Freshman Year

Hello and Good Afternoon

In this blog I am going to speak about my freshman year of playing college baseball. I would like to take a quick moment to congratulate my Alma Mater, Emory University, on finishing 2nd in the Division III College World Series. To Coach Mike Twardoski and all the Emory Eagles you fought so hard and played so well to make it to the championship game. You guys made me really proud and I know you made your professors proud; most of which don’t even know Emory has a team.

My college baseball career began in the fall of 2001. A little background on Emory’s baseball… they were good, really good. In the previous years they had participated in the College World Series, they had produced Honorable Mention Jewish All-American’s and they even had a young man get recruited by Bank of America to do Ibanking. The team had a reputation and it was very intimidating.

The first test was just to make the team, even though the coaches heavily recruited me and I was nasty on the diamond, they still held tryouts. It was a rigorous tryout that consisted of 60-yard dash (dominated), arm strength (dominated), bat speed and power (dominated) and lastly the LSAT (dominated). Final cuts were made and I was fortunate enough to stick around - side bar: there were some very good players who did not make the squad, so if you read my blog – I’m sorry, if you don’t read my blog, what I said a minute ago is a lie, you really weren’t that good.

So the team was set but the next test was to become a starter. This was going to be a little more difficult because there were several upper-classmen that had proved their excellence. But I had the x-factor, something that they didn’t have; it was called the “P & Rally”. Few posses this ability, but I guess the big guy, G-d, was looking out for me. I discovered the “P & Rally” during “Parents Weekend” that fall of my freshman year…

We were playing in an intra-squad, my team, the gold team was up to bat in the 5th inning. Let’s take a step back really quick to the night before… My lovely parents Lynn and Steve took me out to a very nice dinner in Atlanta. I was feeling great about having my family in town so I decided to get the Chicken Parmesan, yes I’m lactose intolerant and yes it gives me the _____ (Please fill in the word of your choice). Dinner was great, but the next morning was not. I felt off, my head, my neck, my back, my stomach and my left quad. Now please revert back to the 5th inning, my team is up to bat and I’m standing in the on deck circle. At this point everything that felt off had come together into a cyclone of epic proportions and sent me sprinting into the dugout to find a trashcan. Fortunately I found the trashcan; unfortunately my Chicken Parmesan did not. I’m pretty sure that over 15 teammates were sitting on the bench and they really did not appreciate my gift. Needless to say, I could not play anymore and me having the x-factor of the “P & Rally” is a sham – I did not rally.

Don’t worry, everything turned out all right for me. My teammates and coaches were able to look past it; all I had to do was graduate and move to Chicago for them to not bring it up anymore. If there is a moral to this story it’s that no matter how excited you are to see your parents, don’t eat things that your body cannot tolerate. And if you do in-fact decide to eat something that doesn’t agree and has never agreed with your body, make sure you get it in the trashcan.

Until next time – much love to my people.