Championship Favorites

When Villanova won the National Championship last week, I was asked how this ranked with some of my other favorite teams. So, after a little thinking, here we go.

#1 – 1986 New York Mets

This is an easy, easy, easy choice. The Mets have been my favorite baseball team since 1984 when Doc and Dwight were becoming the next best thing in New York. I was 10 when they won it. The only way this could ever be topped would be if I ultimately worked for a MLB or NFL championship winning team. If you haven’t already, go read The Bad Guys Won by Jeff Pearlman. Fascinating stuff.

#2 – 1990 New York Giants

As much as I love the Mets, I love the Giants every bit as much. So why 1990? As much as I loved the ’86 Giants and their first-ever title, the 1990 title was different because it was the first time I really experienced a championship with my friends. I can vividly remember watching the Giants-49ers playoff game at my friend Josh Aaron’s house. The Giants won 15-13 with Joe Montana getting knocked around like a rag doll by the Giants D. As a side note, I also loved how Gary Reasons called into the radio show we listened to on the bus once a week.

#3 – 1986 New York Giants

1986 was clearly a very good year for me. The Mets in the fall in the Giants in the winter! Not sure I will ever experience anything like that.

#4 – #2007 New York Giants

You can see a theme here, right? The Giants have been really good (or really bad) for most of my lifetime. What I love about the ’07 Giants is it was the first one I experienced with a child.My key memory from this one? When Brett Farve threw the interception that sealed the win that sent the Giants to the Super Bowl. I jumped so high I startled 2-year-old Jackson so much that he started crying.

#5 – 2011 New York Giants

As Brittney Spears sang, “Oops I did it again.” Sorry Patriots.

#6 – 2016 Villanova Wildcats

What a fun team to watch. I wrote last week about my Villanova story and how I have followed the program from afar for the past almost 20 years. Ryan Arcidiacono is probably my favorite college basketball player of all time (not counting the guys I worked with at Auburn). Dude can just ball. Daniel Ochefu? Love him. I love teams that can shoot and this club could SHOOT! It also helped that both of my boys were into it, even though Cole believes is Billanova with a B for Victory.

#7 1979-83 New York Islanders

OK, so I can’t say I remember watching these games – I was only 3 at the start of the run – but these teams are what CAUSED me to be an Islanders fan. They were the best team in hockey until some guy nicknamed the Great One came along and took the cup away from the Island. Hopefully it can return there someday soon.

#8 – 1988 Notre Dame Football

I was a huge – and I mean HUGE – Notre Dame fan growing up. If you’re not from the Northeast you probably don’t understand how big ND football was there during the 80s and 90s. ND was the only college team that anyone really watched on Long Island because a – they were on all the time and b – no one was going to root for Rutgers or Syracuse. Yes, Penn State had a huge following but I think Notre Dame’s was bigger. Chris Zorich was my favorite player on this team.

Teams that didn’t win but were dang close…

1988 New York Mets – I wrote about this a few years ago on this blog in the post about Jameis Winston right here

1994 New York Knicks – senior year of high school, the playoffs going on the same time as graduation and we watched the OJ chase on Adam Zacek’s big screen with picture-in-picture. Patrick Ewing will forever be my favorite Knick (sorry Latrell – you’re number 2).

1990 Notre Dame Football – Rocket Ismail. Enough said.

I have purposely left off all of the teams that I have worked with in the past because it would be extremely difficult to put one ahead of the other.

 

My Villanova story

For many of you that know me, you have no idea how or even why I have a connection to Villanova and why I was tweeting and retweeting a whole lot of Villanova stuff during and after the National Championship game.

If you were to walk into my office at work, there is just one Villanova reference on the walls – and it’s on an Auburn football replica poster. Even at home there is very little Villanova stuff in our house.

So why Villanova?

Well, here it goes, my Villanova story.

When Villanova won its first National Championship in 1985, according to my parents, 9-year-old me cried. And not just cried, but bawled. Ironically enough, last night I did not cry, but rather jumped up and down, almost spraining an ankle. But no, I cried in 1985 not because Villanova won but rather because Georgetown lost.

Growing up a younger brother on Long Island, with so many sports options to choose from, my older brother and I always rooted for opposites.

He’s a Yankees fan, I’m a Mets fan.

He likes the Jets, I love the Giants.

We do agree on the Islanders and he doesn’t care about pro basketball (Go Knicks!).

But on the college hardwood, he loved St. John’s so I went complete opposite with the big bad boys of Georgetown. Patrick Ewing, to this day, remains my favorite basketball player of all time. Alonzo Mourning. Dikembe Mutombo. Those are the guys I idolized in college basketball. I wanted to go to Georgetown – and then I realized I wasn’t smart enough and it cost two arms and two legs to go to school there.

Villanova, another St. John’s rival, then stole my heart. From the time I was a junior in high school I was pretty sure that was where I wanted to go. Getting accepted was a huge accomplishment for me. So, in August of 1994 I was a freshman at Villanova. And I loved it. I met great friends. But I struggled academically. Not to the point where I was failing out, but to the point where I hated my major (finance) and I just didn’t like where I was going in life. So, after 3 years and 100 credits, I dropped out, my Villanova career over.

However, my love for Villanova basketball never wavered. Heck, as a freshman I slept outside the Pavilion (it was then the DuPont Pavilion, but if you want to know why it isn’t anymore, go watch the 30 for 30 “The Prince of Pennsylvania”) for season tickets to see the Cats. One of my roommates my last year there was a walk-on basketball player. Guys like Kerry Kittles, Eric Eberz, Zeffy Penn, Alvin Williams and Malik Allen were regulars at our on-campus apartment – sometimes playing scrabble, sometimes drinking a beer while watching the morning SportsCenter loop. But it just wasn’t me. I needed something different – to see people that all weren’t the same kids from Long Island/New Jersey/Pennsylvania. To see different perspectives. To get away from New York.

In Aug. of 1997, I enrolled at Georgia – but that lasted a little over 24 hours. (That’s another story for another day.) More soul searching was needed. I ultimately took a semester off before transferring to South Carolina, where I would get my BA in BS (public relations) in December 1999.

One of the toughest things I ever did in regards to Villanova was return for Senior Week. By this point I was one semester in at South Carolina but I wanted to experience Senior Week at Nova. Back then it was ultimately one long bar crawl (it may still be) for the entire week. Villanova was such a cool school – beer trucks on the front lawn for Homecoming, a school-sponsored party for graduates as seniors – I mean, really, you don’t get that at most places. But like I said I was missing something while I was a student there. I left Senior Week near the final days but did return for graduation. Talk about a mistake. As I sat on the Villanova football field in the blazing sun, I saw all of my friends walk past, cap and gown on, heading to get their diploma. It actually does sting a little still to this day that I never completed the last 30 hours I needed to get a degree from Villanova. And since I am not anyone famous, I don’t think an honorary degree is in my future. But I do have my transcripts from there in a drawer in my desk at work and every once in a while I will look at it and wonder, what if…

…what if I stayed for the last two semesters?

…I would never have met the wonderful friends I made through South Carolina…

…I would never have gotten into the line of work I do now…

…I would never have moved south of the Mason Dixon line…

…I would never have met my wife…

…I would never have become a father to Jackson and Cole.

So obviously, it all worked out in the end. I have told Stephanie a few times that I would like to complete my finance degree. Why? I don’t know. It’s more of ‘something that I intentionally left unfinished that I shouldn’t have’ then a ‘pride thing.’

As for the National Championship, I will blog about where that ranks among my personal favorites of my favorite teams tomorrow.

“V” for Villanova, “V” for Victory!
“B” for Blue and “W” for White
For the Blue and the White we will fight!
Fight! Fight! Fight!

Fight for Villanova, Fight for Victory!
For we’re out to win the fray;
Villanova leads the way,
With a capital “V” for Victory.

Go Cats! #LetsMarchNova #NationalChampionship

Thunder!

Jackson, our unbelievably athletic 9 year old, has turned into quite the soccer player. Despite not playing any organized soccer until he was 8, he has, we have been told, a tremendous amount of potential in the sport. I already knew he was a gifted baseball player, but he got bored with baseball last fall and has gone soccer full bore after watching the World Cup last summer.

After one fall season, his then- rec league coach was so impressed with him that he recommended him for the Auburn Thunder tryouts (travel soccer). Learning that there were just two spots open, I didn’t think he realistically had a chance to make the team. To my surprise, he did. I was unbelievably happy for him. But after looking at the schedule and the cost for half a season, we decided it was not in his/our best interests to pursue it this last fall. So he again played rec league soccer this spring and was once again one of the better players on the team. I always laughed when opposing coaches would yell out “Watch number 4! (Jackson)” in one-and-a-half seasons he hadn’t even taken a shot but his speed made him dangerous. Then something finally clicked. With some encouragement from Stephanie and me (and Peyton and Archie Manning through Peyton’s speech at Leadercast), Jackson went on an offensive spree in the final 5 games, scoring a hat trick in one game. At the end of the season his coach told us that his previous coach told him to try really hard to get Jackson on his team because of the potential he has. For this Jackson won the “Best Suck-Up Award” at the end of year party (kid already knows how to network!).

So the Auburn Thunder has another tryout next week – and we are going to let him do it, with the hopes that he makes the team this time!

Closing Time

Today is one of those days that I absolutely hate – the final day of a season. In the 15 years I have worked in media relations I have had to endure this day too many times. Just like death and taxes, the end of an athletic season is 100 percent assured. However, just like the other two, there is rarely fun involved in it.

I traveled with our golf team for the first time ever this week. I knew the coaches – but not well – and outside of exchanging a few text messages and a few short interviews, I didn’t know the guys on the team at all. However, after the last five days I can say I know the coaches a whole lot more and, hopefully, I am more than just a name and/or phone number to the team. I probably talked to more parents this week than ever before, and I enjoyed it. I guess when you aren’t determining hits and errors or assists or something subjective like that it’s easier to build relationships with parents. Obviously there are some very noticeable exceptions (Kevin King from Auburn soccer, the Hargetts from AU baseball come immediately to mind), but I have always tried to steer clear of those such things. But this week I talked to each of the parents that were here, including the head coach’s, and felt like I really got to know something more about them or their sons as we walked the course.

Anyway, back to the theme of this blog – the end of a season always sucks. It rarely ends happily, the exception being when you win a championship, which I saw happen five times with Auburn swimming. It’s even harder when the loss comes during the postseason. You are usually a couple hundred miles away from home and you have to fly home the next day. I experienced this the most with Auburn soccer, with the toughest being the time we lost at BYU in a game we could have and probably should have won. The image of the pain in those kids eyes will never leave my head. Tears flowing, hugs a plenty. And for the seniors it’s the end.

Tonight I had dinner with the coaches and I told them how much I enjoyed this trip, despite our finish. The hard part for a spring sport is that when it’s over you go your separate ways since it’s summer and school’s out and you don’t see each other for three months. However, the journey to the last day is always fun and I can’t wait to start that ride with Auburn basketball and Auburn golf for the 2014-15 season!

This is Houston, you are cleared for landing

So I have a layover in Houston today on my way to the NCAA Golf Championships in Kansas. This is my third time to hit the Houston airport. The first time was back in the summer of 2001 when I was interviewing for a job at Birmingham-Southern. My Southwest flight went New York-Houston-Birmingham. That was an interesting flight as we actually landed and took off in a Hurricane here in Houston – however, I never got off the plane. We just let the people that were coming to Houston get off, some new people get on and we left. When we touched down people clapped and cheered for the pilots for landing the big bird. Rockin-and-rollin the whole way in.

The second time I was in Houston was to/from the 2004 NCAA Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships. I flew here with a couple other staff members – Jeff Delinger, Dave Durden and Ralph Crocker. From here we had to drive to College Station but before we did we stopped for some really good mexican food. I cannot for the life of me remember the name of the place but it was good. Real good. It was some place that Dave and Ralph knew all about and the meal met the hype.

Flying in today, I was amazed at how many houses there are in Houston and how big this city is. I can see why my brother Pete didn’t like the traffic here. Looks like it could take you HOURS to get anywhere for how many houses there are – and I must have been on the wrong side of the plane because I never saw downtown. But I did see houses! And football and baseball fields and golf courses everywhere! And houses!

Anyway, besides the houses, today really got me thinking about Ralph. David Marsh, the Auburn head coach at the time, remains the toughest coach I have ever worked with. What I tell people about him is when dealing with David there is no thinking “outside the box” because there was no box. You never knew where the next idea was coming from. It definitely made my three years working with him interesting and a lot of times maddeningly frustrating. However, looking back on those three seasons (which gave me 6 SEC and 5 NCAA championship teams to put on my resume along with a host of Olympians), I gained a greater appreciation for the sport of swimming and I am so happy to know the swimmers that went through the program during those times. I also grew a ton professionally and lessons I learned then are still applied today. Also, when I had moved on from swimming, the big DM/the Marshian (martian) came up to me and said, “You did a great job for us. If I can ever help you out let me know.” I was shocked! I thought the man couldn’t wait to get a new media guy (and maybe he was and he was just being nice). However, here, nine years later, I still remember him saying that to me at Toomer’s Corner following yet another rolling for the swimming team. However, it was always Ralph that got me through the tough times. He had a very infectious smile and one of the most positive attitudes you could ever imagine (and a ton of sarcasm, which I totally appreciated). His humor got me through a lot of those three years. Sadly Ralph passed away shortly after I stopped working with swimming. One of my greatest regrets is I never went to see him in hospice care, though I did go to the funeral. Honestly, the guy was a great role model. The swimmers loved him – and not just the ones that went through the famous RHOP. I hope my two boys grow up to respect me the way those swimmers loved and respected Ralph.

Side note – it was the swimming team – and specifically Cathy Sursi, Jenni Anderson and Megan Riddle – that first gave me the tag “Dan The Media Man” – which is of course my twitter name now.

Bombs Away!

While scrolling through twitter today, I happened upon a tweet from my roomie at South Carolina that mentioned a guy I once worked with. The guy was one of the assistant GM’s for the Capital City Bombers, the Single-A affiliate of the Mets that I interned with my final year at USC. Just seeing his name quickly took me back to the summer of ’99.

Think about this. I was 23 and (finally) a semester away from graduating. I had an unpaid internship in sports and a paying job serving up drinks at the local Red Lobster. My boss with the Bombers, Mark, was awesome and someone I learned a lot from (including how to create an entire sheet of notes based around song titles). Since I worked the bar and in baseball, I never had to be at work before 11 a.m. And I worked in baseball and at a restaurant, how cool is that! Jimmy, the roomie, and I would watch ‘Friends’ Every. Single. Day. Life was good.

But back to the Bombers. Only one of them really made it big from the 1999 Bomb Squad, though there were a few that had cups of coffee in the big leagues. The biggest name from that team was easily Heath Bell, though Endy Chavez had a nice career. Earl Snyder, who played in 19 big league games after being a 36th round pick, was one of the nicest guys I ever met. Robert Stratton, who was the 13th overall pick in the 1996 draft, acted like it, made sure everyone knew he was, and spent 11 years in the minors, never playing in a MLB game.

Brian Cole was also on that team. If you have never heard of him, read this excellent piece on him from a 2013 Sports Illustrated. [As a side note, the guy that wrote the piece happens to be the brother of the radio play-by-play guy at Troy University who I have become friends with.]

The Bombers were all about having fun and learning to do everything. I didn’t ever sell tickets but I did help roll out the tarp, spread some diamond dust, run the scoreboard and just about every other thing imaginable outside of cooking food. My favorite thing to do was to write the lineups on the chalk lineup board on the concourse. Here are just a sampling of the guys whose names I would write that summer – Rafael Furcal, Juan Pierre, Travis Hafner, Juan Uribe, Matt Holliday – and I even saw a no-hitter. I can’t remember the guy’s name off the top of my head but I do have a signed ticket stub from him somewhere.

Sadly the Bombers would not last in Columbia, S.C. They were eventually sold and moved to Greenville, S.C., and are now one of the more successful MiLB franchises.

Regrettably, I do not have one piece of Bombers apparel left – not a shirt, nor a hat. I did for a time have the 1999 yearbook/program but it got water damaged sometime in the last 15 years. However, I do have some unbelievable memories from that summer. The two that stick out the most are the Friday night fireworks game that lasted until 2 a.m. I was supposed to drive to Richmond to meet up with Tim to drive home to Long Island after the game – and I did, arriving in Richmond at 7:30 a.m., just in time to fall asleep in his car for the drive home. The other involved a catcher for the Piedmont Boll Weevils. As the unpaid media relations intern, I was the one that had to go into the visiting team locker room and get the day’s lineup. Piedmont was in our division so they came to Capital City Park more than once. Anyway, our PA guy would announce their catcher’s name incorrectly every time – and it really irked the guy. Well one time as I went into the locker room to get the lineup, Eric Schreimann (said catcher) called me over and very impolitely told me how to pronounce his name. As you can probably imagine, his name was said wrong the rest of the night – with an emphasis 🙂

Capital City Bombers

Frank Thomas Is A Hall Of Famer

Two blogs in one night! Stop the presses! I was going to write about this in the post below about Orel Hershiser but figured it deserved it’s own post.

As the Auburn baseball SID for the past 9 years, I had been looking forward to today (Jan. 8, 2014) for about two years as I knew Frank Thomas, who was an All-SEC player in the late 80’s for Auburn, was almost assuredly a first-ballot Hall of Famer, and today was the day the 2014 class was announced. I had done the research on him for when we inducted him into our Wall of Fame in 2010 – and his stats were impressive. I was the baseball SID when he joined the 500 career home run club in 2007 but for his induction I looked further to see that he, along with Mel Ott, Babe Ruth and Ted Williams, all Hall of Fame players themselves, are THE ONLY players in major league history with a .300 average, 500 home runs, 1,500 RBIs, 1,000 runs and 1,500 walks in his career. Think about that. Major League Baseball dates back to the 1800’s. There are thousands of people that have played in the big leagues and The Big Hurt is one of four – FOUR! – to accomplish that. Special indeed.

I was so pumped when I met Frank Thomas on the day of our Wall of Fame induction. He was the nicest professional athlete I had ever met. His hand engulfed what seemed like my entire forearm when he shook my hand. But as we talked he was a genuine to me as could be – especially since we had never met before. So I was really looking forward to today. But then the change in my job responsibilities happened in June and I moved from Auburn baseball to Auburn basketball.

I can’t say I regret the move, but it is days like today where I really miss the foundation I had built with Auburn baseball. I saw a lot of games, made a lot of friends and really became a part of the fabric of Auburn baseball. Unfortunately my nine years coincided with some of the least competitive years in Auburn baseball history, save for the 2010 season. When I called our legendary coach Hal Baird today to offer congratulations to him on Frank’s election, we talked about my move and how I had been preparing for today for the past two years. He gets it – this is a separation from Auburn baseball that has been tougher than I thought, and to endure those lean years and miss out on one of the most special days a program can have was even tougher professionally.

I wish nothing but the best for Auburn baseball in the future and hope that the success that Frank Thomas found on a big league diamond is even partly realized by any one of “my guys.” But for now, as I type this in a hotel room in Oxford, Miss., as our basketball team gets ready to face Ole Miss tomorrow night, I look forward to the future of Auburn basketball, the freedom during baseball season to sit in the stands with Stephanie, Jackson and Cole and the chance to talk baseball again with Coach Baird.

Jameis Winston is Jackson’s Orel Hershiser

Once again I have waited WAY too long to blog and once again I have vowed on New Year’s Eve to write more in the coming year. With that in mind I say, “On the 8th day (of January), I will blog!”

As I am sure you know by now, Auburn lost the BCS Championship Game to Florida State on Monday. It was an emotional roller coaster of a game over the last five minutes, and when you are an 8-year-old kid, that is not a good thing. When Auburn scored with 1:19 left to take a 31-27 lead, Stephanie and Jackson were jumping up and down, high-fiving each other. But then, just 1:06 later those cheers of joy turned to tears of hate for my little man. Instead of heading to Toomer’s with his mom to celebrate a national title, he was instead stomping up and down the steps, talking about how much he hated Jameis Winston, Jimbo Fisher and everything Florida State. I was heart-broken for him, since I knew what he was feeling.

Now, if you ask Jackson who his favorite college football team is, he will tell you it’s South Carolina, where I went to school, but I think he just does that to be more like his old man for deep down inside he is All Auburn – and he should be! We live here and have for his entire life. Both Stephanie and I work at Auburn. Stephanie is a proud AU alum. He has, literally, been going to Auburn football games since he was 9 months old. When I went to his school to eat lunch with him and his friends one morning this fall, he and his friends were talking about the previous weekend’s football game, dissecting who was the best running back on the team, how good Chris Davis was and the blitzing that Auburn had done the previous week. To say I was impressed would be an understatement. I always knew the kid was observant, but they were talking about the game, as 7- and 8-year-olds in ways I didn’t even look at the game. I guess he really does pay attention to the games while he is jumping around in the living room as I try to watch the Giants every Sunday (I do know that the Giants are his favorite team).

So how does this tie into Orel Hershiser you ask? Well, as I told Jackson that night when he was crying up in his bed, I knew what he was feeling for when I was 12 I experienced a similar level of disappointment from sports. The Mets were THE BEST team in baseball, going 100-60 and winning the NL East by 15 games over second place Pittsburgh (yes, for you young readers, there was a time where those two teams dominated baseball. And for my friends in the South, your Atlanta Braves finished 54-106, 39.5 games behind the Dodgers in the NL West. Dead Last.) The Mets had to go through the Dodgers to make it to their second World Series in three years, and the games were to be just a formality. However, Orel Hershiser and his mates had a different plan. To sum it up briefly, the series went the distance and in the deciding Game 7, Hershiser simply dominated the Mets, scattering five hits and two walks while striking out five in a complete game (those still happened regularly back then) while Ron Darling allowed six runs in 1+ innings as the Mets got shut out, 6-0. I did not have the (good?) fortune of watching the game on TV but rather listened to it on my the radio my uncle had given to my grandparents and I got from them in my room. When it was over I was just like Jackson was on Monday. Sure of victory, we lost. When Bob Murphy gave the final out, I sobbed and tore down all of the Mets stuff on my walls – the team picture, the pennants and my Darryl Strawberry poster. The team picture was destroyed forever, ripped to shreds and scattered across the bedroom carpet. The pennants were spared (and now hang in Jackson’s room). The Strawberry poster was beyond repair (though I tried a few days later). I was distraught. But as I told Jackson, though I was disappointed then, I still loved the Mets and when 1989 rolled around, they were still my team, Orel Hershiser be damned. Of course when “Bulldog” came to the Mets in 1999 (and helped them to the NLCS where they lost to the Braves in six games) it took a little getting used to (see Glavine, Tom) as I could never forget what he did in ’88 en route to a Dodgers World Series title that seemingly so rightfully belonged to the Mets (see Mets, 2006, Beltran, Carlos).

Hopefully I got through to Jackson. As I was texting with my dad on Tuesday about Jackson’s reaction, he told me he had a similar experience with the Wisconsin Badgers (his favorite team) when he was younger. But like me, he got past the initial disappointment and still follows the Badgers religiously (and why I, like Jackson, root for my father’s favorite teams whenever they aren’t playing my favorite teams).

So when Jameis Winston inevitably winds up in a Giants uniform towards the end of his career, hopefully Jackson will be old enough to appreciate what he did while still having that undying love for the Auburn football team.

 

The Day’s Best Hour

Holy Smokes! It has been 6 months since I last blogged. Clearly I am not living up to the standard that I set for myself when I started this blog. One post per week? Since this is only my 7th post (and it is now August), I haven’t even been blogging on average of one time per month. #Fail

So many things have happened in the past 6 months its hard to recollect all of them, so I am not going to. What? Hey, it’s my blog!

What’s Up With The Title Of This Post?
When we last visited with each other, I was on the verge of starting my ninth year working with the Auburn baseball team and it was February 15. Well, four days later I began what would turn out to be a life-changing adventure. No, I haven’t changed careers (at least not yet), but I did set out to make myself a better person. My lovely wife, Stephanie, knew that I had been struggling to stay active during the wintertime as it is very hard to ride a bike at that point, and she had given me the gift of a membership to CrossFit On The Plains for my birthday. So after finally nailing down a starting date (Feb. 19), I set out to start a new lifestyle.

CrossFit is, in simple terms, one very intense workout for a short period of time. The “Box” I go to has classes at 6am (never been to that one!), 9am (I sometimes hit this one), noon (#CFPNooner I am), and then 4-5-6-7 ever week day. For me, the noon class (all are an hour long, including a warm-up) is the ideal class. I have made friends in this class and it has changed my life. When I started, I was over 250lbs and now, 6 months later, I am on the brink of weighing in the 230s for the first time in years. And when I say years, I’m not talking 1 or 2…I’m talking over a decade! #FattyFroeNoMore! Not only have I got dozens upon dozens of compliments on how “you’ve lost weight” or “you look good” but I feel better. Get this – I don’t even snore anymore! Who knew that working out would fix that? Not me – or Steph! Just a nice little positive side effect.

It is no secret that I am experiencing an unusually tough transition at work. After the baseball season ended I was moved to a men’s basketball position – a job I have long desired, though not necessarily at Auburn. I always thought I would leave Auburn to do it (of course, I also thought I would be here for no more than five years and yet here I am starting my 12th athletic/academic year here). But instead, this job was dropped in my lap. One thing I know for sure is that I already miss the day-to-day workings of the baseball program. When I went down to the field last week, it was only the second time I had been there since May. I actually left the field saddened that I wasn’t a part of the program any more.

And that is where CrossFit – and specifically CrossFit On The Plains – comes in. The hour I spend in that box is the best hour, mentally, of my day. The workouts are hard. Really, really, really stinking hard. But moving weights or rowing 2,000 meters or doing 90 box jumps somehow puts my mind in a better state. I actually talked about this with a few other people there and they feel the same way. Why is that? What is it about punishing yourself that is actually enjoyable? I can tell you from experience a lot of it is the camaraderie that is built in the gym. Take last Monday for example. We had to a movement that for whatever reason I struggle with. And everyone in the class was done except for me (not really all that unusual. I am definitely WAY past the median age for the gym – it is a college town after all). However, as I struggled to fight through the last round, there was my coach, Phillip, pushing me through. There was the owner’s wife, Kelly, encouraging me to fight to the next one. There was Michael, a guy in my age bracket, encouraging me to finish. And there was another guy, someone I had never seen before, cheering me on to finish – which I did, even though after round 4 (of 5) I was spent and ready to quit. And for whatever reason I thrive on that. No, I don’t like being the last one finished and the one that needs the encouragement, but when it is my turn to be that guy, I appreciate those who stick around to push me through. (BTW, if I am done, I always try to make sure I encourage others and I always make sure to share a “good job” or “way to go” with another CFPer.)

So the Dalton and the rest of the CFP family, I say thank you for making me a better me.

Dog Piles (Random thoughts from the week)
*Duck Dynasty is a great show. I was a late convert but now I can’t get enough.

*I am contemplating entering a bike race (term used loosely) the last weekend in September. It’s more of a ride than a race but the 63- and 105-mile rides – though long – seem like something I would enjoy. I have just over a month to decide.

*My older brother, Tim, had a second son since I last wrote. Named him Walker Charles Froehlich. Not going to lie, I teared up a little when I read his name. I will probably do the same whenever my younger brother, Pete, has a child of his own.

*8 days – no matter where it is – is a LONG time to be away from your family. It’s even longer if your wife is away for two days after you get home!

*I hate when you are putting gas in your car and you put the auto-flow lock on, and for whatever reason it clicks off seemingly every half gallon. Why is that?

*Stephanie had never heard of a FlufferNutter before last week…how can that be? First, she has never watched Top Gun and yet we married…and now, to know she was deprived of FlufferNutters for over 30 years is heartbreaking!

*If you know of anyone looking for a communications guy, I know someone willing to listen…

*I love seafood.

*Our townhouse is STILL for sale. Anyone want to buy a 3 bedroom townhouse in Auburn, Ala.?

*I have had many friends come and go at Auburn and every time I see someone move on, I get a little more jealous. I want to be that guy that gets the going away party.

Until next time (hopefully not 6 months from now)…deuces!

Week 6: Lunch With The Coach

Opening Day 2K13 is finally here. Finally all of the preseason crap is over with and we can focus on wins and losses from here on out. And boy am I happy about that.

So those that read regularly are probably expecting to read about how my week of being Mr. Mom last week went. Well, I am sorry to disappoint you but there really isn’t much to write about. It went about as well as it could have. Coletrain was in a good mood every night and didn’t wake up once in the middle of the night. Jackson was helpful and, besides sticking his feet ON MY HEAD while sleeping next to me, he was awesome. Mornings were hectic but everyone got where they needed to be on time. Nights seemed more hectic, getting two kids home, fed, cleaned, homeworked and in bed, but we managed. I have absolutely nothing to complain about, especially since Stephanie is going to be going through a lot of this on her own over the next 14-15 weeks while I am at work. She has mastered it while I am a newbie. Hopefully Jackie T and Cole are the same way for her.

Anyway, as I said, this really isn’t going to be about last week but rather about last Friday’s lunch. I have been the baseball SID at Auburn for now nine years and never in that time did I take the initiative and ask the most renowned coach in school history to simply eat lunch. Sure, we have talked before on the phone or at events where we both were, but we have never sat down, one-on-one and just gotten to know each other. And as I told him, I was ashamed of that. How could I let NINE YEARS pass without simply inviting him to lunch? Thankfully, we rectified that last Friday.

Simply put, it was one of my all-time favorite lunches. I had blocked out 2.5 hours for lunch that day and we used almost all of it. The only reason we cut it short was because he had to leave – and trust me, I was disappointed it was over. I wanted more. I am not sure I have ever been so focused in on a conversation with someone at a lunch as I was that day. I was hanging on every word. At points he had me laughing so hard, telling stories from his time here that I was nearly in tears. There were moments when I was dead silent because I was anxiously awaiting the second half of his story. Don’t get me wrong, this wasn’t a one-way talk where I just sat there. I definitely contributed to the talk, but mostly it was a question from me that he answered.

When we left (long after our lunch had been eaten), I asked if we could do it again. And I was so happy when he said yes. I honestly called Steph as I was driving out of the parking lot to tell her how excited I was about that lunch. And now I am counting down the days until we do it again.

DOG PILES

– I think its really funny when you see someone cut through a corner parking lot of say, a gas station, to avoid a light. Nine out of 10 times I end up catching up to them at the next light. Was it really that important you make it around the corner that fast?

– I am ecstatic to read that one of my college roommates and his wife are preparing to try and adopt a child. They will be great parents. When I saw their post on facebook about it, I smiled on the inside and the outside.

– So mom and dad finally are no longer residents of Long Island. They officially moved to Williamsburg, Va., this past Wednesday. When my dad posted on facebook on Tuesday that they were about to go, I definitely teared up as I read all of the people’s responses. I actually had to stop reading and collect my thoughts. When a writer came into my office I was actually wiping a tear out of my eye. Thankfully I was turned away from the door so he didn’t see.

– I went to a CrossFit baseline workout on Saturday and man I was sore for the first half of this week! I (hopefully) get going with the program this coming week. Time to eliminate #FattyFroe.

until next time…deuces!