In Memory of Scott McRae. 



Nashville Baseball Miracles

Nashville has been home to our family since my wife and I moved here separately 20+ years ago.  We met at Cathedral of the Incarnation, in the Summer of 2005 and were married there in 2007.  We’ve been blessed and grateful to buy our first home here together, and set our roots in Oak Hill with now five children between St Henry School and Montgomery Bell Academy.

We returned home from Portugal to Nashville, Saturday May 10. To say that the Nashville 2025 Spring baseball season was impacted by rain is not a funny understatement.  Our 12U Cubs were scheduled to start their playoffs with a game Tuesday, May 13. The relentless rain season had shortened our 20 game schedule into a 10 game season, and everyone was just praying for a few days of good weather so we could complete our Spring Playoffs.

Tuesday morning weather was clear, but it had rained again heavily overnight.  I drove by Edwin Warner Park early to check the ballfields and see if that day’s chance for more rain would hold off to let us play.  The WNSL crew was actively pumping water off the infields as I parked the car, and I slogged across the mud to check in with them.  Scott Tygard and all the crew were working as hard as I’ve seen and doing everything they could to get the fields ready.  That said, if it rained again, no amount of work would help us play that evening, but it wasn’t raining there yet.  I asked Scott if I could do anything to help. He asked if I could maybe write a letter after the season letting the teams and parents know how hard Scott and his teams work to give our kids a great place to learn and play sports.  This is that letter… Last Spring’s rain amount and timing are the worst I’ve seen in 5+ years… I then asked Scott if I could come back when I had a mid-day break to help with the fields. He took my offer, and I went to work at my desk for the morning. 

By noon it hadn’t rained, and I headed back to the park.  The sun was shining and a south breeze was blowing. Tygard and crew had gotten Edwin Warner Field 3 set, and had left to do the same at the Harpeth Hills Church fields.  I got to work on Field 4 (our team’s game field for that evening).  It was a good hour of work, thinking about our teams, thinking about the good friends and fellow coaches over the years, I thought about Scott McRae… and I thought this is something Scott would do for his teams.  I smiled and offered up some hard work for him as a prayer.

Just as I started getting a bit hot and tired raking the field, a light mist started… the sun kept shining, but it was enough to keep me cool enough to finish the field without a long break.  Just as I was finishing, Scott Tygard called from where his teams were working on fields at Harpeth Hills Church of Christ.  He said they were in a major storm, and he was canceling all games at those fields for the day.  He asked if it was raining on me.  I could see the dark clouds over him, just a mile to my East, but I told Scott that the Warner fields were still sitting in a pocket of sun, between the storms all around, and at least for now, those fields were ready for games that evening.  I packed the truck and started to pull out as he arrived back. 

I shared with him that my wife and I had just returned from Fatima, Portugal. I realized and shared with him that May 13 was the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima… The Miracle of Fatima was that the Sun Danced and dried all the rain in the town in seconds after ongoing heavy storms. Tens of Thousands witnessed the Miracle Oct 13, 1917, and millions have made the pilgrimage to the site since then. I showed him the Rosary on my wrist that had been in the Fountain at Fatima just a few days earlier.  He asked if I could leave it at the field to keep away the rain. I smiled and told him it felt like we were going to be fine.

Bennett Lusk has been a solid WNSL all-star who played up with our older Scott McRae led crew a few years but was still only 12 last season. His dad wanted him to get more games with us to keep his development going, and we had Bennett scheduled to pitch that evening of May 13, 2025. The rain never happened that afternoon, and we got to play our game.  In the 4th inning, parents started pleading with me to let Bennett keep pitching his active no-hitter.  I’m not big on over-pitching and hurting kids arms, so I asked his dad.  Brad smiled and said let him go until they get a hit.  They didn’t.

I visited and shared this story with Scott McRae the last time we met, the Saturday afternoon of January 26, 2026… just as the historic ice storm was starting its work in Nashville. I promised to write it up and share it with others.  One thing we also talked about… Scott came into the Catholic Church just a couple of weeks ago.  He shared that while that decision was always to be his with God, he was ready because of the Love he saw in his life of so many good Catholic Family and friends. I am grateful and blessed to have been part of those talks and prayers with so many others around Scott, especially this past year, and once more just a few days before he passed on January 30.  We will all miss him, but we won’t forget… I’ll remember his friendship, and how he lived to serve others… I choose to be a better person, because of Brothers like Scott in my life.

As we said good bye that Saturday, we wondered together if we see more miracles sometimes because they are happening more often, or is it that the closer we get to where God wants us in life, the more often we notice that these miracles are happening all around us every day, big things and small things that really change lives for the better… magical no hitters and great friendships.