Brockton boy a card-carrying hero: Fire-damaged baseball collection replaced
Published: December 21, 2005
A 12-year-old boy who saved his grandmother from his burning apartment but lost his prized baseball card collection to the flames received a Christmas gift yesterday that only a hero deserves.
John Gallagher of Brockton was given $100 and about eight full sets of baseball cards at the Sportsworld in Saugus. They were donated by two local Samaritans who saw the boy’s story in the news.
Gallagher carried his 79-year-old grandmother, Helen Reid, from the fire and alerted other tenants to evacuate the triple-decker in Brockton Saturday night.
“I wasn’t scared,” he said. “But my baseball cards meant a lot to me.”
Gallagher said he had about 10,000 cards in his collection, which was given to him by his late father seven years ago. His favorite was a 1998 card with Babe Ruth decked out in the Yankees uniform.
Kevin Larson, 43, of Malden, a maintenance worker at the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, said the boy’s story brought him to tears.“I got up at 3:50 a.m. (Monday) and I couldn’t get this out of my head,” said Larson. “The kid lost everything. His house is in shambles. I thought, ‘How am I going to minimize this problem?’ ”
Larson donated $100 and got his good buddy, Phil Castinetti, owner of Sportsworld in Everett and Saugus, to throw in some new baseball cards. “I don’t mind helping out a person like that,” said Castinetti. “I know how much it (a baseball card collection) means to someone.”
Capt. Mark Baker, with the Brockton Fire Department, said no one was injured in the blaze that broke out around 5 p.m. after Gallagher’s 4-year-old nephew knocked over a candle that engulfed the sofa in flames.
“I feel like a hero,” said Gallagher.
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