MILWAUKEE -- What started as a postgame hit on the field at Dodger Stadium turned into one of those baseball moments that lingers long after the final out.
Ted Perry was doing what he always does: interviewing fans after the Brewers clinched their first National League pennant in 44 years last Thursday night. Then a father stepped in and asked, “Will you come talk to my disabled son?”
Perry said yes. His cameraman, Jake Salzbrunn, followed him over. Neither of them knew they were about to meet 13-year-old Samson Herman, a lifelong Brewers fan from the Minneapolis area who has cerebral palsy and was in Los Angeles with his father, David, to see history.
Samson could barely hide how much the moment meant to him. His team was going to the World Series, and that was written all over his face. What the television audience didn’t see was David holding Samson upright through the interview while Perry put an arm around him to help support him as he spoke.
At World Series Media Day on Thursday, Perry said the emotion hit him almost instantly.
“I was just overcome with the joy of it,” Perry recalled Thursday at World Series Media Day, his voice beginning to crack again. “There's a kid who can't walk. He's never going to play baseball, but he's happy for his heroes who are going to the World Series.”
Perry then turned away to wipe his eyes and didn’t realize the camera was still on him. When he looked back at Samson, he told him, “You're my guy.”
A moment later, Perry walked off and fell apart.
“I went into a photographer's well, and I just started bawling because I was overcome with the emotion of it,” Perry said. “And this very sweet usher from Dodger Stadium came up with a bunch of napkins for me. She could see I was losing it.”
Salzbrunn was dealing with the same flood of feeling from behind the lens. He said the scene hit home for him as a baseball player and a travel-team coach who has seen how the game connects families, including those with children who have disabilities.
“I was crying behind the camera,” Salzbrunn said. “And what you didn't see behind the camera is, as I'm holding it, I'm getting tapped on my shoulder from the fans that are handing me napkins.”
Even Samson and his family didn’t know the exchange had aired live. Once Salzbrunn went back to tell them, their phones started blowing up. The clip took off from there.
Perry and Salzbrunn didn’t immediately realize just how widely it had spread. The next day, Salzbrunn was sightseeing in Los Angeles and called Perry about a camera battery.
Perry had something else to share. Salzbrunn didn’t know yet that Jomboy Media had picked it up and the video was racing across social media.
The story picked up another layer when two Milwaukee-area business owners, Joshua Meyer and Santiago Speranza, bought World Series Game 2 tickets for Samson and his father. On Saturday, they’ll be at the game.
Then came Thursday’s full-circle moment. During World Series Media Day, Perry asked Jacob Misiorowski about Samson, who had listed Misiorowski and Jackson Chourio as his favorite players.
Perry explained what happened in the interview and asked whether Misiorowski ever thinks about the effect he has on young fans like Samson. The Brewers ace, whose season has been marked by electric velocity and historic numbers, struggled to answer.
“Yeah, I did, I saw the video,” Misiorowski said, fighting through emotion. “It's honestly incredible just having that effect on people. No, I really don't have words for it.”
Perry said Misiorowski’s reaction nearly sent him right back to the same place emotionally.
“I could see he was choked up by it,” Perry said afterward, “and that got me choked up.”
Nearly a week later, Perry, Salzbrunn and Misiorowski were still trying to get through the story without tearing up. For Salzbrunn, that’s part of why baseball hits differently.
“Baseball is a sport for everybody and brings people together,” he said. “The Brewers are just bringing everybody together. … It's amazing.”
Samson’s Brewers are four wins away from a World Series championship, and on Saturday he’ll be there to watch them keep chasing it.
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