It was a “pitcher” perfect day. As the crowd looked on, Louise stepped up to the mound and readied herself. It was the culmination of a life long love of baseball and the extra arm exercises during morning work outs. After 100 years of anticipation, Louise finally got to throw out the first pitch for the Minnesota Twins at Target Field.
Louise worked as a school teacher until 1938 when she got married and started a family. Six children later, Louise was a full time mom, but still made time to nurture her love of learning as an avid reader and her love of sports as a regular at the kids’ games. After her children were grown, Louise became very involved in her church and now leads an intergenerational reading group at her Brookdale community, where she works with young children by helping them learn how to read.
Louise has always been a sports enthusiast. From professional sports to little league, Louise loved it all. Growing up in Iowa, where there are no professional sports teams, allowed Louise to adopt the Twins as her home team early on. Once she moved to Minnesota to be closer to her children nearly a decade ago, she became an even more dedicated fan. Louise makes sure to watch as many of the Twins games as possible and although she has been to a few Twins games during her lifetime, she has always dreamed of throwing out the first pitch.
Wish of A Lifetime and Brookdale Senior Living are beyond thrilled to have been able to grant Louise’s wish and honor her amazing legacy as well as her lifelong commitment to the Minnesota Twins. Louise threw out the first pitch before the Twins baseball game on Wednesday, September 24th. Her family described the evening as the ‘perfect day’, and thanked the Twins for treating Louise like royalty. Aside from allowing Louise to throw out the first pitch, the Twins gave her a full tour of the stadium, provided her with her own personalized jersey and allowed her a photo opportunity with TC, the Twins’ mascot. Louise will never forget her day with the Twins, and the Twins franchise is forever grateful that they were able to recognize one of their best and longest standing fans.
Photos courtesy of the Minnesota Twins