'A hero': How Elijah MacNamee overcame tragedy to help Mississippi State get back to College World Series

STARKVILLE – Elijah MacNamee stepped into the batter’s box at Dudy Noble Field and scribbled two letters into the turf with the barreled end of his bat.

GB.

He thumped his chest twice with his fist as he heard the soothing sound of a saxophone. His iconic walk-out song, ‘Thief' by Ookay, blared through the speakers one last time.

He also heard the echo of his name chanted by more than 11,000 people who were about to witness the final at-bat at Dudy Noble of his storied Mississippi State career. “Let’s go Mac! Let’s go Mac!”

Above all, he heard a voice from above.

“Enjoy this moment,” said his late grandpa, Bruce Worley.

Then MacNamee looked up at the sky. The music stopped playing. The crowd stopped chanting. He pointed to the Heavens. 

To observers throughout the stadium, it was just him and Stanford pitcher Will Matthiessen at that point. To MacNamee, there was one other being involved: Grandpa Bruce.

GB.

“This is for you, grandpa,” MacNamee thought.

And then it happened.

On a full-count fastball over the heart of the plate, MacNamee blasted the biggest, most memorable home run he’s ever hit in his baseball career. Mississippi State fans know he’s had plenty of them, the walk-off shots he had in last year’s NCAA Tournament to name two.

His mom, Jennifer Horton, couldn’t believe it. She collapsed into the arms of the mothers of some of MacNamee’s teammates while watching from section 112. She couldn’t help but cry.

She shed tears of joy, of course, but they were also tears of incredulity as she thought about what MacNamee had overcome in the two months leading up to that moment.

A tragic accident

MacNamee was asleep in his house in Starkville on March 31 when Horton’s name appeared on his phone. MacNamee slept through the call. The Bulldogs lost to LSU, 11-2, the day prior, so he wasn’t in the best of spirits.

Information he learned when his mom, who was in town visiting during the home series as per usual, showed up at the house made matters worse. Horton usually stays in Starkville through the morning hours before going back to her house in Cypress, Texas, but she was scuttling to get out of town much earlier than usual this time.

“I've got to rush home,” Horton told MacNamee at the doorstep. “My dad—”

As soon as MacNamee heard her say the last word, he knew something was up. Something serious. Bruce Worley meant the world to both MacNamee and Horton and so many other people he came into contact with during his 74 years of life. MacNamee described him as the funniest person he’s ever met.

“He was always a joy to be around,” MacNamee said. “There was never a negative moment with Grandpa Bruce.”

All MacNamee knew when his mom got on the road was that his grandpa had suffered a “freak accident” in his Cypress home. He fell and had to be hospitalized immediately with severe neck injuries.

Horton was “numb” during the entire nine-hour drive. Seven hours into it, she received a call from the hospital. The doctors and nurses had had to resuscitate Worley. He eventually passed away for good on April 2.

‘My hero’

MacNamee was in his house again that day. His mom’s name popped up on his phone – again. This time he didn’t hesitate to answer. He heard her crying, unable to utter any words.

“There’s no way,” MacNamee thought.

When Horton was finally able to speak, she said what MacNamee feared she would.

“He’s not going to make it.”

It was the first major death MacNamee had ever experienced. A flood of memories flowed through his head. He remembered when Worley would visit from California once or twice per year to throw baseballs with him in the backyard.

Horton said Worley loved baseball. He loved to play it himself, watch it on TV, read about it in the papers and, most importantly, watch his grandson play it. Before moving to Cypress to be closer to Horton one year ago, Worley watched all of Mississippi State’s games on TV or on his computer.

“That’s the relationship they had,” Horton said. “They always talked baseball. It was always baseball. My dad loved the game. He was so proud of Elijah.”

Worley watched the games online this season too, and he would've watched MacNamee play in person against Texas A&M in College Station in May had he not passed away a month prior. It would have been the first time he ever saw MacNamee play in the maroon and white. 

The last conversation Horton ever had with her father occurred on the morning of March 30, hours before MacNamee suited up for the final game of the LSU series. All he wanted to talk about was how his grandson was playing that week. MacNamee hit a home run in the first game of the series, and Worley wanted to chat about it all day.

“He was my hero because he would always tell me I was his hero,” MacNamee said.

Horton said it was all sports, all the time with her father. She said there was a TV on the sports channel every day from the time she was born to the time he passed away. Even in old age, Worley was an avid golfer. He loved to brag about MacNamee to his playing partners.

“My dad would always talk about Elijah so much and always say that he was his hero," Horton said. "And it’s kind of like the tables have turned. He meant enough to my son, so much that he thinks about him every at-bat.”

‘Get back there and start playing again’

Mississippi State played ULM the day after Worley’s death. MacNamee had two hits, two RBIs and two runs scored. He wrote 'GB' in the turf before all four of his at-bats. That's when the tradition started. The way he performed, though, doesn't show the shell of a person he was on the inside.

Ashley Holsenback has been MacNamee’s girlfriend for more than two years. She had never seen him truly cry until his Grandpa Bruce passed away. She said her usually vibrant, joyous boyfriend was "off" for a couple of weeks.

“I hated seeing him like that because he is the one always making me laugh and just being his happy and funny self, so it was sad to see him sad,” Holsenback said. “He never lets anything get him down, and he is such a strong-minded person. I could really tell he was hurting.”

MacNamee’s first road trip with Worley’s death weighing on his mind was at Tennessee. He played great again, going 6-for-11 with three runs scored and three RBIs in three games. As soon as the third game was over, he flew home to attend his grandfather’s funeral.

What he thought would be the toughest day of his life ended up being surprisingly therapeutic.

“That service is what made me feel better,” MacNamee said. “I was devastated, then I went to the service and felt better. I felt like he spoke to me and said, ‘Get your butt back there and start playing again.’”

MacNamee flew back the next day in time for practice.

The tattoos 

Though he felt better about the passing of his Grandpa Bruce, MacNamee wanted a way to honor him forever. He has various tattoos, and they all mean something special to him. He decided to get another to commemorate his grandpa.

On MacNamee’s right forearm, there are now two roses lush with petals wrapped around an analog watch. The flowers symbolize comfort, and the watch reflects the idea that Grandpa Bruce is always watching over him from Heaven. MacNamee plans on getting an eyeball inked above the top rose to drive that point home. He also wants an inscription of two letters inside the watch.

GB.

MacNamee has had the words of Psalm 144:1 written on the inside of his right forearm for a while. Now they're right next to his newest art. "Praise be to the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle." 

“I put it in that position so I can always read it for games," MacNamee said. "I always need to play through the Lord and not let the devil get to me in times when I can easily turn over to bad and think bad thoughts.”

MacNamee has had a lot of reasons to think bad thoughts recently. First it was his Grandpa Bruce passing away. Then it was fracturing his foot, an injury that affected his play in the field and at the plate and ultimately kept him out of the Mississippi State lineup for two full weeks. 

Then it was just last week, when a player everyone knows as 'Big Hit Mac' for his knack of getting game-changing hits in the most clutch of moments was snubbed entirely from the 2019 MLB Draft. Forty rounds, more than 1,000 picks, and no mention of MacNamee's name. 

Sink or swim 

MacNamee wants to get one final tattoo on his right forearm, and it would perfectly embody the year he's had. The words "sink or swim" will soon be planted permanently on his skin. 

“'Sink or swim' means are you going to just give up and sink, or are you going to swim and not give up?" MacNamee said. "Obviously my mentality is to keep swimming.”

He learned that from Grandpa Bruce, who once had a stroke on the golf course and didn't call to alert or ask help from his wife. He simply drove the golf cart to the parking lot and proceeded to drive himself to the hospital. 

"He's a warrior," MacNamee said. "Unbelievable." 

Horton thinks the same of her son. When MacNamee wasn't drafted by any Major League organizations, she said she felt as much heartache that day as she did back in April when her father passed away. 

Horton couldn't even call him. She said she was so full of sadness, anger and disbelief that she wouldn't know how to have a conversation.

“I’ve always told him that he could achieve anything he wanted to if he put his mind to it," Horton said. "It was like a stab in the heart when his name wasn't called.”

The first real heart-to-heart the two had was when Horton arrived in Starkville before the Super Regional. She half-expected her son to still be as sad as she was, but she wasn't the slightest bit shocked to see that he had already moved on from not getting drafted and put his focus on getting Mississippi State back to the College World Series. 

Sink or swim mentality. 

A magical moment for Mac

At a press conference two days after the MLB Draft ended and two days before his unforgettable home run against Stanford, MacNamee sat in front of reporters with his hands folded on a table. The ink on his right forearm was proudly on display. 

He told everyone he had decided to put the fate of his baseball career, which might be over in a matter of days, in the hands of God. In a way, that gives Grandpa Bruce some say in what happens next for 'Big Hit Mac.' 

When MacNamee launched his three-run homer against Stanford into the Left Field Lounges this past Sunday, he pointed up to the sky multiple times – just as he did when originally stepping into the box. His mom knew exactly what he was doing. 

“I know he was thanking God for helping him get through everything, but it’s also pretty cool because for as much as he was depending on God, my dad was right there with him," Horton said. "I can’t help but think there was something divine and magical about that moment.”

MacNamee has had an endless amount of support from Mississippi State fans and the baseball community in general since the hit. Even the official MLB Twitter account Tweeted the video of his epic home run. He was thrilled to find that it caught the attention of one of the most prominent players on his favorite team: third baseman Alex Bregman of the Houston Astros. 

Bregman responded to the MLB's Tweet with 'What's that umpire doing?' First base umpire Frank Sylvester got in MacNamee's ear for taking too long to start rounding the bases. MacNamee didn't care. He joked that he's going to pretend that Sylvester simply told him "good job." 

"I thought it was a little uncalled for, but at the end of the day, he has no idea of what I've been through personally and stuff so I understand where he's coming from," MacNamee said. "I just set that aside and enjoyed my moment." 

It was clear how much MacNamee enjoyed his moment. He said connecting with that ball was like releasing a mixture of joy and frustration. He pointed to his fans in right field, the same ones who slap fives with him and give him their best grilled treats over the wall in between innings. He kept his hand raised to point at the folks in left, the same ones who jumped up and down as his home run ball sailed in their direction. 

He flexed for his teammates who were standing in the dugout, all of whom know exactly what he has been through during the last two months. He looked up at section 112, where his mom was still immobilized by a combination of exaltation and bewilderment. 

“God showed my son his worst and still allowed him to show his talents when I would have been crippled at the plate,” Horton said. "Mentally he was so strong in there when other people wouldn’t be. It was the best feeling ever. The best moment ever. All I could say for 20 minutes after was, ‘God is so good.’”

There was no way MacNamee could neglect his No. 1 supporter in that moment. His hero. The final act in a celebration that might go down in Mississippi State baseball history as the best ever was a touching tribute to Grandpa Bruce. 

"I beat my chest and pointed to the sky," MacNamee said. "That’s what I do when I put his initials in the dirt. I just couldn’t thank him enough. I know that my grandpa was up there. He was definitely smiling. I guess you could say I was showing him some love too.”

Contact Tyler Horka at thorka@gannett.com. Follow @tbhorka on Twitter. To read more of Tyler's work, subscribe to the Clarion Ledger today!