What does a person with serious issues about the slogan, ” Finish what you start,” do on a Thursday night ? Naturally, you go to a Double A baseball game in Little Rock, Arkansas.
The Major League Baseball stadium 🏟 loop was finished well over a decade ago, and the AAA loop bit the dust last season, so why not get busy trying to complete the AA loop? Springfield Cardinals at the Arkansas Travelers is the game on tap tonight.
6:36, 75° is the information I would have added at West Virginia Tech University or Cavalier Park after the first pitch. The difference tonight is that I would have placed Wyatt Ogle on the bump to throw out a Ceremonial First Pitch beforehand.
Earlier today, I was working with Kim at the Mt.Airy office 🏬 on the ads for both Callie Harris and Wyatt Ogle. The duo was recently honored 🎖 by the Mt.Airy Media group, and with that comes a full-page ad in the upcoming Best of Preps special section.
Top of the third inning here, still scoreless. Game moving forward at a surprisingly quick pace. 0-0
My three favorite memories about young Mr Wyatt begin with this photo 📸
Memory #1 – Last fall, our Trace Reavis once again punched 👊 a ticket to the Class 3 State golf ⛳️ tournament up in Harrisonburg, and to guarantee that Reavis received proper coverage, I headed up there for the second year in a row. Insert Note 📝 – Reavis is also a keeper and has terrific parents.
I am very familiar with the drive 🚗 to and from H’BURG (exit 243-247), having made it somewhere in the area of 300 times, so I knew the commitment that I was making that day. Up and back when you add in the four to five hours to play and Reavis went off in Group #1, so add two hours for the results to become official, and you get the idea 💡= Long Day.
Alan Knight and I walked alongside our Cavalier that day, but also in the gallery of our group was Wyatt Ogle. Ogle had made the trip up to support his friend and teammate, Trace. While it was Reavis that was launching the rockets 🚀 off the tee ( Drive on #4 is the best example of a launch), there is no doubt that having Wyatt within earshot contributed to the 3rd place finish that day. Ogle was a calming presence to his fellow senior, and it showed. Who does something like that for a friend ? He could have stopped at buying him a slice of pizza 🍕 beforehand, and adding a go gettum would have worked.
Springfield exploded in the top of the third inning, plating four runs. The Travelers have answered back with one in the bottom half of the frame..
Story #2 of 3 also involves what supporting your friends looks like. For this one, we flash back to the Ethan Richardson State Double two years ago. Ethan, Wyatt, and slew of other members of the highly regarded Carroll County High School Swim 🏊♂️ team had been competing in Richmond earlier in the day. Ogle, by the way, placed in one of the events at State that day, and how did he choose to celebrate 🥳?
He and his Mom / Head Coach took the Supertramp version of the long way back to The Hill. Yes, going from Richmond to Penn Laird ( Spotswood High) to The Hill is the long way home.
The part of this story that makes me think about ” Destiny ” is that hours later, our cars 🚗 ended up at the same gas ⛽️ station off I-81, over 100 miles below Spotswood.
I had the honor that night of providing our friend, Allen Worrell, a ride back to The Hill, and we had a Carroll County High moment inside the shop at what felt felt like 1am. Once again, who does that for a friend and teammate ?
Story #3 – on why it’s easy to pull for Wyatt. One day, this baseball season I had stopped by Bill Worrell Field to show support for Casey Burcham and our Burcham Bunch.
7:43 – Central Time – we have reached halftime of tonights game. Cards still lead 4-1.
Burcham was in the middle of bragging about his Senior Class and their collective GPA. I thought it was way cool that Coach was that in touch with his seniors.
I snuck in one very important question in the direction of Wyatt, one that I ask many a young Cavalier…. do you know that you are being raised by a really, really COOL mother 👩 ?
Without hesitation, Wyatt Ogle agreed with my assessment ! Joi Ogle is a special, special lady, and it helps me that her son is aware of that fact !
The other half of the trek down to Mt.Airy is Callie ” Half Pint ” Harris. Little one has also been raised by people with mad parenting skills, but tonight’s baseball ⚾️ game belongs to Joi and Wyatt Ogle. His father 👨 also gets it, but it’s more fun to write ✍️ about Moms and their Sons.
Like every other story I write ✍️, this one is not designed for any other reason than to say, “We see you, Joi Ogle.”
