In a video posted on X by sports writer Jose de Jesus Ortiz, Wagner leaned against a pool table while taking the call. He listened for more than 15 seconds before he put his hand on his face, fighting tears and hunching over. “Thank you,” he eventually said to the person on the other end of the phone.

The distance from Ferrum, Virginia to Cooperstown, New York is a road far longer than just the miles between the two small towns.For Billy Wagner, it's a journe