An epic weeper about the coaching legacy of John Altobelli that speaks to the incredible kind of way a good coach can shape lives on and off the baseball field.

Remembering John Altobelli, a 'collector of lost baseball souls' by Jeff Passan

LUCAS PARKER WAS born blind in his right eye, and among his pediatrician's suggestions was that he play sports. Maybe, the doctor said, it would help regenerate some of his lost vision or at least help with his depth perception. Any sport, he said, would work -- except baseball. Parker taking a ball to his good eye was too risky. The thing is, baseball was the only sport he wanted to play, and in 1992, when Parker was 7, he brought home a shoddily designed flyer that said the new coach at Orange Coast College would be running a summer camp for children trying to learn the game.

"Mom," Parker said, "please."

Liz Parker was wary. She called the number on the flyer and asked to talk with John Altobelli. He was 29 years old, fresh off losing his job at UC Irvine, which had shuttered its baseball program. She explained her concerns about her son getting hurt. Altobelli said that wouldn't happen. His players were the coaches. They would teach him the right way.

"We'll protect his eye," Altobelli said.

Lucas kept playing anyway and spent two more summers at Altobelli's camp. He improved. Some of his vision returned. The tricks Altobelli's players taught him -- how to properly anticipate and make up for the lack of depth perception -- allowed him to play catcher in high school and wide receiver on the football team. Missing out on environmental-nature camp didn't hinder him much either. Lucas Parker is an experimental physicist who works in Los Alamos doing research on the cosmic background radiation released by the Big Bang.