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ST PAUL, Minn. — They may call themselves the Saints, but it’s not every day that St. Paul’s minor league baseball team actually performs a miracle.
“I’m just lucky, really lucky, to be around,” Rob Warhol says from his seat in the left field stands.
Rob wasn’t looking for divine intervention when he arrived three months ago for his usual Friday night ballgame.
He was simply looking to feed his lifelong passion.
“Well, that’s the team,” Rob says holding up a University of Minnesota baseball photo.
“1970 Big Ten champion team,” he continues.
Rob points to the third baseman in the back row. “That’s me,” he says.
Playing for the Golden Gophers – on a championship team – was the pinnacle for a boy from Richfield who practically grew up on a baseball diamond.
“Right there,” Rob says as points to himself in a montage of players. “The fearsome batter,” he laughs.
Scouted to play in the minor leagues, Rob instead traded his uniform for a tie and tux, and Rene.
“Over 50 years we were together,” says Rob, standing near a credenza on which stands his wedding photo.
“She died of cancer last September,” he says. “I really miss her, I really do.”
Baseball helps.
And so it was when Rob arrived at CHS Field on July 14.
His stay would not last until the opening pitch.
“This is where it happened,” Rob says as he stands near a beer stand, just inside CHS Field.
Rob had just picked up his first beer.
“And boom, down I went,” he says bluntly.
Rob and his heart hit the ground, unconscious.
“They call it the widow-maker,” he says of his heart attack. “It was on my main vein.”
Never had Rob been more in need of a Saint.
He found one in Diane Bauer, who’s worked as a paramedic for 45 years.
The night of Rob’s heart attack, Diane was working the Saints game for Regions Hospital.
She was standing near the stadium’s first aid room when a police officer alerted Diane that a man had just collapsed.
“I ran into the room where my other teammates were. I said, ‘We have a cardiac arrest, grab everything, let’s go.’”
Diane made a quick assessment of Rob’s condition.
“He wasn’t breathing; he did not have a heartbeat,” she recalls. “One of my teammates started CPR. Another teammate put the AED pads on.”
The team shocked Rob’s heart once with the defibrillator.
“And then a teammate doing CPR said, ‘I think he’s breathing,’ and I’m like, ‘Really?’”
The news for Rob only got better.
“He stated moving his arms and then he started moving his head, Diane says. “I’m like, ‘Stop CPR.’”
One month later, Diane and Rob stand at that same beer stand.
“This is the first time,” Diane says of their meet up.
Rob gives Diane a hug. “She’s my best buddy from now on,” he says.
But before Rob goes to his seat to watch the game, he has one other item of business.
“We now call your attention down toward the first base line,” the stadium announcer tells the crowd.
Diane and two of her Regions teammates, Tony Pangal and Sandy Witter, stand with Rob in the infield as the crowd applauds.
“Tonight, we honor them for saving Rob’s life,” the announcer continues.
Then, Rob walks to the front of the mound to throw out the ceremonial first pitch.
The former Golden Gophers third baseman expresses disappointment when the throw hops on its way to the catcher’s mitt.
But how, at this ballpark, can a man of faith not see saints at work?
“If I wouldn’t have been here, if I had been in my apartment, I’d be dead,” Rob says. “If I had been in the parking lot even, I would have been dead.”
Rob pauses, smiles, and resumes his thought.
“This is where I’m meant to be maybe,” he says.
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