There were plenty of smiles and tears in Arizona on Monday night at The Arizona Diamondbacks game, and very few of them had to do with the actual game being played. Paul Aguirre who is a massive Diamondbacks fan and who was deployed to Afghanistan with the Arizona Air National Guard for the past seven months, gave the surprise of a lifetime to his two children during the first-pitch festivities.
Aguirre’s children, Jackson, 6, and Alanna, 5, threw out the ceremonial first pitches prior to the Diamondbacks and St. Louis Cardinals game to a man dressed in Diamondbacks catchers gear. Prior to the pitches, a video message played on the jumbo-tron in center field which was their father reading them a letter sending his love. Little did they know they were actually throwing the pitches to their own father.
As they walked toward the plate to be congratulated for their efforts, their father removed his catchers mask and the tears began. Paul had just returned from duty in Kandahar a day before.
The scene which followed of a loving family embrace brought a roar of approval from the thousands in attendance and left very few dry eyes.
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