Good news finally came over the weekend in the case of the son of Chicago Cubs scout Keith Lockhart, who was in intensive care after a terrible baseball injury.
After a horrific week, Chicago Cubs scout Keith Lockhart tweeted out some excellent news on Sunday:
Big day for Jason, moved down a couple floors to a different room, way to go bud!#nomoreicu #staystrongj
— Keith Lockhart (@klocky7) July 2, 2017
What happened
Jason Lockhart, Keith’s son, was playing in a baseball tournament in South Carolina on June 17, when routinely crossing in front of the plate led to him being hit with a throw from the catcher to the pitcher. He initially was diagnosed with a broken nose and received some stitches, but then things turned much worse when he went in for X-rays two days later. His nose began to bleed profusely, and the doctors could not get the bleeding to stop.
An MRI revealed a severe fracture within the nose had lacerated an artery, causing the bleeding, and required that Jason be put into a paralytic state so he would not further injure himself from movement as the doctors attempted to repair the damage done through surgery.
Thursday brought this great news, before his eventual move out of ICU on Sunday:
Good News Team Elite family Jason Lockhart is awake and doing better ! #pray4Jason
— Team Elite Baseball (@TEAMELITENATION) June 29, 2017
Keith’s playing career
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For those who do not remember, Lockhart is more than just a scout for the reigning World Series champions.
Lockhart was a well-regarded player even as a primary reserve for his major league career, playing 10 years in the major leagues and never accumulating 500 plate appearances in a single season.
His .261/.319/.385 slash line is not anything that most would recall, but he played on some very notable Atlanta Braves teams in the late 1990s and early 2000s as a reserve infielder and platoon second baseman during that time.
For a guy who played a reserve role primarily, he accumulated nearly 100 appearances in the playoffs, and that is where he was at his best, with a career postseason slash line of .287/.354/.425. That includes a stellar performance in his final postseason appearance in 2002 against the San Francisco Giants in the NLDS with the Braves, when he hit .333/.467/.583 over the five games with a home run. He was trusted enough by Hall of Fame manager Bobby Cox to end up being the final out of the 1999 World Series between the Braves and the New York Yankees.
He’s been a scout with the Chicago Cubs since 2011.
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While the news of Jason moving out of ICU on Sunday is a great bit of news, he still has a fight ahead of him, so keep him in your positive thoughts!