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LEXINGTON — Lexington Legion coach Tom McCarthy pitched professionally for 16 years.
He thought he had done and seen it all. But events of this past week have left the tough-as-horsehide manager shaken.
“We won a ballgame tonight,” said McCarthy after his inspired team battered South Rowan 11-0 at Holt-Moffitt Field on Tuesday. “But winning a ballgame seems pretty minimal right now.”
McCarthy lost a ballplayer this week. He also lost a friend. Matt Barbee, an 18-year-old from Arcadia, died on Sunday at the Duke Medical Center after a seven-month battle with leukemia.
“Matt was a special person to every member of this team,” said McCarthy. “He was a kid who never said a cross word and a kid who was liked by everyone he met. His father (Tom) lost a great kid. I can’t tell you how badly we all feel.”
Just last summer, Barbee was McCarthy’s main man out of the bullpen.
“Matt was a good athlete, good enough that he could’ve played college football somewhere, but he just loved to play baseball,” said McCarthy. “He wanted to throw every single day. That’s why we made him a relief pitcher. He was fearless. He could come in with the bases loaded and no outs and strike out the side.”
Barbee helped Lexington reach the second round of the playoffs last summer, shortly after he graduated from North Davidson High.
But the first symptoms hit him in November. At first, he thought he just had an awful case of the flu. Doctors, however, soon discovered that his white cell count was off the charts. It wasn’t the flu, it was something infinitely more serious — acute lymphatic leukemia.
“At first, the doctors were all optimistic and Matt was responding real well to treatments,” said McCarthy. “But then he got out of the hospital and went on a trip to Florida and got real sick down there. The doctors said the leukemia had spread to his spine — just all over, really.”
McCarthy went to see Barbee in the hospital and he’ll never forget that the first thing the kid wanted to know was what day Legion tryouts were going to be held.
Barbee wasn’t about to give up. Neither were McCarthy or his teammates.
Barbee still had one year of Legion eligibility left — he had one of those friendly September birthdays — so the team reserved his No. 20 uniform for him. They dedicated the 2000 season to Barbee and prayed and waited for his return.
But on Friday, June 9, athletics director Jim Lippard solemnly announced to the crowd at Holt-Moffitt that Barbee, who had been transferred to Duke, had taken a turn for the worse.
And by Sunday night, Barbee’s courageous fight was over.
They said a special prayer for Barbee on Tuesday before Lexington played South and the Rev. Roy Howell asked the question that had to be asked — why something like this had to happen to a teenager that didn’t have an enemy on the planet.
His teammates carry on.
McCarthy handed the ball to pitcher Chase Younts last night and the left-hander pitched by far his best game of the summer.
McCarthy figured Younts would be his No. 2 pitcher this year, but he dropped to No. 3, then No. 4, and finally to No. 5. His left arm seemingly had lost the magic it had this high school season, when he was a terror for Central Davidson High.
“Chase just hadn’t pitched a good game in Legion ball,” said McCarthy.
But last night, Younts was renewed. He pitched a shutout, the only gesture he had the power to make for his fallen teammate.
“It all worked for Chase tonight,” said McCarthy. “Everything he had.”
And behind Younts, the defense made every play. No errors. Somehow each player concentrated for 21 outs.
“The way the kids played —I guess maybe it showed how much Matt meant to all of them,” said McCarthy. “I know they really wanted to play.”
Barbee will be buried Thursday at 2 p.m. at Hedrick’s Grove United Church of Christ.
One day later, Lexington comes to Landis to play South Rowan again.
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