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A lifelong baseball fan is living every fan’s dream, but unfortunately it’s under tragic circumstances.
Jonathan St. Clair is traveling to each of the 30 MLB stadiums in as many days to spread awareness about water safety, 12 years after losing her 21-month-old son, Jasper, to drowning.
While in the care of a trusted babysitter, Jasper, St. Clair’s firstborn, taken to a home with an unheated pool and left unattended for just a few minutes. The doctors did everything to save him for about a week, but unfortunately Jasper lost the battle.
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Jonathan St. Clair attends a Colorado Rockies game. (Wave Maker Tour)
“He hadn’t learned to swim and hadn’t been to swim lessons yet. So we were very, very caught off guard. Why didn’t we know how dangerous water was or why couldn’t we put kids in swimming lessons earlier?” St. Clair told Pakinomist Digital in a recent interview.
The interview took place before the sixth game of his tour, a night game in Toronto after he flew from Denver to see the Colorado Rockies.
“So, all of those things have happened and we’ve learned a whole lot from the community as a whole. Since then, we’ve come across not just one family like ours, but hundreds of us that are out there. And really, this campaign, what I’m doing right now, includes all of those people. I’m working with organizations like ours in all 30 cities. The idea is that it’s able to prevent that in the water. It’s not something that can just happen to someone else, it’s something that can happen to you.”
Nothing will ever solve that unimaginable burden, but there has been a comfort level in meeting families who share similar unfortunate experiences long before this road trip was even a thought.
“I wouldn’t have been able to put one foot forward 12 years ago if it wasn’t for this group of families,” said St. Clair.
St. Clair wears a Wave Maker Tour life jacket to every game, which initially draws some looks from other fans. But when they also spot his MLB cap with all 30 team logos, it becomes easier to have a conversation.
“It’s fun walking around town with a life jacket on because everybody, they don’t know what to ask, and then someone will ask and it starts the conversation. Actually, it’s been great,” St. said. Clair.
And as for the hat?
“I feel very connected with every team I go into because I don’t come in as a particular fan. I come in with a cause and it’s been very well received. It’s been so much fun.”
Already a week into his journey, a father offered his first-class seat to St. Clair, and another gave him an extra ticket to watch batting practice behind home plate.
St. Clair, a Los Angeles Dodgers fan from Washington, said he had already been to about 10 or 11 stadiums before this trip, and he knows that every one he has yet to attend, his baby should be there.
Jasper St. Clair was 21 months old when he drowned in a pool. (Wave Maker Tour)
“Well, I’m a big baseball fan. I grew up loving baseball. I played baseball. I figured one thing about this sport specifically is that it starts with really young kids, as young as three usually even starts in Little League. My son didn’t get to play the game. I know he definitely wanted to,” said St. Clair.
“I’ve always wanted to do all 30 baseball stadiums, but I had no idea how to do them all in 30 days. And of course, last year we had a lot of drownings across the United States. One thing that I thought, came up with this crazy idea: Maybe if I do 30 ballparks in 30 days, we’ll have something that will stop people from talking about drowning.”
After catching the Blue Jays losing to the Tampa Bay Rays at the Rogers Centre, the St. Clair Wednesday morning on a plane to Detroit to drive to Cleveland for the Guardians’ game against the Minnesota Twins. He drives back to Detroit to catch the Tigers facing the Kansas City Royals.
The map is built out – and yes, St. Clair is petrified of rain, canceled flights and just about anything that derails his 17 flights, six drives, four trains, one boat and one bike (he was ecstatic to remember that the Rogers Center has a retractable roof during his rainy day in Canada).
But he likes to think the baseball gods and his loved ones are on his side.
“I think even though this whole campaign that I’m doing is only 30 days, that’s the bigger goal after the 30 days, right? What happened? What information did we get out there? How much of an actual reach did we get? I really hope the reach was great,” said St. Clair.
Jonathan St. Clair is going to all 30 MLB stadiums in as many days to honor her son. (Wave Maker Tour)
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“I opened my feed this morning and five people in Ohio drowned in a river and that’s not what I want to see. I want to wake up in the morning — I know we’re never going to get to zero — but the goal is to make people aware that if they’re in those rivers and stuff, put on a life jacket. So we’re working on it in three, one step at a time. feat.
“I was on the phone with my wife a few hours ago and she said, ‘How are you doing?’ And I thought, ‘I’m pretty tired today. I have three hours on two flights.’ But that’s okay. I have so many people behind me and this is not just me. I’m not doing it alone. I have hundreds of people behind me who have helped coordinate, who are at all the stops in every place, and they make my experience at every stop a real experience, not just a stopover, so to speak.”
