Little boy’s injury creates lasting bond for Captains player

Jul 02, 2010

By: News-Herald Staff

By David S. Glasier
DGlasier@News-Herald.com

A little boy walking into Lake County’s clubhouse Thursday night made everything else irrelevant, including the Captains’ 3-2 loss to West Michigan.

The little boy is soon-to-be 5-year-old Luke Holko of Cortland in Trumbull County.

Luke walked into the clubhouse holding the arms of his father, Chad Holko, and Captains first baseman Ben Carlson.

His walk was unsteady, but the fact he was walking at all is remarkable.

The lives of Carlson and Luke Holko have been linked since Sept. 2, 2009, when Carlson was playing for the short-season Class A Mahoning Valley Scrappers and Luke was in a seat along the first-base line at Eastwood Field in Niles.

A line-drive foul ball off Carlson’s bat hit Luke in the back of the head.

Luke suffered severe head trauma as a result of the accident, which could have happened at any ballpark. For two months, Luke remained in a coma.

Luke’s great uncle, Lee Lenhart, was in the clubhouse Thursday night wearing a “Team Luke” T-shirt.

“For a long time, the doctors weren’t sure what was going to happen,” Lenhart said.

After defying the odds and emerging from his coma, Luke began a slow, steady recovery that, Lenhart said, has him “about 90 percent” along to target goals set by doctors and therapists.

“He’s already exceeded anything the doctors thought he could do,” Lenhart said. “Luke loves baseball and he loves Ben (Carlson). He’s miracle boy.”

Luke’s mother, Nicole Holko, at first was hesitant about joining her husband and son in the clubhouse.

When convinced it was OK to come inside, she soon was at the side of the boy showing off the bat and caps that were gifts from Carlson.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 2nd, 2010 at 12:18 PM and is filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.