Eck eager to shine in 1st ASG after scare

[CardsJimEdmonds15]

Eckstein's father: ``I can't breathe. Here's your mom.''

 

DETROIT (AP) -- Herbert ``Whitey'' Eckstein could only say a few words, and they weren't the ones his son wanted to hear.

 

``I can't breathe,'' he said to St. Louis' shortstop. ``Here's your mom.''

 

David Eckstein was left clinging to his phone Sunday night in San Francisco, waiting to board a flight to Detroit for his first All-Star game, while his dad's kidneys were failing at his home in Florida.

 

``I told my mom to call 911,'' he said Tuesday. ``Then, I called my sister, who lives across the street, and she went over. She called 10 minutes later and he was unconscious and they were trying to stabilize him. As soon I got on the plane, he was on the way to the hospital.

 

``I talked to my mom again this morning, and everything is stable and he should be OK.''

 

Unfortunately for the Eckstein family, kidney failure is something they've been forced to get used to.

 

Eckstein said his father prepared him for moments like this.

 

``He's always told me, 'If anything happens to me, don't miss a game because I know you love me,''' he said. ``He doesn't want to be any type of distraction.''

 

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Wow I hope everything is going fine with his family. Thoughts are with David right now.

[Accord]

Very sorry to hear this, I lost someone that I love due to renal kidney failure so it really hits close to home.

 

Hope everything turns out well and good luck to the Eckstein family.

[Michael]

That..

 

 

 

sucks..

 

I somewhat found Eckstein to be a role model to me somewhat, because him and I both are shorter than average people so.. ya know?

[PBMarlin]

That had to be the most unsettling flight David has ever taken. Can you imagine flying for 3-4 hours not knowing how your father is doing?

[Michael]

That had to be the most unsettling flight David has ever taken. Can you imagine flying for 3-4 hours not knowing how your father is doing?

852054[/snapback]

No I can't..nor do I want to..

[CardsJimEdmonds15]

Eckstein eager to shine in his first All-Star game

 

 

Cardinals shortstop David Eckstein will start for the National League in the All-Star Game.

 

DETROIT ? The red-eye flight was nearly ready to board Sunday night in San Francisco, taking David Eckstein to play in the first All-Star game of his life. But first, he called home, as he nearly always does. When you hear his family history, you'll understand why.

 

"I can't breathe," Whitey Eckstein told his son, when he answered. "Here's your mother."

 

An ambulance was called. The last thing David heard before he got on the plane was his father was unconscious, headed to intensive care. The first thing he heard when he landed in Detroit barely past dawn ? the flight seemed to last forever, over a darkened continent, as a son thought of his father ? was Whitey Eckstein had been stabilized.

 

"You've got a job to do," Pat Eckstein told her son over the phone. "You've got to go focus."

 

And so he will, as they always have in his family. As they always must. It is a family of seven. There are now only three who have not needed a kidney transplant. A genetic enemy has cut a swath through one Sanford, Fla., household.

 

Whitey Eckstein is due for his transplant next month. Just as daughter Christine and son Ken needed, four days apart, in 1991 ? Christine's donor kidney coming from her mother. Just as daughter Susan needed three years before that.

 

Fate has spared David Eckstein. He remembers it every time he plays a baseball game.

 

"I'm never allowed to complain," he was saying Monday. "I've been very fortunate and I understand that. What's happened to my brother and sisters, and now my father, it gives you the drive to never go out and not give it everything you have.

 

"That's why I'll give you everything I have every single night."

 

More things to be gotten around, figured out.

 

Meanwhile, David Eckstein lives his dream. "I know how he'll feel," David said of his father. "If I let it distract me one bit, he'll be very disappointed in me."

 

Whitey won't be able to watch Tuesday night. But there'll be a tape ready, whenever he is.

 

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[Michael]

That would pwn if he hit a HR in his first AB tomorrow night (or tonight)