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Leawood brothers remember day Yordano Ventura stopped at their lemonade stand

Posted at 9:16 PM, Jan 23, 2017
and last updated 2017-01-24 00:14:32-05

The Hirsch brothers set up a lemonade stand in June 2016, bright and early one morning.

10-year-old Rahmeen said, "It was like, a really slow day because we only had two customers and then he pulled up."

He was Yordano Ventura, star pitcher for the Kansas City Royals. 8-year-old Solomon said he asked for, "One cup of lemonade and my brother came up with the lemonade and looked at him for a second and he was like 'Yordano Ventura?' And he went crazy."

RELATED: Royals fans launch petition to retire Yordano Ventura's jersey number

Minutes later, Ventura had signed a baseball and snapped photos with the whole Hirsch family before spotting them a generous bill for his cold drink. Mom Sarah shared, "I think it just showed that he really was just a good, humble person."

News ofYordano'sdeath in a crash in the Dominican Republic hit Rahmeen especially hard. With tears in his eyes, he said Ventura, "Was really, really nice and he was like one of my favorite players and he died."

His dad, Rahmeen Hirsch, told 41 Action News, "To lose somebody that went out of their way to give them some of their time, it hit them hard."

Ventura's legacy is a lasting one.

"He was great. He had a lot of passion. He could throw really hard. He struck a lot of people out," Rahmeen said.

For the Hirsch family it was about much more than just baseball. Sarah said, "He didn't have to stop and he did so that really shows a lot about his character to me. It was something we really are going to cherish from now on."

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