I saw the most beautiful stars, only I wasn’t outside. I was sitting down next to my longtime friend, Alex, at the gym and slowly slipping out of consciousness. By a miracle, my wobbly knees made it back to that seat. Alex was holding a steamy Ziploc bag out in front me but I couldn’t make out what was inside. “Want some?” he said. The oxygen returning to my brain allowed me to eventually see Johnsonville breakfast sausage in the…
She came out of the candle lit bathroom, and calmly told me that it was time to head to the hospital. My wife’s labor pains were becoming more intense and frequent. Nothing too crazy though; the late-night drive to the hospital almost felt precautionary. I didn’t speed. No one was screaming (yet). We listened to some music on the way and talked about the wall I had just painted in our new baby boy’s room, how much his older brother…
Cold misty rain wet my sleeve as I rolled down the driver’s side window. Who knew that 9:30 was too late to arrive for a 12 pm Clemson football game? I leaned my head out and desperately hollered at one of the thousands of football fans in the parking lot. “Hey! Is spot 445 down there somewhere?” One wide eyed and confused tailgater reached for her friend’s sleeve and tugged it to get her attention. She wanted to help but…
In 2022, a Mickey Mantle baseball card sold at auction for $12.6 million. The card instantly became the most valuable sports collectible in the world. So, what made this baseball card so expensive? For starters, Mickey Mantle’s Hall of Fame career amounted to over 500 homeruns, a lifetime batting average of .298 and seven World Series championships with the New York Yankees. That’s just scratching the surface. Furthermore, the value was increased by being exceptionally well preserved and in mint…
The sun beat down upon the pavement as we loaded the truck for a family beach vacation. Everything was in order when we hopped inside the airconditioned truck. As I reached to place my water bottle into a cup holder, baseball cards blocked me. I grabbed the stack and motioned to hand them to our boys. They were both consumed by open binders chalked full of baseball cards that lay in their laps. They were in the midst of reading…
Who are you? Major League Baseball’s slugger, Aaron Judge, knocked 62 balls out of the park in 2022. It’s easy to see why young players want to mirror his every move on the baseball field. When Knox slides on his jersey displaying Judge’s name and number, it’s as if he becomes the Yankees’ star outfielder. Repeatedly, he throws a plastic baseball up to himself in the front yard and smacks it over our makeshift outfield fence. He flips his blue…
The clouds snuffed out any possibility of moonlight as we peered down the long gravel road. “Um, I don’t know about this,” I said. I slowly drove our family down the driveway as we finally approached a house. We could see a man and woman sitting in their living room, but they didn’t appear to be expecting us. I knew they could see our truck, but they didn’t move a muscle. “Are we at the wrong house? Can you call…
Last night I was met with a strange greeting when I got home. I pulled into the driveway and walked into the garage to find my three year old, Eli, sitting on the floor next to a broken fishing pole. The fishing line resembled a bird’s nest and the reel seemed to have ran away from the pole it once was attached to. There were several plastic pieces scattered by his dirt covered feet. With his head hanging low he…
“My favorite ice cream is peach mint.” Everyone chuckled as my nephew, Grayton, explained this fascinating new ice cream flavor he loved. We were playing a game at dinner while we devoured chicken nuggets and fries. The game was simple. Whoever held the toy is able to talk. If you didn’t have the toy, you couldn’t talk. I presented the table with a question and passed the toy (R2D2 to be exact) around as we answered. We were having a…
“Okay, boys. Who do you want to pray for? I said. Knox replied, “Ozzie Albies, my Star Wars books and my fish pictures.” “Sounds good. Eli, what about you?” I asked. “Umm, Vera (his cousin) and umm.” Eli’s eyes disappeared as his smile grew wider. He looked attentively at my upper lip and placed his tiny index finger beneath my nose. He tapped it twice. “I wanna pray for your mustache.” “My mustache?!” I questioned with a silly voice. The…