Roy Oswalt Returns to Astros After Helping Family With Tornado Devastation

Sports are always more fun to watch with a sense of perspective, but there is nothing fun about getting that perspective after trolling through report after report about a natural disaster. We discussed this situation after the earthquake in Haiti, and sadly, we have a similar – if only somewhat less devastating – situation with the tornadoes in Mississippi that left hundreds without homes, power or resources and caused the deaths of 10 people.↵↵⇥The tornado left destruction that was about three-quarters of a mile wide through rural parts of Mississippi. The storm, the state’s worst natural disaster since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, left 10 people dead. Two people were also killed by storms in Alabama, The Associated Press reported.↵⇥↵⇥Roofs were blown from buildings and hundreds of towering pine trees were snapped throughout Yazoo County, which has about 28,000 residents and is the home county of Gov. Haley Barbour. Hundreds of people remained without power [through the weekend].↵⇥

↵↵One of the families that lost its home, but thankfully no lives, was a couple by the name of Jean and Billy Oswalt. You may have heard of their son, Roy. Word is, he’s a pretty good pitcher.↵↵Oswalt rejoined the Astros on Tuesday after spending the previous few days in Mississippi trying to help his family recover from the destruction of his childhood home.↵

↵↵⇥“The biggest thing is the family’s OK,” Oswalt said. “The house has been there for 40 years, and that’s the only thing they’ve known. The stuff I’ve collected the last 32 years of my life is pretty much gone. I found a few pictures and some clothes, but the other stuff is pretty much gone.”↵↵Oswalt has his own perspective on the matter, telling reporters that even though some of his old trophies, jerseys and other baseball memories were destroyed in the devastation, he’s just happy that his mother is alive. The rest, he said, can be replaced.↵

↵↵⇥“The biggest thing is that my mom’s alive,” he said. “The other stuff you can replace, it’s materialistic stuff.”↵↵Per the report on MLB.com, Jean Oswalt, who was home alone while her husband was away on a hunting trip, hid in a closet that was part of an addition Roy had built for them – the only part of the house that remained standing – until the tornado subsided. When the storm finally passed, she looked up and “a Bible that was in the front part of the house had landed at her feet.”↵↵That sounds like a scene that was cut out of Twister because it didn’t seem believable enough. And that may not even be the most serendipitous part of the story. With the house destroyed, they decided it was best to level the property as quickly as possible in an effort to rebuild. Roy, whose house is less than a mile from his parent’s house and suffered no damage, used the bulldozer Astros owner Drayton McLane gave him for helping the team get to the 2005 World Series. Sure beats a convertible or a trip to Hawaii, doesn’t it?↵

↵↵Oswalt is scheduled to pitch on Thursday in Houston, obviously with his focus on more than just pitching.↵

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