The Little Leaguer shot in the head by a stray bullet during a game in Brooklyn vowed to take the field again as he miraculously walked out of Brookdale hospital yesterday.
"I am going to practice. I told my mom I am going to go downstairs and throw the ball against the wall and catch it for 30 minutes every day and exercise my muscles," Davonte Kelly boasted a crowd of well wishers.
"I'm feeling fine. No headaches or anything."
The skinny, bespectacled second baseman — wearing a huge white bandage around his head, a Mets T-shirt and a pair of Air Jordan sneakers — has his coach's blessing.
Coach Davrin Saison agreed: "He's ready to get back out there, we can't wait and neither can he."
Davonte reflected on his brush with death last Sunday at the Starrett City baseball field.
"I was walking over to my other coach, Joe, I was going to ask him a question but he was on the phone. And I felt a hard ball, what I thought was a hard ball (in the back of his head).
"I just screamed and she (my mom) screamed. She was just holding me."
It wasn't until he was in the emergency room and about to have his gash stapled when a doctor noticed something was lodged in his skull. An X-ray showed it was a 9mm bullet.
Asked what he thought when doctors told him he had been shot but would be all right, he replied, "I thought what everyone else thought. I thought it was a miracle. My life could have been taken away."
The Mets sent their little fan a get-well basket with a bobble head of pitcher Johan Santana and a replica of the old Shea Stadium.
Davonte's real hero is third baseman David Wright. The boy has received game tickets from both the Mets and rival Yankees.
Devonte said he's not angry with the gunman, who has yet to be caught.
"I wasn't angry I was amazed I could survive a bullet," he said.
So are his doctors.
Dr. Louis Cornnachia, director of neurosurgery said, "It was an honor to be part of this miracle. So often we deal with different outcomes in difficult circumstances that usually result in misery."
"I am going to practice. I told my mom I am going to go downstairs and throw the ball against the wall and catch it for 30 minutes every day and exercise my muscles," Davonte Kelly boasted a crowd of well wishers.
"I'm feeling fine. No headaches or anything."
The skinny, bespectacled second baseman — wearing a huge white bandage around his head, a Mets T-shirt and a pair of Air Jordan sneakers — has his coach's blessing.
Coach Davrin Saison agreed: "He's ready to get back out there, we can't wait and neither can he."
Davonte reflected on his brush with death last Sunday at the Starrett City baseball field.
"I was walking over to my other coach, Joe, I was going to ask him a question but he was on the phone. And I felt a hard ball, what I thought was a hard ball (in the back of his head).
"I just screamed and she (my mom) screamed. She was just holding me."
It wasn't until he was in the emergency room and about to have his gash stapled when a doctor noticed something was lodged in his skull. An X-ray showed it was a 9mm bullet.
Asked what he thought when doctors told him he had been shot but would be all right, he replied, "I thought what everyone else thought. I thought it was a miracle. My life could have been taken away."
The Mets sent their little fan a get-well basket with a bobble head of pitcher Johan Santana and a replica of the old Shea Stadium.
Davonte's real hero is third baseman David Wright. The boy has received game tickets from both the Mets and rival Yankees.
Devonte said he's not angry with the gunman, who has yet to be caught.
"I wasn't angry I was amazed I could survive a bullet," he said.
So are his doctors.
Dr. Louis Cornnachia, director of neurosurgery said, "It was an honor to be part of this miracle. So often we deal with different outcomes in difficult circumstances that usually result in misery."
