You’re never too old to become a dedicated baseball fan, and never too old to fulfill a baseball dream.
Just ask 103-year-old Kitty Cohen who became an even bigger Blue Jays fan two years ago after she became the oldest person to ever throw the first pitch at a game.
For that moment, she practised throwing the baseball for a month but was disappointed to learn she wouldn’t have the chance to run the bases first.
So Cohen wrote a letter to Blue Jays General Manager John Gibbons, asking if he would do her the honour of circling the bases with her. He and the team obliged this weekend, much to Cohen’s delight.
“It was the most thrilling, unexpected beautiful experience that an old lady of 103 can experience,” the always-smiling Cohen told CTV News Channel Monday.
Asked how she managed to do it, she offered this two-word reply: “Sheer will.”
Cohen says the real answer is that she trained for it. She ran the hallways of her residence for the past month, “to see how those legs would act.
“And they responded beautifully. I was able to do it without any kind of hesitation. And I want to do it again. And Mr. Gibbons invited me to do it next year, when I’m 104,” Cohen said.
In the meantime, Cohen is on another mission. The long-time song-and-dance troupe member wants to dance again, like she did when she was younger.
“I want to find a dancing partner. I want to get on that dance floor and jive like I did when I was a teenager. That is another dream,” she said.
“And there is someone out there waiting for me. I don’t care what his age, what his colour, or what his religion. I just want to dance at this stage in my life, and dance the way I love to dance.”
