Just a kid. 22. Hard working pitcher from Silver Springs Maryland. The kid really loved baseball, and had a gutcheck journey to the bigs. It began with some seriously bad luck as he injured his elbow just before the 2004 MLB prep draft. The injury dropped him from a projected 10th in the 1st round all the way to 413th in the 14th round! Nick had to have tommy john surgery, and a ton of therapy to get back to form. A lot of kids would have quit after falling so far off the baseball draft radar. Not Nick. They guy kept working, kept at it. Bobby Knight said it this way "Most people have the will to win, few have the will to prepare to win. Nick was a winner. He did what it took to not only make it to "the show", the guy made it as the number 3 pitcher into the Angels starting rotation. In his first game of the 2009 season, Nick pitched six innings, giving up no runs, striking out 5, earning a no decision. A solid start to a long season. Then, the next morning, a drunk driver speeding in a red Toyota Sienna minivan runs a red light, hitting a gray Mitsubishi Eclipse in which Nick was a passenger. The Mitsubishi then crashes into a telephone pole...and just like that. A wonderful kid and his two friends are dead. Senseless. When you hear this stuff on the news, you go "so sad" so so tragic". I couldn't shake Nick's sudden death. What struck me about this was the sheer randomness of it all. So random. That could have been anyone of us. Later I was thinking "what if"? What if, they stopped and had coffee, or what if? Nick couldn't find his wallet and took an extra minute or two to find it, thereby missing the speeding idiot drunk driver ?. What 30 seconds, few minutes could have kept the two vehicles from colliding. Gosh, how does this stuff happen? Its tragic EVERY DAY! drunk drivers kill. Everyday, someone just as special to someone, dies or is badly hurt from a drunk driver. When will we get serious about drunk drivers, really serious? When will the madness end? Rest in peace Nick. And if they play baseball in heaven. If there really is a "field of dreams", Boy, their team just got better.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
New pitcher to the field of dreams
Just a kid. 22. Hard working pitcher from Silver Springs Maryland. The kid really loved baseball, and had a gutcheck journey to the bigs. It began with some seriously bad luck as he injured his elbow just before the 2004 MLB prep draft. The injury dropped him from a projected 10th in the 1st round all the way to 413th in the 14th round! Nick had to have tommy john surgery, and a ton of therapy to get back to form. A lot of kids would have quit after falling so far off the baseball draft radar. Not Nick. They guy kept working, kept at it. Bobby Knight said it this way "Most people have the will to win, few have the will to prepare to win. Nick was a winner. He did what it took to not only make it to "the show", the guy made it as the number 3 pitcher into the Angels starting rotation. In his first game of the 2009 season, Nick pitched six innings, giving up no runs, striking out 5, earning a no decision. A solid start to a long season. Then, the next morning, a drunk driver speeding in a red Toyota Sienna minivan runs a red light, hitting a gray Mitsubishi Eclipse in which Nick was a passenger. The Mitsubishi then crashes into a telephone pole...and just like that. A wonderful kid and his two friends are dead. Senseless. When you hear this stuff on the news, you go "so sad" so so tragic". I couldn't shake Nick's sudden death. What struck me about this was the sheer randomness of it all. So random. That could have been anyone of us. Later I was thinking "what if"? What if, they stopped and had coffee, or what if? Nick couldn't find his wallet and took an extra minute or two to find it, thereby missing the speeding idiot drunk driver ?. What 30 seconds, few minutes could have kept the two vehicles from colliding. Gosh, how does this stuff happen? Its tragic EVERY DAY! drunk drivers kill. Everyday, someone just as special to someone, dies or is badly hurt from a drunk driver. When will we get serious about drunk drivers, really serious? When will the madness end? Rest in peace Nick. And if they play baseball in heaven. If there really is a "field of dreams", Boy, their team just got better.
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1 comment:
i know. i found myself feeling so many emotions about this, mostly anger. what a loss for us all.
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