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Snakebitten Son Of Rockies Closer To Throw Out The First Pitch

DENVER (CBS4)- A 2-year-old will throw out the first pitch at Coors Field on Friday night in the game against the Los Angeles. However, he might have an unfair advantage, he's the son of Rockies closer John Axford.

The team is giving the toddler, Jameson, the honor after he recovered rattlesnake bites.

The rattler bit Jameson twice on his right foot while he was playing outside the home the family had rented in the Scottsdale, Ariz. area for spring training.

The boy ended up with several times more venom than normal from snakebites and spent four weeks in intensive care. Monday he'll have his first skin graft and he's also getting procedures to regenerate skin tissue.

It's a long process beginning Monday and that's what prompted the Rockies to ask Jameson to throw out the pitch.

He can't walk so he'll get a wheelchair ride to the mound. That's when he'll make an important choice, he is a righty or a lefty?

"In the hospital, over the whole time, he was throwing with his right and with his left hand, so I'm not too sure which one he'll choose when he's out there," Axford said on the Rockies website. "So he has both gloves."

"Both our boys like all kinds of sports," Axford said. "Our oldest boy, J.B., we know is right-handed, for sure. They both like to play different sports. In the off season, we got them hockey skates and sticks. When you try to figure out how they shoot, you put the stick down and let them figure it out. They both shoot left-handed.

"Jameson prefers putting the glove on his right hand. Sometimes he'll take it off and throw right, but he'll also throw left. I'm thinking he might be left-handed, but we'll see."

Axford pitches right handed but he doesn't care which hand Jameson decides to use.

"It'll put a smile on my face, for sure," Axford said. "Maybe tears in my eyes, too."

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