Former MLB players raise money for Delaware County man recovering from stroke
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A celebrity softball game was held Saturday to support a Delaware County man struggling with health challenges. He's still recovering after having a stroke two years ago.
Former major league baseball players put their talents to the test on a softball field and it was all for a good cause.
The game raised money for 65-year-old Jeff Scott from Havertown who suffered a stroke just one week after his double knee replacement.
"Any time you can help a family and a community, it's going to be important and this is just a real tragic situation where you're just you know, you go into hospital to get new knees and you come out with a stroke," Philadelphia Phillies Ambassador Mickey Morandini said.
The stroke initially left Scott unable to walk, talk or even swallow.
He's made a lot of progress in the last two years but he can't work and half of his body is paralyzed. So he and his daughters are relying on income from his wife's job to get by.
"We know that there a lot of families have bigger challenges than we do," wife Xenia Scott said. "That's why when John Durso with Homers for Hope asked if they could help us, we said no two times until we finally said yes."
Homers for Hope is the nonprofit that organized the softball game.
On one team were sponsors of that organization who had to raise money to play. On the other team, members of the Major League Baseball Players Alumni Association.
In total, the game raised $30,000 so the Scotts can renovate their home to be wheelchair-accessible.
"We are actually sending the Scotts on a vacation down the shore so that they can come home and not have to deal with the construction dust," co-founder and president of Homers for Hope Durso said.
Many of the people who raised money for Scott are complete strangers. He says the gesture is overwhelming.
"I have to say, I never expected anything like this," Scott said. "It makes you love your fellow man, I have to say that."
A community coming together to support a family as they adjust to their new normal.
