A Windsor baseball player’s personalized team cap is back home after flying out of a vehicle near Cambridge — then resurfacing hundreds of kilometres away through an extraordinary chain of coincidences. Windsor Stars player Brock Whitson, 24, and his parents were returning home from his brother’s golf tournament in Ottawa on Saturday when they encountered slow-moving traffic on Highway 401. “We were at a snail’s pace,” said Whitson’s mother, Sharon Pippo. “So, my husband rolled down all the windows, turned off the AC and enjoyed some fresh air.” Whitson’s cap was sitting on top of his golf clubs near an open window. When traffic began moving faster, it flew out. Another driver alerted the family, but by then, traffic had accelerated and they could not safely stop to retrieve it. “Brock said, ‘I just lost my baseball hat that I need for the nationals that are coming up in New Brunswick in two weeks,’” Pippo recalled. “He was very disappointed.” The family continued home, believing the personalized number 30 cap was gone for good. But unbeknownst to them, something happening farther back on the highway was setting up a remarkable reunion the following day. A driver spotted the cap near Cambridge, pulled over and picked it up. He brought it home without knowing who owned it — or whether he would ever find the person who did. About 24 hours later, that same man was at the Vollmer Complex in LaSalle while Windsor Stars coach Ron Smith was watching his grandsons play soccer. By chance, Smith was wearing his Windsor Stars cap. “A guy came up to me said, ‘I like your hat. What’s the letters on the side?’” Smith recalled. “I tell him, ‘That’s my baseball team — Windsor Stars baseball.’ He says, ‘I’ve got one just like it.’” The man revealed that the cap he found had the number 30 on the back. Smith immediately knew it belonged to Whitson because only the team’s 25 personalized caps carry player numbers. “I asked him where he found it and he told me he found it on the 401,” Smith said. A hat lost near Cambridge had been recovered by someone from LaSalle — who then happened to cross paths with Whitson’s coach while he was wearing the one item that could connect them. Even Smith struggled to calculate the odds. “What’s the chances? A hundred million or zillion, I don’t know,” he said. The cap carries additional significance for the team. Its side bears the initials of the Windsor Stars’ late public-address announcer, who spent 30 years with the organization. It is also the same cap Whitson wore as the Stars won the Ontario championship back on Aug. 1, qualifying them for the upcoming national tournament in New Brunswick. Pippo said her son was shocked and grateful when Smith contacted him with news of the recovery. “I was speechless. I was so thankful,” she said. “There’s really good people. That person took the time to get the hat and return it.” The family now hopes to personally thank the man responsible for the ultimate catch on Highway 401. However, they only know his first name: Mike. Anyone who can help identify him is being asked to contact the Windsor Stars organization.
