Stranger gives woman, grandson free tickets to All-Star Game

By Mike Bush

KSDK -- Twelve-year-old Joe Burkett is a Cardinals fan but he's been touched by an angel.

"Something like this only happens once in a lifetime. Or in a dream," he said.

Joe was at the All-Star game on Tuesday with his grandmother Pat Stroker and they took dozens of pictures.

"I wanted to get proof that I was actually in the stadium," Burkett said.

They saw Stan Musial, Albert Pujols and the President of the United States. But they were supposed to watching them on TV, not live in Busch Stadium.

Burkett and Stroker were leaving Fanfest Tuesday, heading to the bus stop when a man stopped them and asked if they were going to the game.

"And I told him no, it was too expensive," Stroker said.

Without saying a word, the man handed them two tickets for free.

"I almost started crying," she said. "I thought wow, it's awesome. I didn't know what to think."

The man then apparently took off before they could even shake his hand.

"You hear about people being like that, but you don't think it would happen to you," Stroker said.

Instead of getting on the bus, they got in line at the stadium and once inside, Burkett asked his grandmother to do him a favor.

"I asked her to pinch me to see if it was real," he said.

Stroker said she will pay it forward and make a donation to a Catholic charities fund that takes underprivileged kids to a Cardinals game.

"We're still in shock," she said.

Memories to last a lifetime thanks to a stranger they'll never forget.