Summer ball...

Hey JH, That is a amazing. What a great web site this is! I heard you had a VERY GOOD game! Listened on the web pass last evening and unfortunately for us (Swampdogs) did not hear of too many hits being given up by you guys!

The Marlins are off to a strong start going 3-0.

We will be heading up to watch some games in the next week or so. Keep up the good work!

It is a fun time, I heard you had quite a crowd for your home stand inaugural opener, and the announcer for your team, the one that worked the web pass play by play, did an amazing job. We felt like we were there!

By the way I am originally from New York and have family living in Franklin, just next door to Oneonta.

floridafan- It was definitely a good game. The crowd was very into it and the place was packed, so it was loud. Being that I play at a small school that was easily the most people I've ever played in front of and it was a lot of fun.

We have been pitching very well as a team and the results in the first 3 games have been good. Hopefully as the bats come around we can continue to throw well and win some ball games (also hoping that they aren't as close as the first 3...I don't know if we can manage to play 56 consecutive close games LOL).

Your son sat back on an 0-2 curveball and stroked it pretty nicely into right field during that 7th inning. Luckily for me and unfortunately for him my right fielder tracked it down and made the play, but my heart stopped for a second upon the initial contact.

Let me know if you are ever coming up when we play the Swampdogs again. I know they are in our division so we will play them quite a bit and it would be cool to speak to you in person.

I live in the NYC metro area so going to school in Oneonta has been somewhat of a different experience for me culturally (as is living for the summer in North Carolina). But the Catskills of upstate NY are beautiful and I really enjoy where I go to school. Hate to admit I've never been to Franklin, but it is very close and I'm sure just as nice as Oneonta is.

JH are you playing for the team that's out of Morehead City on the coast?

coach-

Yessir, the Morehead City Marlins in the Coastal Plain League

JH

Do you agree that is fun to go back over the years and think about then and then think about now !

Great memories

That is great JH. I live fairly close to Morehead City and will try to grab a game or two over the summer. I'm guessing that's the same league Wilmington plays in?

Best of luck this season to you and floridafans son as well.

coach-

Yes, it is the same league as the Wilmington Sharks. We played them at their place on Thursday night. Let me know if/when you are ever coming to a game (home or away). I can leave your name at the gate to have a ticket waiting for you and we can definitely meet up afterwards.


TRHit- It is very cool to be able to start see all the years of hard work starting to come together. To have several thousand fans at every game is a great feeling. We have been stopped walking through downtown Morehead City and been recognized throughout town by many of the local people. Although I must admit that signing your autograph on a baseball is not easy, it is a great feeling to be able to have people look up to you for something so simple as baseball, a sport that has been so gratifying to me and that has now begun to give me the opportunity to share the passion and the successes with others.

JH as you know my son is playing with the Outer Banks Daredevils but is still in Chapel Hill practicing. My wife is headed down to Morehead City in the morning and she will be at your game tomorrow night. She is going to give you a shout out. I am looking forward to meeting you this summer and watching you play. Good luck tomorrow night.

Coach May-

PM is headed your way

Just another tidbit that I figured some here would enjoy.

I was in the dugout about 15 minutes before game time at this past night's game when I hear my name being called by one of my teammates from the other end of the dugout. I walked over and was introduced to a young boy named Josh, who I was told was celebrating his 8th birthday at the park with his family and friends. He came over to inform me that I was his favorite player on the Marlins, because I had the same name as him and because when I went to his school (we went to local elementary schools the other day and spoke to the kids) I answered one of his questions with a funny joke. I was then informed that he was due to throw out the ceremonial first pitch of the night's ballgame, and he requested to the General Manager that I catch the pitch. So when his name came over the PA I jogged out there with him and squatted behind home plate.

Suddenly I had a nervous rush come over me. I was catching this kid in front of thousands of people. It would be so embarassing if I dropped the ball! (I was never this nervous on the mound, but the thought of an 8 year old kid throwing a ball to me 30 feet away and me having to make it look good for him and catch it in front of the cheering crowd was intimidating). Luckily, the kid (who ironically throws lefty just like I do) pumped a strike right to me and I caught it. I handed the ball back to him and signed it personally to him wishing him a happy birthday and sent him back off into the stands with his parents.

I try to shy away from the "sappy" stories and whatnot on this site because I like it to be informational. But this sort of experience will stay with me for a while because I know that kid will probably never forget it. He might forget my name, and he will probably misplace that baseball someday in the future, but he'll never forget the thrill he had throwing a pitch on the field to his favorite player. It really is an amazing feeling to be able to experience that.

Great story and it is informational as it shows how great of a game we all love baseball is. This kid will follow you for a long time and he will always remember that moment. Hopefully it will lead him to take up baseball to at least get his college education paid for.

I'll check out your schedule and try to find a date I can head up there. I'm still a little busy with our season right now. We won tonight to advance to the state championship series next weekend. Pretty excited about that to be honest.

Coach good luck in the finals I will be pulling for you guys. And JH I love that story. Your doing things in the game right now many dream of doing but never do. Enjoy it and soak it in. My wife said she will see you tonight at the game. Believe me you will have at least two more huge fans at your game tonight!

J H, I don't have anything to add other than to say you are a great representative for your generation; a young man we can all be proud of and root for. Keep posting, I love the positive and well-communicated vibes! Good luck to you!

(and by the way, about this game in North carolina where you, from New York, faced floridafan's son from florida.....caught my eye sitting here in Seoul, Korea!)

Thanks Coach May - hopefully we can pull two victories out. I don't guess you know anybody who has a scouting report on the other team do you????

Krak-

Thanks for the kind words. You want to hear another crazy small world situation? I have become very friendly with a teammate of your son's. He and I are the only two Division III permanent players right now on our roster so we sort of had an instant connection. We went to the beach today (his first time in the Atlantic, being from Chicago) and have been hanging out quite a bit. He started for us last night and threw very well.

So now we have New York, Florida, Chicago, San Antonio and Seoul all connected in some way in a little beach town in North Carolina. Gotta love it

This would be Klimesh?

Yep. We found out today he's not the world's greatest golfer, but he does throw pretty well off the mound so I'm sure he'll be sticking around

JH,
The baseball world is even a bit smaller.
I was just checking the site for your team.
Lo and behold, our son played with the Buddy Bengal, your team's VP. They both played for the Newport Gulls in the NECBL in 2003.
Buddy is one of those guys who loves baseball. If there was a definition for baseball junkie, from what I know of him, Buddy's name and picture would be part of it. Buddy knows DIII players can get the job done so it does not surprise me to see you and Klimesh on the roster.

Buddy is certainly a character. I played for a summer team back in high school that is run by a man named Ian Millman. When Buddy was in high school he played for Ian as well, and they still have a close relationship. Ian was the one who got in contact with Buddy about me and said that he believes I could play at the level that the CPL offers. When Buddy called me back in October offering me a contract, I didn't even think twice.

The experience thus far has been great. I have been getting a lot of PM's from various people about my summer ball experience so I think every once in a while I will check in when there is time and give a little bit of details as to how these sorts of things work. I think that could be beneficial to many parents/players who could potentially find themselves on teams like this in the future.