Everson: Local sports won’t be the same without Macomb’s Brady McAtamney
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Everson: Local sports won’t be the same without Macomb’s Brady McAtamney
LZ Granderson is a sports writer for the Detroit Free Press. He and his brother, who also works for the Free Press, lost their father this week. Granderson: “There’s no silver lining” to the loss of his brother. He says he and Granderson will continue to work together on sports stories, and in life’s little moments of joy. LZ: “I’ll miss you, my brother. You were a great guy. I’m going to miss you very, very much. I hope you have a good rest of your life.” He says, “I love you, brother. I love you so much.” LZ. “I don’t want to see you die,” Granderson says. “You were a good man. I will miss you.” Lz.
Teams ride the ups and downs of run-of-the-mill games, holiday tournaments and rivalry matchups – a variety of mini-loops and corkscrews – before the big drop that is the postseason.
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Typically, throughout those parts of the regular season, a series of league matchups means I wouldn’t run into my Macomb counterpart in Brady McAtamney too often. But when the playoffs roll around, Oakland and Macomb County teams inevitably face each other for the right to advance.
Brady talked about what a frenetic run-up it was for him to the state finals in East Lansing several weekends ago. I joked that mine across the county border wasn’t nearly so, a sign of the see-saw nature in which any given season, it’s either him or I. But we chatted briefly at McLane Stadium when Dakota was playing in the D1 baseball final, then parted ways.
These OAA vs. MAC all-star games at season’s end are another chance for us to intersect when the real ride of the spring is over. Last year, I spent a majority of the game hovering around the OAA dugout, and I assume Brady did something similar.
Last week, for this year’s baseball game between the two counties’ all-stars, Brady and his girlfriend were sitting at a table behind the plate. I hadn’t met her, and we’d spent so little time throughout the spring at the same place at the same time, and so rather than wandering back to the dugout, I pulled up a seat.
We chatted about work. We shared stories about coaches, players. The three of us shared our joy and disdain for pop stars.
Over the past few weeks, Brady and I had talked about anything from video games we had played or planned to play to dealing with seizures, which have been affecting an immediate family member of mine.
I’ve spent most of the week in a hospital watching over that family member, including Tuesday when I got the news that Brady had passed away over the weekend. As it does when you get any kind of text, email or call of that nature, my heart sank.
Just trying to work through the challenges of that, it didn’t really hit me until sometime Wednesday afternoon as I looked out the fifth-floor window of the hospital.
There won’t be any more ribbing each other in our group chat over Troy vs. Athens outcomes, the rival high schools we each went to. No more texting about games we wish we’d gotten to. No more commiserating about the busy season we can relate to.
There’s no silver lining to the death of someone so young, but I’m dealing with it by finding joy in that decision to sit and chat with Brady one last time watching some baseball together, something he loved, too.
When the softball game between the OAA and MAC rolls around in the next several weeks, there will still be stories to celebrate of players and coaches. But whoever bats, pitches or wins, there’ll be a hole in the lineup without Brady there also. He will be missed.