Aimee Nicole Sachs, Tallahassee, 1984-2023

A hard-charging journalist who thrived on independence

Aimee Sachs, small in stature, but brimming with confidence, driven by desire and too near the realization of her dreams to be denied, took her place in a male bastion — a press box overlooking men making millions playing a boy’s game.

Sachs represents as well as anyone could the spirit of the Pinnacle Awards, which were instituted in 2014 to congratulate, thank and bring to wider attention accomplished women who have succeeded professionally and made important contributions to communities.

The honorees, unfailingly, provide powerful examples of compassion, nurturance and leadership to their families, to the men and women in their circles and even to people they will never meet. For them, there is only one kind of barrier — the permeable kind. – Steve Bornhoft, Editor, 850 Business Magazine

In the spring of 2008, Ron Sachs and his daughter Aimee attended the Governor’s Baseball Dinner at Tropicana Field in Tampa.    

Charlie Crist was governor, and Aimee, a graduate like her father of the University of Florida School of Journalism, had embarked on a career in sportswriting. The banquet attracted baseball managers, front office types and stars, both active and legendary. Aimee collected a bunch of autographs and met comedian/actor Bill Murray, who had an interest in a minor league team, the St. Paul Saints, at the time.

As they went to depart the stadium, Ron asked Aimee to hold up for a minute while he used the restroom. But when he exited, Aimee wasn’t ready to go. She was a Miami Marlins fan at the time and had spotted a team executive and moved to get a word with him. She was upset that the Marlins had dealt pitcher Dontrelle Willis and slugger Miguel Cabrera, the last two members of Miami’s 2003 World Series team, to the Detroit Tigers for a six-pack of prospects.

“She went up to him fearlessly — very politely but pushy,” Ron recalled. “She said, ‘My name is Aimee Sachs, I’m a Marlins fan and I want to ask you why you traded Willis and Cabrera to the Detroit Tigers. They were our best players, and they were helping to build a fanbase.’ The executive was kind of stunned, but he was impressed by her question, and he spoke to her for two or three minutes.”

It was Aimee’s toughness and confidence that made her a great journalist, her father said. “She was a great interviewer, a great reporter and a great writer.”

Life required toughness of Aimee from the start. She was born prematurely and spent long weeks in an intensive care unit, slowly gaining weight and strength until she was able to go home. Hospitalized, her parents knew, she cried at times without being held.

“We hated that, but I think it helped make her fierce and independent,” Ron said.

That independence would manifest itself in various ways.

Upon scraping her knee as a 10-year-old — her father had thrown her a wild pitch and she dove for it, falling to the ground — Aimee refused assistance from Dad. She would take care of it herself.

As a contract writer for MLB.com covering the Atlanta Braves, which had become her favorite team, Aimee, who stood all of 4 feet, 10 inches tall and weighed 100 pounds, confidently took her place in the otherwise all-male bastion that was the press box.

After suffering a mild stroke on May 20 of 2023, she was resolved to regain the ability to walk without assistance as quickly as possible.

“She looked forward to visits from the physical therapist,” said Aimee’s big sister Samantha. “She would constantly ask when he was going to come and help her to get out of bed. She was able to take some steps, assisted by the therapist, and she was constantly trying to move her legs in the bed, trying to exercise. She was frustrated, but she was very determined to gain control of her body again.”

And, in her final hours, Aimee declined to go forward as an irreversibly paralyzed woman.

Eight days after her first stroke, Aimee suffered a second, almost totally debilitating one. It left her with locked-in syndrome, a disorder that produces complete paralysis of all voluntary muscles except for the ones that control movement of the eyes.

On May 30, Ron, a master communicator and the founder and chairman of Sachs Media in Tallahassee, had the most difficult conversation he had ever had in his life. Responding to questions from her father by blinking, Aimee chose to die and donate organs to others so that they might live.

A day later, she passed from this life at age 38.

Along with journalism and baseball, Aimee loved music. Bedridden following her first stroke, she lip-synched Michael Jackson’s Man in the Mirror, pointing to herself at a point where the King of Pop sings, “If you wanna make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and then make a change.”

Spontaneously, Samantha thought to film Aimee’s performance.

At this writing, that video is being made part of a public-service announcement that will promote support for a “Donate Life” car tag. Proceeds from the sale of those tags will benefit efforts that encourage organ donation.

The LifeQuest organization has notified the Sachs family that organs harvested from Aimee were received by three people in lifesaving operations.

Too, Aimee lives on in the form of the Aimee Sachs Memorial Scholarship for Sports Journalism at the University of Florida. As of early September, that scholarship fund stood at $111,000, on the strength of gifts from more than 300 individuals.

“Even when she was little, she taught me how to be a better dad,” Ron said, choking back tears. “As a parent, you make mistakes. And your kids help correct you when you’re off course.”

Ron noted plans for a special trip to the ballpark.

“Samantha and I, Aimee’s younger sister Julie, Julie’s husband Pope and two of Aimee’s friends, one from Atlanta and one from here, are going to go to a Braves game. We’re going to put a little bit of Aimee’s ashes at the foot of the Hank Aaron statue at Truist Park. We just miss her. I feel that when she left us, she took a piece of our hearts with her.”

Aimee Nicole Sachs was nominated for the 2024 Pinnacle Awards her father Ron Sachs, Founder & Chairman Emeritus, Sachs Media.

Videography by The Workmans