Bob Lutz: Death of a bat boy brings us together, highlights a year

We’ll never know what Kaiser Carlile would have grown up to be, but we’ll always appreciate what he helped us become.

When the 9-year-old bat boy for the Liberal BeeJays died one August day after being struck in the head by a practice swing by a Liberal player near the on-deck circle at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium, we were numb. It was too much to process and we sought shelter in our own minds.

But then Kaiser’s family spoke. Then the BeeJays players. And the outpouring of emotion over this adorable little boy with freckles and glasses, who took his job as bat boy more seriously than most of us take our jobs, started to heal.

Not lift our sadness, the weight of which was too much to budge. But the stories of Kaiser and his playful, sweet nature helped. We learned enough about him through those who knew him to forge a bond. And it wasn’t long before everyone in Wichita — everyone in the state, really — started to love this kid.

Kaiser Carlile is the person of 2015, as far as I’m concerned. What he stood for is what we should all stand for.

He not only was Liberal’s bat boy, but the team’s inspiration. He idolized the college players who made up the BeeJays’ roster, but wasn’t afraid to mix in with his own brand of third-grade sarcasm. When the zingers started to fly on the team bus, Kaiser didn’t shy away.

The tears told the story, but especially those in the eyes of the Liberal players who, coming from across the country to spend a couple of months playing baseball on the Plains, had known Kaiser for just a short while. But when one after another said Kaiser was as much a part of the team as they were, you started to believe them.

Kaiser’s death turned out to be an inspiration and there can be no greater tribute than that.

The sports year will be remembered for a rare meeting between Kansas and Wichita State on a basketball court, the first one in more than 22 years.

It took the NCAA Tournament to bring them together and while the Jayhawks are 12-3 against the Shockers, it’s WSU 2, KU 0 in the NCAAs after the Shockers’ 78-65 win in Omaha in the tournament’s third round. Wichita State also beat Kansas in the 1981 Sweet 16.

Wichita State, which lost to Notre Dame in the Sweet 16 a week later, dominated Kansas. And the Jayhawks took the drubbing with grace as Bill Self complimented WSU’s performance. But he stopped short of scheduling regular-season games against the Shockers.

Bill Snyder, who has made a bunch of end-of-year stories during his 24 years as Kansas State’s football coach, was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame this month. For all of the accolades said and written about Snyder for the past 25-plus years, it still doesn’t feel like the right words have been found, does it?

He’s still going strong at 76 and has Kansas State in another bowl game, although at 6-6 it’s not been the best of Wildcat seasons. Still, they won their final three games of the regular season in their fight to get to .500. Under Snyder, K-State has never stopped fighting.

WSU basketball coach Gregg Marshall flirted with leaving when Alabama backed up the Brink’s truck. But lo and behold, a small group of gold-bearing Shocker boosters stepped up to make Marshall a $3 million-plus offer he couldn’t refuse and he is still at Wichita State. Until the next Brink’s truck, at least.

Shocker baseball had a losing season. And those are six words not uttered about Shocker baseball since Gene Stephenson resurrected the program in 1978. Makes you wonder about Todd Butler’s third season, coming up in 2016, and whether he can get Wichita State back on the winning path. The season starts in mid-February, so we’ll find out soon.

The City League’s boys basketball wins leader, Carl Taylor, died in January. Meanwhile, Heights’ Joe Auer is coming on fast to take over that honor. He should pass Taylor in January.

And even though the Kansas City Royals technically don’t play in Kansas, it sure seems like every Kansan has become a Royals fan over the past couple of years. Hey, can you really blame them? Who doesn’t love a winner, especially one as exciting as KC, which built a cliffhanger into every postseason game?

It culminated with a World Series win over the New York Mets, Kansas City’s first championship in 30 years and one so many Royals fans questioned whether they’d witness in their lifetimes. And those were the teenagers, such was KC’s frustrating string of futility.

But baseball being baseball, there was angst among Royals fans almost as soon as the champagne had been poured from the bottles. World Series heroes Ben Zobrist, Johnny Cueto and Alex Gordon became free agents. Zobrist has signed with the Cubs, Cueto is headed for San Francisco and Gordon appears to have priced himself out of the Royals’ market.

Kansas City hasn’t replaced any of them, making one wonder if a third World Series in a row will be possible. We’ll have to wait for 2016 to find out.

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This story was originally published December 30, 2015 at 2:39 PM with the headline "Bob Lutz: Death of a bat boy brings us together, highlights a year."