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Son will go to bat for title for biggest fan
Monday, June 21, 1999 By Mike White, Post-Gazette Sports Writer
You are 17 years old and a key member of a baseball team on the brink of winning a state championship. Today, you will participate in the biggest game of your life, playing in a minor-league park and sharing hopes of winning gold medals with your teammates.
Tomorrow, you will bury your father.
Paul McGrath is the starting center fielder and leadoff hitter for the Shaler Area High School team that will play for the PIAA Class AAA championship at 4 p.m. today at RiverSide Stadium, the home of the Harrisburg Senators, the Class AA team of the Montreal Expos.
Tomorrow, McGrath will attend his father's funeral.
McGrath's father, Paul, was a city firefighter who had a heart attack and died while fighting a fire Thursday.
Viewing for the elder McGrath was Saturday and yesterday at William F. O'Brien Funeral Home on the North Side. The younger McGrath missed yesterday's viewing and last night's memorial service. Instead, he left with his teammates on the four-hour bus ride to Harrisburg.
McGrath thought long and hard about leaving yesterday, but he said he believed his father would have wanted him to go. Paul's family believes the same thing. That's why the funeral was delayed until tomorrow.
Paul's father was his biggest fan.
"I need to play for him," he said. "This is a chance to give something to my dad."
McGrath said Shaler Coach Jerry Matulevic told him he didn't have to play in the game. But McGrath hasn't missed a practice since his father's death.
Today, he believes there's an angel in the outfield.
"I went over to the firehouse the other day and he had newspaper stories all over the wall about the team," McGrath said. "One of the other firemen told me all he talked about was the team and how good I was doing."
The past few weeks have been exciting for the McGrath family. A few weeks ago, Shaler won a WPIAL title for the first time in 18 years. Then came three PIAA playoff victories, one by two runs and two others by one run.
McGrath has played a key role. He was a catcher on the junior varsity last year but earned the starting center fielder job this season. Matulevic has said that McGrath was one of the better defensive center fielders he has had in 28 years as coach. McGrath, a junior, also is hitting well over .300.
"He's very underrated," Matulevic said.
In a 6-4 semifinal victory over Erie Cathedral Prep Tuesday, McGrath led off the game with a double and finished 1 for 3. He got a big handshake from his father after the game.
Then Thursday, Shaler had just started a morning practice when McGrath's mother, Donna Kimmel, showed up at the field. Her ex-husband had died early that morning while fighting a fire at the old St. John's General Hospital complex in Brighton Heights.
"I always used to get mad at my mom because she does stuff like walking in on practice or coming over to the bench during a game," McGrath said. "When I saw her walk into practice, I got mad at first. But I saw her go up to the coaches and she was crying. I knew something was wrong."
On Friday, police charged Jason Allen Best, 17, of Brighton Heights, with homicide. He had been charged late Thursday with arson.
The elder McGrath was a 19-year veteran of the Pittsburgh Fire Bureau. He worked for 17 years at Engine Co. 37 in Manchester and the past two years at Engine Co. 37 in Perry North.
Some of the firefighters at the stations plan to make the trip to Harrisburg to root on the younger McGrath.
McGrath said his teammates and coaches have been great.
"They've let me know that they're all there for me." he said.
But McGrath's father won't be there when McGrath steps into the batter's box as Shaler's leadoff batter.
"I'm anxious to play the game," McGrath said. "It's going to be weird without him there. There's going to be a lot going through my mind when the game starts. But I think I'm going to concentrate more than I ever would."
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