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Tomlin cherishes close relationship with dad
- Updated: October 20, 2016
TORONTO — The father can’t be there, so the son tries his best to put the experience into words. Josh Tomlin and his dad, Jerry, have talked and texted every day of the Indians’ dramatic run to the World Series, and Josh relishes those moments when he can give his old man a little window into his world.
“What was it like hearing people scream your name in Fenway Park?” the father will ask, and the son will answer.
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“Can you get me one of those postseason T-shirts?” the father will ask, and the son will deliver.
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“You just show ’em what you can do,” the father will say. “Nobody deserves it more than you deserve it.”
It is only naturally to hyperbolize the absurd in professional sports, to call the Cleveland Indians’ claim of the American League pennant with a depleted rotation — one that was rescued by Tomlin’s stunning performance in Game 3 of the American League Division Series clincher in Boston and Game 2 of the AL Championship Series win over Toronto — a miracle.
But it is not hyperbolic to say that, in the Tomlin family, they are hoping for a miracle.
Because that’s what it might take for Jerry Tomlin to walk again.
Two months ago, the elder Tomlin was at his job at a power plant for the Whitehouse, Texas, school system when he felt a burning in his stomach. He went to one of those 24-hour clinics, and they couldn’t figure out what was wrong. So they transferred him to the hospital in Tyler, Texas, where the working theory was an issue with his gall bladder. They had Jerry laying on the table with his chest down when, suddenly, his body went numb from the chest down.
“It freaked me out,” Jerry said, “and it freaked everybody else out, too.”
A neurosurgeon was summoned, an MRI was ordered and, in a matter of hours, Jerry had gone from feeling pain in his stomach to undergoing emergency surgery. His actual condition was what is called an arteriovenous malfunction — essentially, a tangle of blood vessels — on his spinal cord. The procedure to halt the spinal damage was a matter of life or death.
Josh got the call in Cleveland and immediately went to manager Terry Francona.
“We know how much you care about pitching,” Francona told him. “But that’s your dad. You get [yourself] home.”
Tomlin asked team travel director Mike Seghi to book him the first private jet he could secure, no matter the cost. While waiting for those arrangements to be ironed out, he got a call from his mom, Elana, who was giving him the details of what had transpired. A nurse …
