Hinch helps combat veterans through Houston-based Camp Hope

HOUSTON (AP) — AJ Hinch clicked open his email and could hardly believe the words that filled his screen.

"I know this may sound a little farfetched to you," the note read, "but baseball saved a young man's life tonight."

Hinch had been involved with the Houston-based PTSD Foundation of America and its treatment center for combat veterans called Camp Hope for some time. He knew of the good work they did.

But the manager of the Houston Astros was stunned by that message last summer from executive director David Maulsby.

He kept reading and learned that Maulsby had been alerted to alarming Facebook posts from friends of a veteran who seemed hopeless and was "telling the world goodbye."

Maulsby reached out to the man, who was not at all open to getting help. But he liked baseball and rooted for the Astros. So Maulsby used that as an opening to get him talking. From there they invited him to an Astros game with people from Camp Hope.

"We got him to agree to do something in the future and get him through the night," Maulsby said. "You never know what's inside somebody's brain, but when someone is threatening suicide you have to assume that they intend to go through with it. Our tactic was to just get him talking about anything else."

So as Hinch's team pitched, hit and ran through the nine innings of a game that hot Saturday night, the man watched his beloved Astros and listened as other veterans described Camp Hope. By the time the players trotted off the field, he was ready to get help.

"He went straight to Camp Hope from there and checked immediately into our program," Maulsby said. "Straight from the ballpark — he didn't even go home to pack."

Hinch said that result will resonate with him for life.

"It's stories like that that inspire me and make me want to be...

source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/Hinch-helps-combat-veterans-through-Houston-based-14561474.php