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Spokane, Wash., is a long way from Red Oak, Texas, where High-A Spokane outfielder and Rockies No. 12 prospect Jared Thomas grew up. So what he heard before the team¡¯s game on Saturday surprised him.
¡°I go out to stretch on the foul line with the rest of the team, and I hear my name get screamed pretty loudly,¡± Thomas said. ¡°Nobody I knew was at the game, as far as I knew. I turned around and she¡¯s got a poster made out for me.
¡°My jaw just hit the floor.¡±
The poster had various childhood pictures of Thomas with a message that read, in part:
¡°Your 1st grade teacher is SO proud of you,¡± Thomas said.
During his rookie year at Life School in Red Oak, his teacher was, Thomas said, ¡°Miss Rasmussen.¡±
Thomas is 21 and a pro athlete, but your first-grade teacher is your first-grade teacher. You don¡¯t call her by her first name. So Thomas, respectfully, wasn¡¯t sure.
Well, thanks to Bud Bareither, Spokane¡¯s public relations director, her name is Nicole Rasmussen, who now lives 35 or so minutes from the ballpark in Spokane. She moved to the area a while ago, and is still teaching, in Davenport, Wash. When she heard Thomas would be with the team, she contacted his parents via Facebook to confirm. Then she surprised him.
And he took care of his teacher by handing her a bat and posing for a picture.
¡°She contacted my parents and was freaking out about that, and that made me happy,¡± Thomas said. ¡°She was super-proud of me.¡±