FAYETTEVILLE — Johnny Gibson was playing baseball and sprinting to camp underneath a fly ball in the outfield. He extended his left arm in hopes of the ball landing softly in the pocket of his glove.
Then he woke up. “Johnny, you OK?” his grandmother asked. Gibson, seven years old at the time, had unintentionally hit his grandmother in the face attempting to reel in the imaginary popup. The two were sharing a hotel bed on the annual vacation he and his family took each summer when he was younger.
His grandmother almost didn’t mind that the youngest of her 19 grandchildren hit her and caused her to wake up suddenly, only concerned with Johnny’s well-being.