Beating the odds: Batboy an inspiration, comfort for Gamecocks
Nati Harnik/AP
OMAHA, Neb. -- As South Carolina celebrated another baseball national championship, someone looked out of place as bodies crashed into one another to form the traditional dogpile on the TD Ameritrade Park playing field.
About five steps away from the growing heap of Gamecocks, a little boy, leaning forward with anticipation, wanted desperately to join in. He just was not quite sure how, considering his size relative to the others around him.
"I didn't want to get smashed," said Charlie Peters, a 13-year-old Omaha native who served as USC's batboy for four of the team's five College World Series games.
After moving a few steps forward, a couple back and then a few more forward, Peters eventually just went for it. He launched his 5-foot, 75-pound frame into the mountain of bigger baseball players, sticking the landing and joining the party.
"It was awesome," Peters said. "I was sitting on top of (outfielder) Evan Marzilli's head."
In reality, even if he appeared that way, Charlie Peters was not out of place. No, he had just as much to celebrate, if not more, than the back-to-back NCAA champs.
First meeting
It was another cast of Gamecocks that first met Charlie Peters in 2003. The common thread, of course, was coach Ray Tanner. Tanner was making his second trip to the College World Series -- his second in as many years with the Gamecocks, actually.
Early in the tournament, the team scheduled a trip to Children's Hospital in Omaha. That's where they found Charlie, diagnosed earlier that year with Burkitt's lymphoma.
He was struggling. He was weak. But he was happy to see the team come through the doors. After all, even at 5 years old, he had his own desires to one day be a ballplayer, to be like them.
Charlie's mom, Jenny, remembers that Tanner and the Gamecocks seemed different than others who visited her son. They asked lots of questions. They wanted to hold Charlie's baby sister. They lingered.
Life had to have been moving at dizzying speeds for the Gamecocks, but they slowed down long enough to enter into Charlie's world and hang out for a bit.
Then came the call the following day. Tanner wanted to know if Charlie felt good enough to come to Rosenblatt Stadium and be an honorary batboy.
"They could have just signed a hat and then gone on to the next kid, but they didn't," Jenny Peters said. "They took it into their hands. Coach took it into his hands to bring him closer. That takes a lot when you're coaching some of the biggest games of your life.
"He knew this could make this kid's life a little bit better right now."
Truthfully, he probably wasn't healthy enough for the gig -- but how do you turn down that sort of offer? And he didn't.
During USC's elimination game against LSU, Charlie retrieved a couple of bats and enjoyed the experience. Fatigued, though, he spent just as much time in his mom's arms in the stands as he did in the dugout.
The Gamecocks didn't last much longer in Omaha -- and it appeared Charlie was on a similar path.
"We almost lost him a few times that summer," Jenny says, wincing at the words.
Never giving up
South Carolina, stronger, was back in Omaha in 2004. And Charlie Peters, stronger, was there to greet the Gamecocks.
Tanner and the returning players were stunned to see a very healthy version of Peters, who made a dramatic recovery and was deemed cancer-free by Christmas 2003.
Charlie had brought a sign to the ballpark in 2003. It said, "Never give up." He did not, and in 2004 he literally showed the team the scars to prove it.
"To see him recovered," said Karen Tanner, Ray's wife, "it meant more than I could ever describe."
South Carolina reached the College World Series semifinals that year, but no one realized how long it would be until the Gamecocks made it back.
By 2010, the team had turned over several times. Tanner was just about the only constant.
Still, whenever USC clinched a spot in the field of eight, Tanner knew he had to see Charlie. He knew he had to introduce a new group to the boy, now 12, who had tangled with cancer and won.
That feeling really set in after USC lost the 2010 CWS opener after 8 1/2 hours and two separate rain delays.
Charlie came out for the next game and brought another sign to the park, the last year for the College World Series at Rosenblatt. It had a picture of him in his hospital bed in 2003, bald and the future bleak. And then a current picture of him, healthy and the future bright.
"I didn't give up!" he exclaimed on the sign.
The Gamecocks didn't, either. USC won six straight games, including four elimination games, to win the school's first men's national title. In one of those games, against Oklahoma, the team was down to its final out -- its final strike -- before rallying to victory.
In the news conference after USC won the championship, Tanner credited Charlie and Bayler Teal, a 7-year-old Bishopville native who lost his life to cancer during the CWS, for inspiring the team.
"We could not have done this without them," Tanner said.
Signs of hope
South Carolina again reached the College World Series in 2011, the fifth appearance for the program in the past decade.
"When they won (the super regional), we ran out and we were screaming up and down the street," Charlie said.
South Carolina again visited Children's Hospital in 2011. Charlie was there again with the Gamecocks -- but this time as a visitor and not a patient.
To those ailing there now, Charlie is just as much of a hero as the baseball players. He represents someone who came through the hospital's doors very ill -- and walked out of them feeling fine.
"I think hope is one of the true, true reasons for existence," Jenny Peters said. "For some reason, God wanted him to still be here. He beat the odds. He cheated death.
"Charlie is a sign of hope."
That bright beacon of hope was in South Carolina's dugout for its two CWS games against Virginia and its two in the finals against Florida.
With Charlie old enough to be an official batboy, Tanner knew he wanted him as close as possible.
Life had to have been moving at dizzying speeds for the Gamecocks, but they slowed down long enough to invite Charlie into their world and hang out for a bit.
Eight years later, Charlie is still moving Tanner.
The veteran coach woke up the morning of Tuesday's title game and felt stressed. That feeling continued until he arrived that afternoon at the stadium.
He walked into the dugout to find Charlie sitting there smiling. Suddenly, a calm washed over him.
"It was like a sigh of relief," Tanner said. "We chatted, just me and Charlie. It's been wonderful to have that kind of experience with young people like that. It does put it in perspective; we're playing a game.
"Sometimes we feel like there's nothing worse in the world than a loss, but it's really not that big of a deal when you get right down to it. Perspective is an important thing."
The Gamecocks won with ease Tuesday night.
South Carolina again had a reason to celebrate in Omaha in 2011. Lying on top of that dogpile, so did Charlie Peters.
"How could you not see that and feel joy?" Karen Tanner said of the scene, with Charlie the cherry on top. "It just made it all that much sweeter."
Go ahead, Charlie. Pile on. You're a champ, too.
