From the left, Matt and Aaron Hair enjoy a Major League Baseball game with their dad, Bill, at PNC Park in Pittsburgh. Photo courtesy of Matt Hair

When Matt Hair was about 9 years old, his dad, Bill, took him to a baseball game while the Frewsburg family was vacationing in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

It was an NCAA Division I game, pitting Coastal Carolina against Wake Forest.

A lover of America’s pastime since he was old enough to walk, Matt was sporting a Frewsburg baseball shirt that night, which drew the attention of a Demon Deacons’ player as the Hairs stood near the dugout.

The player’s name was Dustin Hood, who apparently did a double-take when he saw the lettering on Matt’s T. That’s because Hood hailed from Nederland, Texas, and he was part of a team that years earlier just happened to play in a Babe Ruth World Series in Jamestown.

Furthermore, Hood told Bill and Matt that the host family he lived with during that tournament was from … Frewsburg.

Small world, huh?

“My dad has always told me that when you go to a game and where there’s people who aren’t from Frewsburg, get to know them, get to talk with them,” the younger Hair said Friday night.

It’s a habit that Matt has carried on during a baseball career that began for Ostrom Enterprises in the Frewsburg Tee-Ball League and has continued for 15 years all the way to his senior season as an infielder on the University of Pittsburgh-Bradford team.

Unfortunately, Matt’s get-to-know-you conversations on the diamond have come to an end.

Pitt-Bradford’s baseball season was canceled Thursday night because of the coronavirus while the team was in the midst of a weeklong stay in Fort Myers, Florida.

“Honestly, it was tough,” Matt said. “There were some tears. It was pretty emotional among all the seniors.”

Who said there’s no crying in baseball.

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Matt grew up in the game. His dad played at Frewsburg High. His grandfather, Bill Hair Sr., also coached the Bears for years. In other words, baseball is in the Hair DNA. Heck, younger brother, Aaron, is a senior at Frewsburg and has committed to continue his academic and baseball career at Mercyhurst University in the fall.

“I grew up right behind the baseball field in Frewsburg,” Matt said. “When my dad was coaching at Falconer (Bill Jr. was an assistant coach at the neighboring high school) and they would be playing Frewsburg, I’d sit in the dugout and talk to him and sit in the dugout and talk to the guys.”

He recalled the day his mom, Richal, took him to Diethrick Park for a junior varsity game, pitting Falconer against Jamestown. He was 6 or 7 at the time.

“She said, ‘Bring your (baseball) stuff,'” Matt recalled. “I just remember during the game we got to hit in the (batting) cage. At that stadium, that’s stinking cool.”

So one can imagine how he felt Thursday night when Pitt-Bradford coach Zach Foster called a meeting at the team hotel in Fort Myers to inform his players that their season was over. Their trip to the Sunshine State consisted of two games.

“Today, even last night, it was a time to reflect on all the good times I’ve been fortunate to have playing my whole life,” Matt said. “Life is just like baseball. You can’t get too high or too low. It will kind of squash you like a bug.”

To lighten the mood, the Panthers were scheduled to have what Matt described as a “fun day” today where they’ll get to the field and throw it around.

“They’re letting the pitchers hit batting practice,” he said. “Just one, ‘last hurrah.'”

Richal traveled to Florida, arriving Thursday evening with the hopes of catching a few more of her son’s games. Instead, the two of them walked around the empty spring training complexes of the Boston Red Sox and Minnesota Twins on Friday.

“It was a ghost town, which was really eerie,” Matt said.

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Bill Hair Sr. hasn’t missed too many of his grandchildren’s games though the years.

In fact, Matt said that the former had a big calendar on a desk at his Frewsburg home where he wrote down the dates that the kids — Emily, Matt and Aaron — would be playing.

“He would demand in February that he needed our schedules,” Matt said. ” … That was his life, him and my grandmother Louise.”

Well, for Matt anyway, his baseball schedule has been wiped clear.

“What I’ve learned sounds cliche, but don’t take any second for granted,” he said. “Don’t say, ‘Well, I have time.’ Then, all of a sudden, you don’t have any time. It’s over in a snap of your fingers.”