Aaron Letourneau was eager to head up to Kansas City.
The life-long Royals fan said the moment he knew the team was World Series-bound, he wanted to take his girlfriend along for the ride.
“It would be our first Royals game together, not to mention the World Series to be our first Major League game together, so we got on it,” he said. “We started looking for tickets.”
The two planned to head to the second game against San Francisco, but the day before, they got a royal surprise.
“The next 30 minutes, I’m hearing these noises of pain, and I’m like all right let’s go to the hospital. Let’s get this checked out,” he said.
His girlfriend, Cindy Skoda, was having contractions. She had been monitoring them thoroughly, but they soon realized that this was it. About 22 hours later, the couple welcomed Joseph James into the world. The brown-haired boy weighs 6 pounds 4.1 ounces. He was born two weeks early.
When they knew they couldn’t make it to the big game, they considered selling their tickets online. They had offers for $800, but Aaron said he wasn’t satisfied with making the deal. Instead, they offered the tickets to two people close to Aaron.
“My uncle Larry and my dad,” he said. “They’ve been Royals fans their entire life and their lifelong dream is to go to a World Series.”
As his family watched the game from the stands, Aaron, Cindy and little Joseph watched the game from inside their hospital room. Aaron bought snacks and soda, just as they would have in Kansas City.
When Cindy opened her Cracker Jack popcorn, however, she was in for a big surprise.
“Got to the prize because that’s the best part, almost,” she said. “I opened it up and I said you’re not going to believe what the prize is, and it’s a little Royals sticker. It’s gotta be a one-in-a-million.”
Aaron said he thought of it as fate, and a sign that they did the right thing by passing on their tickets to their loved ones.
“I could have been at the World Series with her and him inside, and I never would have forgot it,” he said. “But, I got to watch game 2 of the World Series, a game I was supposed to go to with my son… it’s a pretty good trade-off.”