The Phillies home opener is rapidly approaching and one very resilient and energetic boy from Delaware is going to be the one to throw out the ceremonial first pitch.
4-year-old Zeke is still deciding if he will go with a curve ball or just throw the heater on Opening Day.
"We will see how it goes. If he makes an awesome pitch that'll be great. If not, the experience is a lifetime experience not many people get to do," Zeke's dad, Jonathan Clark, said.
Zeke can throw pretty well and he can run pretty quickly considering he is now adjusting to life with a prosthetic lower right leg after a traumatic incident.
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Last summer, he was riding on a tractor with his dad when he decided to jump off suddenly.
Zeke ended up underneath the mower with his leg caught in the blades.
"I had him on the front porch and put him down, ripped off my belt and wrapped it up as tight as I could and made a tourniquet," his dad explained.
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The family lives in Lewes, Delaware right down the street from a firehouse so first responders got there quickly.
They have since spent a lot of their time in northern Delaware at Nemours for multiple surgeries, working with their great laboratory, getting different prosthetics and everything else involved with this recovery process that will last until he is fully grown.
"He has healed very well. His fighting spirit has really helped him excel with his rehabilitation and physical therapy," Dr. Jeanne Franzone, a Nemours orthopedic surgeon, said. "That's really part of the multidisciplinary prosthesis care is meeting each child at the psychosocial level, helping them cope with their injury and helping them cope with the changes to life as they know it."
As the Nemours team helps with his recovery, his dad is helping him get ready to throw a pitch in front of 50,000 Phillies fans.
His accident still haunts his parents, but Zeke has moved on.
No one at Nemours has any doubt that Zeke will crush the pitch and anything else he puts his young mind to.
