A HEARTBREAKING STORY
Fred Faour: Humboldt hockey team tragedy hits close to home for all of us
Apr 9, 2018, 7:00 am
One of the worst stories of the year happened over the weekend, when a bus carrying the Humboldt Broncos, a junior hockey team in Saskatchewan, Canada, collided with a transport truck. It is a horrible, gut-wrenching story, one that should resonate with every parent. In the accident, 15 people were killed, and the remaining 14 on the bus suffered injuries of varying severity. It was, in short, a nightmare.
It also hit home for a lot of reasons. The hockey culture in Western Canada is much like football in Texas. Small towns take pride in their teams, and the community comes together for games. But it goes even deeper than that. The Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League is open to players born in North America at 20 years of age or under. They come from all over the province, and many families act as "billets," allowing the players to stay with them during hockey season.
Rene Cannon is part of one such billeting family. She told the CBC: "We aren't built to not get attached. We take every single boy that's ever come into our house right into our hearts and into our family. They're children of our heart from the moment they walk in our door."
Two of the three young men she was hosting were killed in the crash. Making it worse, one of them was originally misidentified -- at one point she thought she had lost all three. It is impossible to read the stories like that and not feel devastated, especially when you consider how many of our own children take long bus trips and we don't think twice about it. Football teams every Friday night in the fall. Bands. Drill teams. Baseball. Softball. Soccer. Debate teams. And that's just high school.
That is one of the things that makes the story so heartbreaking. We grieve, because any parent understands. Any family understands. We grieve for the players and coaches of the Humboldt Broncos because we will never know what some of those young men could have become. One wanted to be a doctor. Another a broadcaster. All taken away in a matter of seconds in a horrible accident. Young men who could have made a difference in the world. A group of boys who were on their way to a playoff game, in what should have been a highlight of their young careers. A coach. A volunteer statistician. A radio play-by-play guy. All probably thinking about the game, and all the things that young men talk about. In an instant, so many lives were changed forever.
And the impact goes beyond the familes and the community. One of the ER doctors shared his story and called it the "most tragic night of my career." This was a man who worked in a war zone in Syria.
We also grieve for the adults lost, who devoted so much time to the team and the community. And while the cause of the crash remains unknown, the driver of the truck will have to live with this the rest of his life, even if it was not his fault. We grieve for the first responders and medical teams that saw the devasatation firsthand. No one can really train for that.
We grieve for the surviving players, because it is hard to imagine how they cope with something like this.
I've never been to Humboldt, but having spent a decent amount of time in small-town Saskatchewan, I imagine it to be like the other small towns, where there is a true sense of community. Everyone knows everyone else. Hockey is a common bond for everybody. Family often extends to neighbors as much as blood relatives. These are good, hardworking, quality people. It is not unlike growing up in small towns in Texas. The loss of one person resonates throughout a community. It's hard to even fathom something of this magnitude.
As a writer, the greatest frustration is not having the right words. It's almost impossible to imagine what anyone can say to the people affected by this terrible tragedy. So to everyone involved, all I can say is we grieve for you.
We grieve for all of you.
Javy Báez capped a five-run third inning with his ninth career grand slam, and the Detroit Tigers avoided a series sweep by beating the Houston Astros 7-4 on Wednesday.
JAVIER BÁEZ GRAND SLAM!!! pic.twitter.com/O4WZ7W1bSm
— Detroit Tigers (@tigers) April 30, 2025
Baez’s two-out homer off AJ Blubaugh (0-1), a 24-year-old right-hander making his major league debut, put the Tigers ahead 7-1. All five runs were unearned due to shortstop Jeremy Peña throwing error on Kerry Carpenter's grounder.
Riley Greene tied his career high with four hits.
Brenan Hanifee (2-0) pitched two scoreless innings in relief of Jackson Jobe, who allowed three runs, four hits and four walks in three innings. Detroit has won five of seven and nine of 13.
Blubaugh (0-1) struck out two in a 1-2-3 first and gave up seven runs — two earned — and five hits in four innings with six strikeouts and a walk.
Blubaugh was optioned back to Sugar Land after the game.
AJ Blubaugh said he was optioned to Triple-A Sugar Land after today’s start.
— Chandler Rome (@Chandler_Rome) April 30, 2025
Peña hit the first career leadoff home run, the first of his three hits, but Colt Keith hit a two-run homer in the second to put Detroit ahead for good.
First pitch. First swing. See ya. pic.twitter.com/6wIBx541an
— Houston Astros (@astros) April 30, 2025
Jose Altuve hit a two-run double in the fifth and Victor Caratini homered in the seventh against Tyler Holton.
Altuve with a 2-RBI double! pic.twitter.com/XR1zW2Zf5i
— Houston Astros (@astros) April 30, 2025
Holton struck out Yainer Diaz to strand two runners in the seventh and Tommy Kahnle struck out Christian Walker to leave two runners on in the eighth.
Houston went 2 for 10 with runners in scoring position and stranded 12 runners.
Báez drove a high sweeper over the left-field scoreboard.
Houston allowed five unearned runs in the third inning after giving up three in its first 29 games.
Astros: LHP Framber Valdez (1-3 4.00 ERA) opens a three-game series at the Chicago White Sox on Friday night.
Tigers: RHP Casey Mize (4-1 2.12 ERA) opens a four-game series against the Los Angeles Angels and LHP Yusei Kikuchi (0-4, 4.31) on Thursday night.