Matt Kemp Gives Terminally Ill Fan The Gift Of A lifetime; Flies Joshua Jones To LA To Meet Famous Baseball Pals[VIDEO]
Los Angeles Dodgers star Matt Kemp stopped to talk to a terminally ill fan three weeks ago, then ended up giving the ill fan his jersey, cleats and hat. But Kemp's good deeds didn't top there for the terminally ill boy, as he flies him to LA.
Matt Kemp flies terminally ill Joshua Jones and his family to Los Angeles to see the Dodgers play on their home turf. Jones is from Tracy, Calif., and his famous encounter with Matt Kemp happened on the field of the rival San Francisco Giants.
Joshua Jones got star treatment at Dodger Stadium on Monday, meeting with Kemp on the field, as well as Dodgers president Stan Kasten, Angels star Mike Trout and Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw.
This all started three weeks ago...
Joshua Jones, is fighting "a tough battle," says his friend Tommy Schultz, who filmed and uploaded the video above. Jones' family "put money together" to get great seats to see the Dodgers play the Giants in San Francisco. The group, including dad Steve Jones and brother Ryan Jones, was able to get the attention of Dodgers third-base coach Tim Wallach.
Wallach said he'd try to get Kemp to come by after the game. Not only did Kemp come by, he made this fan's life by giving him half of his uniform and he surely brought a smile to the face of anybody watching.
Keep in mind, this happened in San Francisco, where the Dodgers lost three close games. So baseball-wise, Kemp probably wasn't in the best of moods. But he still did the most notable thing an athlete can do for a sick fan.
"You don't find a lot of ballplayers who will do something like that for you," Steve Jones told MLB.com. "I asked him to come over and say hello to my son and he's done a lot more than that."
Kemp was booed by fans Monday at Dodger Stadium when he struck out in the third inning of a game the Dodgers eventually won 8-7. But you can be sure one family wasn't booing Kemp.
Kemp is one nice dude. It's so nice to see a celebrity use their power for good. It would be great to read stories like this more often in sports, instead of just the stats.
