I got a New Respect for Aaron Miles

I was reading my ESPN the Magazine and came upon an article where Aaron Miles got robbed back in 2000. Here's his story.

"# During 2000 Spring Training in Kissimmee, Florida, where the Houston Astros have their Spring Camp, Miles was returning from dinner, craving sleep before the next morning's practice. As he walked along the second-floor cement balcony to his hotel room, he wasn't worried when he saw his door was wide open. Everyone else on the floor was also a ballplayer, turning the rooms into community socials. Miles took out his contact lenses and went to bed, figuring his roommate would return any minute.

Moments later, the door slammed against the wall, startling Miles. Two men dressed in camouflage and combat boots pointed guns at his head. Only an hour earlier, Miles was sitting at a restaurant with his Uncle Clyde talking about how lucky he was to be living his dream of playing professional baseball. During the next 40 minutes, he became involved in an increasingly desperate drama to save his life.

There was no way I was going to die," Miles said, "without a fight." That is the beauty of Miles, friends say. He confronts challenges with a clenched fist. He doesn't have the God-given talent of Barry Bonds or even Bret Boone. And he certainly doesn't have their physiques.

It was just past 11 p.m. on March 12, 2000. The two gunmen, unbeknownst to Miles, already had subdued five of his teammates (Morgan Ensberg and Keith Ginter were two of them) and a player's wife in the adjacent room. After taking their money and cellphones, the robbers hog-tied their hostages with plastic-twist handcuffs and threw blankets over their heads. Upon hearing Miles turn on the TV through the wall, one of the gunmen declared, "We have some company coming for you guys."

"They were going to get Aaron," said Mike Rose, a catcher in the Astros organization then, and one of the players held captive. "I knew that might be my only chance to do something." Rose, unsure if the gunmen had left because he never heard the door close, struggled to break free. The plastic around his ankles and wrists slowly began to give - "For some reason I remembered my Dad telling me that once you start stretching plastic, don't stop," Rose said.

The shackle finally snapped. Mike Rose quickly ripped off duct tape covering his mouth, shut the door and searched for the phone. He found it under the bed, called the front desk and told them to call police. Within minutes, law enforcement officials swarmed the parking lot. As the gunmen tried to force Miles into the room with the other captives, sirens greeted them. One gunman jumped off the balcony and initially eluded capture.

Alexander Williams, the second gunman, shoved Miles back into the player's room. With Williams holed up with Miles, police quickly shuttled Rose and the other hostages to safety from the other room. For the next 35 minutes, Miles listened as Williams grew more antsy, declaring "that he wasn't going back to jail and would go out shooting."

Miles, a good student who turned down a baseball scholarship to Cal-Berkeley, attempted to calm his nerves, advising Williams at one point to put on his Houston Astros uniform for a disguise in order to walk out safely. "He was still thinking on his feet in a scary situation," said Mike Saunders, the deputy chief of the Felony Bureau of the ninth judicial circuit, who prosecuted the case. "But you can never tell what a rat's going to do when cornered."

Williams, using the gun to get his way, led Miles to the room's picture window. As Williams pulled back the curtain, Miles could make out the gun on his right cheek. Convinced he would never be set free, Miles grabbed the barrel. A violent struggle ensued. Miles secured the weapon. Williams retaliated by jumping on Miles' back. Miles squatted and slammed Williams backward into the wall. The two fell, and with Williams lunging for the gun, Miles screamed for the police to enter the room.

Rose watched nervously as an officer bashed the window with a butt of a shotgun while a second policeman rammed through the door brandishing a pistol. They ordered Williams to surrender. He refused, and with Miles still lying on top of him, the gunman was shot multiple times while grasping for the gun.

Miles raced out of the room and bear-hugged Rose. His mouth was dripping with blood. The muscle in his back was exposed from a bite wound. "It looked like he had been attacked by a pit bull," Rose said. "But I am convinced at that moment, Aaron could have fought Mike Tyson and won."

Left partially paralyzed by the gunshots, Williams, 25, was sentenced to life in prison November 28, 2001, on four counts of armed robbery. Robert Lucas, 21, the getaway driver, is serving 10 years in prison. Richard Cook, 28, believed by Saunders to be the second gunman, agreed to a plea on kidnapping and burglary charges and received a five-year sentence. A fourth accomplice, Patricia Burns, served two years under house arrest. Miles' testimony helped convict Williams and Lucas.

Miles, who missed only one day of practice after the incident, said the experience changed him. Little things stopped bothering him. He approached baseball with less stress. Still, he was concerned he never would make it. He struggled for what seemed like forever in the minors with the Astros because of injuries and inconsistent defense."

I will try to find the Article from the Magazine online