He managed the Dodgers but what about his own son?

Today the Dodgers hired former Orioles Assistant General Manager, Kevin Malone.

I feel truly blessed to be a Los Angeles Dodger. 

He was gone probably two hundred and fifty, two hundred and seventy days of the year. As far as interacting on a daily basis with the kids he wasn’t there. 

I was basically focused on other things. I had things to do. I had players to scout. I had a team to help win a championship and really not thinking much about it, thinking I was a good father because I was providing and giving them all the things that they wanted. I didn’t realize until much later that what they wanted was me. 

Call:

911 emergency Sarota

Yes, my son is choking and he is not waking up.

Hold on, is he turning blue?

No, not yet

Do you know him?

Yeah, it’s my son.

It wasn’t until the very end when things started becoming more noticeable.

Shawn started getting into drugs probably in high school.

When he got to USC it was full-blown chaos. These were kids that had resources. They had money. They had all the drugs and all the alcohol. Maybe me being gone so much created loneliness or void in his life that I wasn’t the father that he needed. 

There was a loss of oxygen to his brain. They told me that Shawn probably is not going to make it. 

So I went out into the waiting room and started praying. I started calling every man of God, every woman of God I knew, texting and emailing “pray for my son”. The words were that we don’t think he’s going to make it. 

At first you just kind of go blank when they tell you that, that your son is gone. My thought was, “he doesn’t know the Lord.”

The doctors were telling us, “we don’t think he’s going to make it.” 

He could wake up and he would be a vegetable. Shawn wouldn’t want to live like this. 

It’s best after thirty days to pull the plug on him. So, that was really tough.

Son, let me see, look up. Look straight at me son. Let’s see a big smile, Shawn.

I remember Kevin praying that evening and we were beside his bed. There was a tear that came out of Shawns’ eye. You have to understand he is lifeless. The doctors are saying he’s brain dead. There is nothing there. He’s gone.

He started to cry. It was weird. I thought he wasn’t supposed to do anything. Then all of a sudden the tears were coming out of his eyes and I was like, “Wow”.

I felt like he was communicating to his dad because his dad was so broken. He loved him so, so much. 

There was a tech in there with Shawn. They would talk to him like he was there and able to speak back. That’s what happened. He spoke back to her. It scared her to death. 

My name is Shawn Malone and my age is twenty-five years old. Back in college I was getting straight A’s and doing drugs at the same time. My parents said I was in a coma for two months. I didn’t think I was broken but I was.

I was with my dad and I asked for forgiveness of my sins. I asked Jesus Christ to come into my life. I was so close to God it’s amazing.

There are many wonderful people that we know who have lost children to drugs. So, are we deserving? No. God just blessed our life to give us Shawn back.

What would you have done if I had died?

I probably would have died too.

I never thought we’d be doing this a year and a half, two years ago. 

Yeah.

I thank God that we can play catch again. 

Yeah.

Right here.