and extremely serious brain surgery a few months ago. He recently gave his first interviews, vowing to return to baseball. Here are a few articles that talk about his recovery.

The best article I have read relating to this is one by Daniel Barbarisi from the Providence Journal - it is an excellent feature story, with intricate details of his recovery.

The reason I am blogging about this, besides the incredible story itself, is how it relates to the Red Sox as an organization - they take care of their players. Building a brand starts with treating your employees well, and they certainly know how to do that. Well, people are noticing. Here is an excerpt from the article:

"'The Red Sox, in particular, have been amazingly supportive, all said. Once the seriousness of Westmoreland’s condition was apparent, the team immediately shifted the focus away from baseball, and concerned themselves only with his well-being.

'They were like a family to me,' Westmoreland said. “They took care of so much for me, they’ve been amazing the whole way, whether it’s plane tickets, or letting me sit in Theo’s box –– I can’t say enough about the Red Sox and what they’ve done.'

Westmoreland’s agent, Alan Nero of Octagon Sports, echoed that thought. 'I’ve been in this business 30 years, and I do business with all the teams, and I can tell you honestly, there’s not another organization in the world that would have done for the Westmoreland family what the Red Sox did,' Nero said."

I wish continued progress to Ryan and his family, and laud the Red Sox for their support as well - praying and believing!

(photo courtesty of the Westmoreland family to Providence Journal)