Steve Winfree of Tennessee is a lifelong baseball fan. He’s been collecting baseball cards since he was a kid. But he recently found one in a new pack that’s way more valuable than any other card in his collection — because it saved his life.
Winfree suffers from a kidney disease and has been awaiting a transplant for several years. His wife Heather recently gave him a new pack of cards to open. He was delighted to find a Mike Trout card and a card of Yankees rookie Clint Frazier. But then he stumbled on something very rare… a Steve Winfree card.
The card had a picture of Steve taken at the transplant center. Heather then told him to flip it over and read the back. With tears welling up in his eyes he read, “Steve has had a lot on his plate. With his health issues, he has been striking out a lot. He was not sure how he was going to wind up. His wife Heather thinks he is a great catch, so she decided to go to bat for him. Now Steve will be a rookie recipient at Vanderbilt Transplant Center where his wife Heather will be pitching a new kidney to him.”
Heather had just learned that she is a match for Steve and, knowing that her husband loves baseball cards, contacted the Topps company and had a customized card printed.
Steve says, “I feel very blessed that I’m going to have a second opportunity to try and have a normal life. For it to come from my wife is absolutely amazing. I already loved her until death do us part. Now, I mean, I don’t know how I could love her any more.” (MLB.com)
