Orioles pitcher Brian Matusz, like several million Americans, is allergic to peanuts. So much so that he had a bad reaction during spring training that required him to go to the emergency room.
An eight-year-old boy from Georgia named Wyatt Alford also has a peanut allergy. He read about Matusz’s incident and, when visiting Sarasota for an Orioles spring training game, sought Matusz out. Ballparks being what they are, he couldn’t connect with Matusz, but at the suggestion of Orioles’ staff he wrote to him. The story about it is in the Baltimore Sun today. Specifically, about what Matusz found when he opened the envelope from Alford:Inside the envelope was a newspaper article detailing Matusz’s frightening allergic reaction to a dinner prepared in peanut oil March 9 that sent the 27-year-old left-hander to the emergency room.
Also included in the package was a portable shot of epinephrine that allergy sufferers carry in case of a reaction. Although similar in content to the ubiquitous EpiPen, the Auvi-Q inside Matusz’s envelope was instead square and flat like a thick credit card — easy for autographing — and included audio instructions for injecting it.
I’ve talked about how autographs are weird and I don’t always get the desire for having one, but with a connection like this one -- and an autograph on something so special and personalized -- all that goes out the window.
