Former baseball player given surprise of a lifetime by family, Atlanta community

Marvin Wiggins is a man of many passions.

His friends and family say they love to hear him sing. But the pastime he's most crazy about? Baseball.

"This is what I grew up loving," Wiggins said, staring at a baseball he held up in the air. Wiggins was sitting in his wheelchair in the A.G. Rhodes nursing home while speaking to CBS News Atlanta.

Wiggins fell in love with baseball as a child growing up in New York City when his father took him and his brothers to games at Yankee Stadium. His passion ran so deep that he even slept with his bat and glove, the same kind his hero, Willie Mays, used.

Wiggins says that even as he started losing his sight from glaucoma at 74 years old, his senses still come alive whenever he thinks of the game.

"Smell of the grass. The cut of the field. The sound of the bat against the ball. That is a sound that you could never, ever forget," he said.

Wiggins tried out for several teams as an adult, including the New York Mets, the New York Yankees, and the Chicago Cubs, among others.  

He ultimately played for the International League in Puerto Rico. His career spanned 20 years. Last year, an organization called Second Wind Dreams learned of Wiggins' enduring love for baseball. Working together with his nursing home and his family, the organization threw a surprise party for Wiggins, gifted him his most coveted baseball memorabilia, along with tickets to see the Atlanta Braves with his family.  

"A lot of times, people forget about nursing communities," said Heavyn Brousseau of Second Wind Dreams. "They forget that there are people in your community living out full lives still. It's just not the same as you and me. And they still have things that they want to do. And it's important to make those happen for them."  

"I had to keep my mouth shut for weeks, and I told some of my friends in the interim," said Walter Wiggins, Marvin Wiggins' brother. "But that was the toughest thing."

Wiggins says he's grateful for the gifts and the opportunity to go to another baseball game at this stage in his life. But his favorite present of all? His new Willie Mays baseball glove.

"Thank you so much to all that made this possible. All of you that made this possible," Wiggins said. "I'm so thankful and grateful that this happened. I didn't know it was going to happen, but it happened."

Through months of work and planning, friends and family gave a man still filled with baseball dreams the surprise of a lifetime.