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Alex Rodriguez

For a 5-year-old, Alex Rodriguez made quite an impression.

Spunky, brown-eyed and with an engaging sense of humor, he had strangers and family friends laughing within minutes of meeting him.

That personality helped turn Alex into a community rallying point as he battled a brain tumor for more than three years. Local high school students in his hometown of Schererville, Ind., held fundraisers, friends organized benefits for overflow crowds and the town’s baseball league dedicated its opening day to Alex.

Just weeks after playing his long-awaited first baseball game, Alex died of complications from the tumor Thursday, May 18, in his Schererville home.

“If you met Alex, he would just capture your heart,” said Tammy Albomonte, a family friend who helped plan benefits for Alex. “What started out as a little fundraising effort … snowballed into a hundred other things because every group of people who met him wanted to help. It became the whole town’s effort.”

To support the Rodriguez family, students at Lake Central High School in St. John, Ind., organized several fundraisers this year, selling more than 4,000 multicolored wristbands with the words “Friends for Alex,” and holding dances and events in his honor. Some students produced a promotional video, with images of Alex, his older brothers and other students wearing his wristbands around school.

At the benefits, Alex mingled with the crowd and kept them laughing.

“He just had a tendency to touch anybody, anywhere, anytime,” said Alex’s grandfather, Dan Taylor.

After word of his death, the Schererville baseball league announced it would name a field in the boy’s honor, calling it “Alex’s Field.”

Alex was diagnosed with a brain tumor at 2 1/2 and underwent surgeries and chemotherapy at Children’s Memorial Hospital. While he suffered many side effects–headaches, nausea, chronic pain–he still kept smiling and dreaming.

One of five boys, Alex loved to watch his older siblings on the baseball field and dreamed of being on a team of his own. When he turned 5 last November, he looked forward to his first season as a Little Leaguer with his own uniform and gear.

But Alex was hospitalized this spring and some worried he wouldn’t get to play in a game after all. He surprised many by surviving that ordeal and came home prepared to play his first game.

With his dad, Phil, at his side, he briefly took off his oxygen mask and approached home plate. After some failed attempts, his dad helped him with a base hit. In dramatic style, Alex slid into first base. It turned out to be his only game, but Alex was so thrilled he didn’t take his uniform off for three days.

Meanwhile, the crowd was in tears.

“It was a good day to wear sunglasses for everybody; everybody was just so happy for him,” said Eric McMullen, the league’s president. “He had all these things happening with his body but he just wanted to play baseball. He was just an amazing little boy.”

McMullen said the league will hold a formal ceremony to name that same field–now just called Field 4–“Alex’s Field.”

In addition to his father and grandfather, Alex is survived by his mother, Sandy; his brothers, Christopher, Ryan, Matthew and Zack; and two grandmothers, Caroll Taylor and Mary Rodriguez.

A service will be held Wednesday from 4 to 8 p.m. in Our Lady of Consolation, 8303 Taft Ave., Merrillville, Ind. A mass will be said Thursday at 10:30 a.m. in St. Michael Church, 1 W. Wilhelm St., Schererville.