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A lifelong baseball fan is living every fan’s dream, but unfortunately, it is under tragic circumstances.
Jonathan St. Clair will travel to each of the 30 MLB stadiums in as many days to raise awareness about water safety, 12 years after losing his 21-month-old son Jasper to drowning.
While in the care of a trusted babysitter, Jasper, the St. Clair’s first-born, was taken to a house with a barrier-free pool and left unattended for just a few minutes. The doctors did everything they could to save him for about a week, but sadly 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 he hadn’t even taken any swimming lessons. And so we were very, very baffled. How come we didn’t know how dangerous the water was, or why we couldn’t put the kids in swimming lessons sooner?” St. Clair told Pak Gazette Digital in a recent interview.
The interview took place before the sixth game of his trip, a night game in Toronto, after flying from Denver to see the Colorado Rockies.
“So, all of those things have happened and we’ve learned a lot from the community at large. Since then, we’ve encountered not just one family like ours, but hundreds of us that are out there. And really, this campaign, what I’m doing now, incorporates all of those people. I’m working with organizations like ours in all 30 cities. The idea is to be able to raise awareness in the water safety and drowning prevention community that it’s not something that can happen by chance to another person. It’s something that can happen to you. you.”
Nothing will ever solve that unimaginable burden, but it has been a level of comfort meeting with families who share similar unfortunate experiences, long before this road trip was even a thought.
“I wouldn’t have been able to step forward 12 years ago if it weren’t for this group of families,” St. Clair said.
St. Clair wears a Wave Maker Tour life jacket to every game, which initially draws a few glances from other fans. But when they also see your MLB cap with all 30 team logos, it makes it easier to start a conversation.
“It’s fun walking around town in a life jacket because everyone doesn’t know what to ask, and then someone asks and the conversation starts. It’s actually been great,” St. Clair said.
And as for the hat?
“I feel very in touch with every team I enter because I don’t come as a determined fan. I come with a cause and it’s been very well received. It’s been a lot of fun.”
Already a week into his trip, one parent offered his first-class seat to St. Clair, and another gave him an extra ticket to watch batting practice from behind home plate.
St. Clair, a Washington Los Angeles Dodgers fan, said he had already been to about 10 or 11 stadiums before this trip, and he knows that at 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 realized one thing about this sport specifically is that it starts with very young kids, even three years old usually start in little league. My son didn’t get to play. I know he definitely would have,” St. Clair said.
“I always wanted to do all 30 ballparks, but I didn’t have the idea of doing them all in 30 days. And, of course, last year we had a lot of drownings all over the United States. One thing I thought about was this crazy idea: Maybe if I do 30 ballparks in 30 days, we’ll get some recognition and get people talking about drowning prevention.”
After watching the Blue Jays’ loss to the Tampa Bay Rays at the Rogers Centre, St. Clair boarded a flight to Detroit on Wednesday morning to drive to Cleveland for the Guardians’ game against the Minnesota Twins. He’s driving back to Detroit to watch the Tigers take on the Kansas City Royals.
The map is built, and yes, St. Clair is petrified by rain, canceled flights, and just about anything that takes him off his 17 flights, six trips, four trains, a boat, and a bicycle (he was ecstatic when he remembered that the Rogers Center has a retractable roof during his rainy day in Canada).
But he likes to think that 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 long, the most important goal is after the 30 days, right? What’s happened? What information did we get? How much actual reach did we achieve? I really hope that reach is big,” St. Clair said.
Jonathan St. Clair will go to all 30 MLB stadiums in as many days to honor his son. (Wave Maker Tour)
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“I opened up 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 like that, they should wear a life jacket. So we’re working on it step by step, and that’s it. Thirty days; that’s a pretty big feat.
“I was on the phone with my wife a couple of hours ago and she said, ‘How are you doing?’ And I was like, ‘I’m pretty tired today.’ I have three hours on two flights. But it’s okay. I have so many people behind me, and this is not just me. I’m not doing this alone. “I have hundreds of people behind me who have helped me coordinate, who are at every stop in every place, and they are making my experience at every stop a real experience, not just a layover flight, so to speak.”
