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Waylon Callahan has spent most of his nine months in a hospital bed in Little Rock. On Sunday, Mountain Home’s firefighters and police officers will spend nine innings trying to send his family some help.
The fifth annual MHPD vs. MHFD Charity Ragball Game is set for 5 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 13, at the Mountain Home High School softball field off West Road. All proceeds will go to Waylon and his family.
Waylon suffered a stroke and a brain bleed and has been at Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock nearly since birth, said Mountain Home Fire Department Capt. Jake Bickford. His mother has been staying at the hospital with him.
Waylon is the grandson of Jason Carter of Carters and Sons, and Bickford said the choice was an easy one. Carter has donated to both departments for years, from the firefighters’ union to side projects like fixing up a truck.
“He’s always helped us,” Bickford said. “We were pumped to be able to give back to his family like that.”
In the game’s early years, the two departments split the proceeds between charities of their own choosing. For the second year in a row, they picked the same one.
The all-time series is tied 2-2, and the trophy has traded hands every year since the first game in 2022. Along the way, the rivalry has produced a walk-off home run, a steak dinner for the umpire, a failed truck-washing scheme and a week of coffee deliveries to City Hall.
The fire department is the defending champion after an 18-6 win last September. That game came with an assist from the umpire’s chair. With Mayor Hillrey Adams out of town, his assistant Haley Strider called first base, and the firehouse spent the week before the game hand-delivering her favorite coffee.
Firefighter Tommy Feliccia, one of the game’s organizers, freely admitted the bribe at the time. It appeared to work better than the fire department’s earlier attempt to buy goodwill by washing police trucks, which did not.
The police department pulled off its own influence campaign in 2023. Officers treated Adams to a ribeye during the game, and the mayor promptly called firefighter Cole Ifland out at first base on a play Ifland appeared to beat. Adams later said that when you see that ribeye, you have to do what you have to do.
The firefighters got the last laugh that night anyway. Bickford himself hit a walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth to cap a comeback from six runs down, and the fire department won 18-17.
The police department answered in 2024 with an 18-10 win that left it holding the trophy and a 2-1 series lead. Fire Chief Kris Quick kept his postgame comments short that year, promising only that his department would get them next time. It did.
For all the gamesmanship, the money is the point. Through four games, the two departments have raised nearly $20,000 for local families and charities, and last year’s $5,802 was the largest single-game total yet.
That money went to 11-year-old Krew Hudson and his family to help with travel while he received treatment at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis. Earlier beneficiaries include the Salvation Army’s children’s programs in Mountain Home, Project Fire Buddies, the widow of MHPD Officer Billy Dearborn and longtime Clarkridge volunteer firefighter Mark McMahon.
Feliccia has been quick every year to hand the credit to the crowd. “That’s not us. That is the community coming out and even donations at the games supporting our cause every year,” he said before last year’s game.
This year’s game moves from its usual Saturday slot to a Sunday and starts an hour earlier. Bickford said both departments had training and members out of town, and Sunday was the only date everyone could play.
The regular food vendors from past years are returning, and Bickford said a new soda truck has been added to the lineup. Seating at the field is limited, and past crowds have brought their own lawn chairs.
For anyone who has never seen ragball, the rules are close to baseball and softball. The ball is a little bigger than a baseball and softer than a softball, which keeps the game friendly and the home run totals high.
Whoever hoists the trophy Sunday night, the check goes to the same place.
