CEDAR RAPIDS - Just under two months from now, on Oct. 12, the movie Iowa baseball fans have anticipated will hit theaters nationwide. "The Final Season," the story of Iowa's winningest high school baseball team (Norway), will open in 1,000 theaters across the U.S. Producers are even dropping hints about an extra special premiere right here in Cedar Rapids.

For any true Iowa baseball fan, throwing out the opening pitch at a Cedar Rapids Kernel's game is a dream. But for Tony Wilson, that dream had a higher stake.

He says, "The fact that I'm able to be here and am here tonight is quite miraculous."

Tony hasn't been back to Veterans Memorial Stadium since last summer when he produced "The Final Season." The film had its last 10 emotional minutes shot there.

Former Norway baseball Coach Kent Stock says, "It's just a dream come true to see Tony tonight, to see him come back from that accident."

On one of the final days of filming, Tony was on board the helicopter that crashed while shooting aerials. When Tony arrived at the hospital, his injury severity score was a 48. Doctors consider anything above a 15 major.

His orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Sergio Mendoza, says, "Both his lungs were not working. He also had a spine fracture which compromised his spinal cord."

Tony says, "I don't remember the accident. I don't remember the first four days in the hospital, more or less."

He underwent five surgeries at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. Doctors thought it would take him up to six weeks to learn how to walk again, but he beat the odds and was up on his feet in only two.

Stock says, "We could probably make another movie just about him."

Tuesday night, he walked the baseline as proof of his recovery.

Mendoza says, "These are the patients that make us get up every morning and go to work."

And his sprint toward home plate proved dreams do come true. Sometimes you just have to work a little harder to make them happen.

Throughout this Kernels' season, patients who sustained severe injuries and received treatment at the UIHC have walked the baseline before home games. Richard Green, the helicopter's pilot, was also treated there with Wilson. Filmmakers dedicated "The Final Season" to a third man - cameraman Roland Schlotzhauer - who died in the crash.

E-mail Josh Hinkle at Josh.Hinkle@kcrg.com