Former Lions pitcher Jason Wheeler met his wife while playing summer baseball on the East Coast during his time at LMU. Now the couple’s road to marriage is the subject of a New York Times wedding story.
Jason Wheeler, who graduated from Loyola Marymount University in 2012 with a degree in business administration, met Madelyn Walters in 2011 in her home state of Massachusetts. Wheeler, who grew up in Torrance, was playing in a summer collegiate baseball league when he met Walters, whose family was hosting the Lions pitcher during his stint with the Orleans Firebirds.
Unfortunately for the pair, romance was between Wheeler and Walters was initially “off limits” due to her family’s house rules. Despite the rules, Wheeler’s playing schedule and his return to LMU at the end of the summer, the couple remained in touch. Things worked out from there.
Wheeler and Walters married on Nov. 6 in Massachusetts, and the LMU alumnus is currently playing minor league baseball in the Minnesota Twins organization.
“There are things I still need to work on to improve as a baseball player, but I believe I can play on the major league level,” said Wheeler, who will report to spring training next season with the Twins and live with Ms. Walters in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., in the off-season. “There’s always a chance to make it, especially when you are in the higher level of the minor leagues. If you have a good season, you’re always just a phone call away.”
Read Wheeler and Walter’s romantic story by Vincent M. Mallozzi at NYTimes.com.
Photograph by Gretchen Ertl for The New York Times