NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -The words stitched onto David Price’s glove jumped out from Henry Stephens’ television as he watched the Tampa Bay Rays pitcher close out the Boston Red Sox for a berth in the World Series.
“Live Like Nate.”
That was the phrase friends of Stephens’ son, Nathan, put on bracelets in August 2007 to cope after Nathan collapsed during a game of basketball in a hot gym and died of a heart attack at the age of 22. Price, who had signed his $11.25 million contract with Tampa Bay only days earlier, promised Stephens after the funeral he would put that on his glove.
The 6-foot-6, hard-throwing left-hander said he carries the memory of Nathan, and another high school friend, Tyler Morrissey, killed in an April 2008 car accident, with him every time he takes the mound.
ink about them all the time,” Price said.
Now, the 23-year-old Price wants others to remember his best friend. So before driving to Port Charlotte, Fla., for spring training, Price is leading a daylong fundraiser Saturday with breakfast, silent auction and bowling for the Nathan Stephens Scholarship for students from their old high school.
“The best thing from this is just remembering Nathan,” Price said.
Nathan Stephens made quite an impression on lots of people, and Price said many could call themselves Stephens’ best friends.
The Stephens received at least a 1,000 letters and notes after their son died: from the professor sad at not being able to talk with him again to the mother crediting him with making her kindergarten daughter self-confident. There was even a memorial garden built at the after-school program where he worked, which students documented in a book of photos they sent Nathan’s parents.
For Price, Stephens is someone he played fall baseball with when he was a sixth-grader in Murfreesboro, approximately 30 miles southwest of Nashville. They became friends after finding each other on the Blackman High basketball team.
“Most of the time, if you saw one, it was almost hard not to see the other one,” said Price’s father, Bonnie. “They spent a lot of time together and being they were both Christian boys, that time together really nurtured their friendship.”
igh school, the 6-foot-2 Stephens left for the University of Tennessee to become a teacher and basketball coach. Price went to Vanderbilt and played baseball, becoming an All-American and the No. 1 overall pick of the 2007 draft. Separated by 190 miles, their friendship continued as they talked by phone when possible.
But Stephens stayed busy as a manager on Tennessee’s men’s basketball team for three years. He also worked as a ball boy for the NFL’s Tennessee Titans during their 2006 training camp.
Whenever Stephens came home, the friends hung together, talking and playing Monopoly until 3 or 4 in the morning.
“The last conversation that I had with Nathan was about David,” Henry Stephens said. “It was right at the time he’d signed. We followed the contract (talks) and wondered, `Is he going to sign before the season starts?’ Nathan was just so happy for him.”
The same day Price threw 44 pitches during his first workout for Rays officials, Stephens was playing basketball in a gym on the Tennessee campus where he was working on his graduate degree. He collapsed and was declared dead at a local hospital of a cardiac arrest.
Price called the news sickening.
re calling me, too. I went from signing the contract, being the first overall pick, just such a high right there to such a low.
“It was definitely two sides of the spectrum.”
Price has become like a big brother to Stephens’ sister, available at all times by text message and even surprising her at her birthday party. Stephens’ mother is dreading Price’s departure for spring training even though he’s preparing to work as a starter this season instead of a reliever.
“You just know he’s in Tennessee and I feel like a part of Nathan’s here. When he goes, it’s like he’s gone for a while,” DeAnn Stephens said.
The Stephens didn’t mention their scholarship to Price who instead heard about it from the high school principal. His fundraiser didn’t surprise them.
“I think David was just so close to Nathan I think he felt that was just what he needed to do,” DeAnn Stephens said.
Ironically, Stephens used to talk to his father about how Price would be his fundraiser one day when he coached high school basketball and the pitcher was a famous big leaguer.
Now Price plans to raise a lot of money for his best friend. The glove he used against the Red Sox? He’s giving that to the Stephens.
“It’s not something you want to go through when you go through it,” Price said. “Forty or 50 years when you look back and say this right here made you stronger. At this time and of this age, it’s not something you want to go through.”
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On the Net:
David Price’s foundation: www.project14.org
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