Colin Simpson: Keeper Of The Game
Keeper Of The Game might ring a bell for some Grand Junction Rockies fans. It’s a non-profit organization started by James Vilade to provide kids and young adults with special needs and disabilities opportunities to get involved within the game of baseball. Vilade’s son Ryan is a former Grand Junction Rockies infielder who is currently with the High-A Lancaster JetHawks. Another Keeper Of The Game ambassador is current GJ Rockies player Colin Simpson who became involved with the organization in college at Oklahoma State University and has developed a friendship with a special needs teenager named Matthew Sitton.
“Our friendship started my junior year of college. His mom’s a professor at OSU and she went on a trip around spring break so his brother was watching him,” Simpson said. “James knew Matt and told his mom that she could bring him by the field when she was busy with schoolwork. He would come by, hang out at the field, and sit in our dugouts during practices.”
Simpson said that while the team was nervous to talk to him at first because they didn’t know him, they opened up over the course of two seasons.
“At first, it was Jon Littell and another kid named Carson Teel who kind of started talking to him and interacting with him at practice. Then I started talking to him in my junior year,” Simpson said. “We got to last year and we just started talking all the time and we became really, really good friends. After every game, he’d come up and give me a hug. If we won and it was a crazy game, he would start crying because he was so excited. He’s an awesome kid.”
As Sitton became closer to the team and made more friends, Keeper Of The Game stepped in to make sure he was able to experience Oklahoma State baseball.
“Keeper Of The Game bought Matt season tickets to our games and he got to pick his own seats so obviously he picked right above our dugout. He was at every single home game. He even traveled to some of our games in Oklahoma City and Norman. The Keeper Of The Game was a huge reason why he got so involved with baseball.”
It all came together in one big birthday celebration for Sitton who turned 17 this season. The video from his birthday went viral garnering over 300,000 views between Facebook and Twitter.
“For his birthday, the Keeper Of The Game bought hm a bat. We got him some free OSU shirts and a card signed by the team. After that day, that’s when everybody could see how much they meant to him because of the way he acted when everybody sang him happy birthday and saw how happy he was. Our team started to open up, talk to him more, and hang out with him more. He is more of like another teammate to us.”
Simpson might be onto his next step here in professional baseball but he still keeps in touch with Sitton and his family. After all, he has to know how his namesake sheep is doing.
“Matt’s in FFA and he shows sheep. They actually have a sheep named Tank. Me and his mom text quite a bit. She’ll send me pictures of Matt working with the sheep. Tank the sheep had his first showing recently and he did great.”
For more information on Keeper Of The Game, visit KeeperOfTheGame.org.
