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Troy Larson loves baseball. He listens to as many Minnesota Twins games as possible. He's attended around 50 of their games since 2000. He has every World Series result since the mid-1930s memorized. He can tell you when the American League expanded to how many teams and which franchises moved where and when.
But Troy Larson has never actually watched a Twins game - or any other baseball game, for that matter. He's never seen a pitcher wind up or a batter swing, and he's never seen a perfectly executed double play or a game-ending home run.
Troy Larson describes himself as a "baseball nut," but he has never seen with his eyes the game he is so passionate about.
Troy Larson, 24, has been blind nearly from birth.
'Suddenly I couldn't hear anything'
The problems started from the very beginning, when the Minnesota State mass communications senior was born to Craig and Madeline Larson. The birth came 10 weeks premature and with the dire news that Troy had detached retinas in both eyes.
He went through several ultimately unsuccessful surgeries as doctors tried to correct the problem, with his family at one point taking 10 trips during a 2 ½ year period to Memphis, Tenn., to visit one doctor.
Then, at age three, spinal meningitis struck Troy, robbing him of his ability to hear. For more than a full year he was completely deaf.
"There were a lot of things going on at one time," said Troy's father, Craig. "You just wondered when things were going to come to an end, when it was going to be stable."
Stability finally came, but with a heavy price: Troy's sight and hearing, and his ability to ever lead a completely normal life.
Troy recalls very little of the ordeal he underwent as a child, saying he remembers only "that suddenly I couldn't hear anything." Any eyesight he ever had is far beyond his memory.
While his sight is gone, today Troy does have partial hearing thanks to a surgically planted electronic device in his right ear. The device, called a cochlear implant, was not even FDA-approved for children at the time it was put in Troy.
To get the procedure done, his parents traveled from Burnsville, Minn., to the University of Iowa, where Troy became the first ever blind and deaf child to receive such an implant.
The device allows Troy to maintain some semblance of normality. Other tools aid him as well. One, a small portable computer he carries to classes, gives him the capability to read, type, record sound, store music and even access the Internet.
Another device is his cane, which he uses to navigate the hallways of McElroy, Armstrong Hall and other buildings. Once familiar with an area, he can move around fairly comfortably and quickly.
In fact, despite the obstacles Troy has had to overcome in his life, he remains upbeat with a sunny disposition - something those who know him best marvel at.
"He's never - which is just amazing to me - he has not once ever mentioned that it's even a burden to him," said Joshua Barta, the man Troy credits helping build his religious faith.
Barta and Troy met when Larson was a freshman at MSU. The two were standing by a street crossing next to the MSU campus, and Barta, then a stranger to Larson, helped Troy across the street.
"He was nice," recalled Troy, "but I didn't think I would ever talk to him again."
But the two did talk again as Barta, then nearing graduation, fostered a friendship with Troy and helped introduce him to MSU's Campus Crusade for Christ.
"If you're a Christian it's hard when you don't have those friends," Troy now says. Campus Crusade gave him those friends at MSU. It also renewed what had been a faltering faith.
"I grew up going to church," said Troy, "but I really didn't know what God did when he sent his Son to the cross [until then]."
Today Barta works at Campus Crusade for Christ's international headquarters in Orlando, but he still makes regular trips back to Mankato, always making sure to visit with Troy. They talk about what's going on in their lives, what Troy plans to do after he graduates in spring 2010 and baseball - always they talk about baseball.
Troy enjoys baseball because, unlike many other popular sports, a clock doesn't determine the game's end. He also likes reading about the game's past and amazing his friends with his extensive knowledge of the sport's history.
During the week, he usually listens to Twins games on an old, beat up boom box his grandma found at a thrift shop and gave to him. The boom box is now missing a battery cover and antenna, but it still works, and Troy listens to Twins announcer John Gordon paint the scene he wouldn't otherwise see.
Troy likes John Gordon, especially for the enthusiasm the announcer displays. Larson himself has long had an interest in announcing. At one time he wanted to become a baseball announcer, and when younger he created fictional baseball games and served as the announcer for them.
Then Larson got a chance to do actual announcing. He sat next to his dad as his older brother, Trent, competed in a national 12-and-under baseball tournament held in Burnsville.
"My dad kept score, and he would tell me who was coming up to bat and I would announce it," said Troy, who also selected and played music between innings.
Both he and his dad volunteered at the tournament through 2005.
"Troy enjoyed that a lot," Craig said. "He really looked forward to it every year."
'The people that do know him, they love him'
Anthony Passante went to the same high school as Troy and still sees him several times a week at MSU. He works at the front desk of McElroy, where Troy lives, and the two chat regularly.
"I think a lot of people, even now, just don't take the time to get to know [Troy]," Passante said. "They kind of just misunderstand him, and having a disability makes it harder to open up. The people that do know him, they love him."
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