Friday, Bloody Friday

I can cross another item off my list today. I gave blood for the time in a long, long time. Overall, I can’t say that the experience was all that enjoyable, but the ladies at Mississippi Regional Blood Center treated me very well. I’m just not all that into needles and blood and that sort of thing. Just not my cup of tea, but giving blood isn’t about MY enjoyment and that’s why I did it. So get on Google and find out when you can donate.

I couldn’t help but remember the last time I gave blood. I was a senior in high school and I didn’t really like needles any more then than I do now. It was the spring and on the baseball team. There are few things in life better than baseball, but early season baseball in Southern Illinois means a lot of rainy practices and on those days it was soft toss and sprints in the gym. I disliked needles but I REALLY disliked sprinting. So my good friends, Kyle Beck and Keith Welch decided to donate blood with me, because of the whole “no strenuous activity for 12 hrs after giving blood rule”. We got free cookies and t-shirt and out of indoor sprints….WHAT A DEAL!

On paper this seemed great, in actuality, not so much. I didn’t take advantage of the whole free cookie. I didn’t eat enough and nearly passed out on our flowers in the front yard of good ole MHS. But…we did get out of practice that day! Which if it were only me may not have been that bad, given the fact that I only 7 official at bats that year ( 3 walks, 3 strikeouts, and 1 glorious, off the wall double at Caterville J ), but Kyle was team captain and Conference MVP and Keith broke our schools batting average record in his senior year. Needless, to say coach wasn’t happy! BTW to give you some background on our coach…if Hulk Hogan and Mr. T had a love child…it was him. So we sat in the girls gym, in street clothes watching our teammates hit off of a pitching machine and the next day, when we were at full strength, they watched Kyle, Keith, and Myself RUN!

I am glad that I gave blood today because I had all but forgotten about that story. After a brief stint playing college baseball Kyle ending up in the St. Louis area and Keith is back at our Alma Mater coaching JV basketball and doing a great job I might add. I have said this already, I love stories.

Blessings,

Ryan