ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- The mass school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, was especially disturbing for Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Brooks Raley.
The small community of about 16,000 people west of San Antonio is the left-hander's hometown. He attended school in the building where the shooting occurred, and his parents and a brother still reside in Uvalde.
"It's a pretty small town," Raley said Wednesday. "News travels fast. My family is still there, my brother lives there, and his wife and daughter. So it hits close to home."
Raley, 33, was in the Rays' clubhouse at Tropicana Field less than an hour before a game against the Miami Marlins when he learned 19 children and two adults had been gunned down at his old school.