Oakland A's, MLB rally around 9-year-old whose family lost everything in wildfire
Baseball season had just begun, and Tait Smith wanted to do something special for his son’s birthday. So he took 9-year-old Loren Smith to see his favorite team, the Oakland Athletics.
Loren returned home that night with a hat signed by manager Bob Melvin and an autograph from A’s legend Rickey Henderson. Third-base coach Chip Hale even tossed Loren a foul ball during the game. Loren’s father put the souvenirs on a top shelf for safekeeping.
“But they’re all gone now,” Tait Smith told Paste BN Sports on Tuesday. “It’s heartbreaking.”
The Smiths’ home in Santa Rosa, Calif., was reduced to ashes in the early morning hours of Oct. 8, as a series of deadly wildfires whipped through Northern California, burning hundreds of homes and displacing about 20,000 residents. Tait Smith said the family lost everything. They are staying with his mother in a neighboring town as they start to rebuild their lives, with a little unexpected help from the A’s and the rest of the Major League Baseball community.
After the fire, Loren wrote a letter to the A’s telling them about the items he had lost when his home burned, including “my baseball collection cards, my 17 jerseys and 10 hats.” The letter was picked up by a local TV station and soon went viral on social media.
A’s team president David Kaval told Paste BN Sports that he saw a picture of the letter on Twitter and wanted to help.
“It hits you like a ton of bricks, because you know the family’s going through so much,” Kaval said. “I thought the least we could do is obviously outfit the family and get them new A’s gear, and that response I think just kicked off a whole groundswell of support.”
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In the days since, the A’s have offered to outfit the family in new A’s gear while simultaneously serving as a donation hub for fans who want to help. A number of former players, including ex-A’s pitcher Dan Haren and retired Red Sox first baseman Kevin Youkilis, offered to help. And at least 14 MLB teams have posted on Twitter that they are sending memorabilia to Loren, in an effort to help rebuild his collection.
Tait Smith said his family has been blown away by the response and left with a sense of “overwhelming gratitude.”
“It’s been pretty unbelievable,” he said. “Somebody said (Loren’s letter) made it to a news station and they read the letter and it went from there. … We’re just very, very, very thankful.”
Kaval said the team is simply trying to help with “one step in the healing process.” He and other team representatives will meet with Loren on Friday to deliver some of the A’s memorabilia, plus a few surprises.
The A’s have also teamed up with six other professional sports teams in the Bay Area to commit $450,000 to fire relief efforts, and Kaval said the organization is working individually with at least 20 families to help replace their lost A’s merchandise. The A’s will continue to accept donations from fans and teams at their executive offices at the Oakland Coliseum, with no deadline.
“If we can be a clearinghouse to get it to families that have been affected, including Loren’s, then we’re going to do that,” Kaval said.
For Tait Smith, baseball gear will offer only a brief reprieve. After evacuating his wife, Amber Watkins, and two kids, Loren and 9-month-old Seth, he stayed behind to try to save their house, running from one side to the other with a garden hose. Baseball memorabilia will not rebuild his home, nor erase memories of falling power lines, blue explosions in the distance and patches of fire and smoke — “almost like a demon was throwing these huge fireballs over the mountain toward us,” he said.
“I thought it would be easier to save the house than try to get stuff out,” he said. “I didn’t know it was going to be that big of a fire.”
No, a few new baseballs and jerseys won’t fix all of that. But it’s a start.
“Just trying to make something positive out of something negative here,” Tait Smith said, “and keep going.”
To donate memorabilia to the Smiths and other Northern California wildfire victims, e-mail community@athletics.com. To donate to the Smiths' fire fund, visit their Go Fund Me page.
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