I’ve been blogging now for over three years–1240 days.
I’ve been writing an annual baseball preview since the winter of 2006–over 2000 days.
I’ve known I want to be a sportswriter since the end of my freshman year in high school–over 1000 days ago.
And now that I’m starting my freshman year at Vanderbilt University, I think it’s time to thank a few people that have helped me get to this point.
First and foremost, I need to thank my parents. They’ve supported me through and through and, you know, I really wouldn’t be here without them.
Next we have my brother, Michael. We’ve had more than our fair share of brotherly love, but he’s always there for me.
I can’t forget the rest of my family. To my grandparents Mike and Louisa and my great-grandma Hermine, thanks for sharing your love of baseball with me. To my Uncle Dan, thanks for helping edit my baseball previews and all the conversations–baseball and more. To cousins Claire and Jack plus Uncle Stephen and Aunts Lynne, Karen, Sara, and Kim thank you all for the support, love, and encouragement.
To my teachers, thank you for pushing me to learn more and do more. To Mr. Scully, who pushed me to start blogging and answered every last one of my questions about technology, thank you. To Mr. Kutner, who made me a much better writer even if it meant writing such encouraging comments as “Ugh,” “Blah,” “Barf,” and “Gross,” thank you. To Mr. Lucia, for pushing my mind in math, helping me create a baseball player ranking system, and carrying on long-lasting debates, thank you. To Mr. Jon Downs for helping me off the bat with my journalistic writing and Mr. Jesse Downs for encouraging me to go to Vanderbilt, thank you.
And to my Providence Day School lower school teachers–Mrs. Cook, Warwick, Schultz, Highfield, Akbari, Lambeth, Pleasant, Cook, and Blackwell–and my Providence Day School middle school teachers–Mrs. English, Bynum, Parker, Bard, Pierce, Villegas, Fisher, Edelman, Osborne, Barlow, and White, and Mr. Harper, Sienkowski, Burgess, Borcich, Field, Burnam, Hawk, and Henry–and the rest of my Providence Day School upper school teachers–Mrs. Coley, Whelan, Caldwell, Sivy, and Hinson, and Mr. Tappy, Hedinger, Welsh, Taylor, Reeder, Turner, Boyer, Bynum, Garrison, Dickson, Grabenstetter, Werner, Nichols, Finneyfrock, Erb, Hough, and Kashatus–thank you for everything.
To my baseball coaches: thank you Coach Cerbie for pushing me harder than I’d like in practice, thank you Coach Smith for helping me appreciate the intricacies of pitching, and thank you Coaches Wallace and Bibby for keeping things fun in JV. And my teammates? Thanks for seven great years.
I was blessed to be able to work with the Charlotte Observer this summer, thanks to Providence Day School. I got to work with some really great people–with whom I will hopefully be able to work again in the future–Corey Inscoe, Jim Walser, Mike Persinger, Scott Fowler, Harry Pickett, and more.
Thanks to the guys from Bobcats Baseline–Adam Sakoonserksadee and Dr. Ethan Musgrove–for giving me a chance to write for another great website and helping out my writing.
Thank you my great friends from school, baseball, and beyond–specifically my friend Ben Hinson, with whom I played baseball since tee-ball, and my six fellow Providence Day Chargers headed to Vanderbilt: Andy Marx, Chris Nash, Emily Stewart, John Cambern, Katie Metzger, and Tommy O’Gorman (and here’s to four more great years).
Thank you to my amazing family on Twitter; I’ve made some incredible friends over my three years and nearly 36,000 tweets. I’m talking about you, @SydDaKid17, @CardboardGerald, @jmiller112, @atjared, @bmb21, @JayMaalD, and more. (Tweet at me @benweinrib if I forgot about you).
Thank you to the writers on The Charger, and even more recently the secret society of cunning linguists at Charging Backwards–Holy Broman Empire, The Broletariat, Edgar Allen Bro, Broseph Stalin, Broseiden King of the Brocean, and Brosiah Wedgwood–for making writing so much fun.
Thank you to the pro athletes I’ve been lucky enough to interview with during my time in high school: Delino DeShields Jr., Joe Borchard, Ty Buttrey, Brad Stone.
I wouldn’t be here right outside my dorm room in Stambaugh House if not for the admissions crew at Vandy, and I wouldn’t be nearly as happy if it were not for the TRA, who helped award me the Fred Russell-Grantland Rice Sports Writing Scholarship. I can’t thank those guys enough.
I’ve had so many great opportunities and so many people to thank.
Hopefully I can look back and say this is the beginning of great things. And I wouldn’t be here without all this help.
The Knuckle Blog 