A.J. Ellis piece is up on youtube

Click here to watch the story I did on Lexington native and triple A all star A.J. Ellis.

Check out my Ben Revere baseball package

I have uploaded to youtube the story I did with Ben Revere last week. You can see it here.

A.J. Ellis and the Triple A All Stars

On Tuesday David Patrick and I had yet another baseball assignment. This time it was for the triple A all star game which was played at Louisville's Slugger Field last night. The focus of our story was once again a Lexington native. A.J. Ellis, who played at Dunbar High School and then Austin Peay State University is now a catcher for the Las Vegas 51's (I think that is a pretty creative team nickname and their logo has an alien's head on it). He is having a great season and is hoping to be called up to the majors sometime soon. Las Vegas is the triple A team for the Los Angelos Dodgers.

A.J. is a super nice guy and was very gracious to us as he spent a good 15 minutes with us for our interview. It's nice to see professional athletes that are down to earth just nice guys. One of the coolest things A.J. said was that this great season in baseball doesn't even hold a candle to the joy brought to him by he and his wife's first baby.

I once again turned my own package out of the story and I'll try to have that up on youtube sometime soon.

Youtube Stuff

You can check out a segment of my anchoring on youtube. Click Here

Ben Revere and the Beloit Snappers

The past few days I've had the chance to do some stories on local baseball heros. On Saturday WKYT's David Patrick and I went to Dayton, Ohio for a minor league baseball game. Saturday was a pretty hot day and because of a mix up D.P. and I actually ended up driving the stations P.T. Cruiser WITHOUT airconditioning! It was a long, hot drive from Lexington to Dayton.

The reason we went to Dayton was because the Beloit Snappers were playing the Dayton Dragons. Both of these teams are single A minor league teams...Beloit is part of the Minnesota Twins' farm system while Dayton is part of the Cincinnati Reds' farm system.

A quick note...the Dayton Dragons (field on left) have been around for 9 seasons and have sold out EVERY game! Incredible for a single A team. In fact, Sports Illustrated rated a ticket to see and Dayton Dragon's game as the 10th hottest ticket in ALL of sports!

The Beloit Snappers feature a Lexington native named Ben Revere (below). Revere was drafted right out of Lexington Catholic high school in the 1st round of last years draft by the Twins. He's a speedy outfielder and a great guy.

David was not feeling well during the day and it was quite a crunch for us to get the story done but we pulled it off. I'll explain...the game started in Dayton at 7 pm. David and I got there around 4 and interviewed Revere, a teammate, and his manager. We then shot some video of Revere warming up and taking batting practice. Then we decided to stay for the first inning of the game. We had to get back however because David's story was scheduled to air for the 11 pm show that night. We had a 2 hour drive back to Lexington and then we had to edit the story together. So...as I said it was quite a crunch but David worked hard and got the story done about 7 minutes before it aired! Such is the life a TV reporter!

I'll share one of the cool parts of the story (which will kinda ruin the surprise of watching the piece I did but that's ok) Anyway...I had the idea while David and I were waiting on Ben to come out and start warming up that perhaps we could put a wireless mic on Ben for warmups. So when Ben came out I asked him if he would be willing to wear a mic during warm ups and he was excited to do so. It was cool to pick up sound of him signing autographs and greeting the many friends and family that came to the game to watch him. However, the coolest part of him wearing a mic actually happpened a little later.

As the game was set to begin we told Ben we'd go ahead and take the mic off him and he said he would just wear it for the first innning. It turned out to be some awesome natural sound. He got him hitting a ball in the gap between 1st and 2nd for a single (He's currently the only player in ALL of pro baseball hitting over .400) and then we had the sound of him stealing second base. And when I say we had the sound I mean you could hear him grunting and puffing as he ran and you could hear the collision as he slid into second base! Needless to say...WKYT sports director, Steve Moss, loved the sound we got and I was pretty proud that it was my idea!

I'll have another baseball story later.

Golf with My Best Friends

My dad and brother, Corey, came to visit me and have a little golf weekend. They came yesterday afternoon and we played The Bull golf course in Richmond. It was a beautiful golf course and yesterday was an absolutely perfect day. We had a great time. Corey won the day with an 82...I followed closely behind with an 84 and Dad fired an 88.

The most exciting time was certainly on the 121 yard par 3 (below) on the back nine. The hole was really down hill with water on the left. The pin was on the front of the green. Corey was the first to tee off and he hit what we all thought was a pretty good shot. It hit about 3 yards past and to the right of the pin. His ball hit the green and started to trickle back toward the cup. All three of us started to get excited. We began pacing back and forth on the tee and just watching in awe. The ball trickled for probably 20 seconds and we all thought for sure it was going to be the first hole-in-one for Corey. (Dad and I have never hit one either) The ball stopped just 1 inch short of the hole...I'm not exageratting either...it was literally one inch! We all agreed that it was exactly the way we wanted to get a hole in one. All of us together and on a beautiful course and great day.

Today we played one of my local favorites, Tates Creek golf course. I won the day and with an 80. Corey and Dad both fired 86. It was once again a really great day of golf and I'm enjoying playing with this two guys more than I enjoy playing with anybody else.

We have a tee time at Cherry Blossom golf course for 4 this afternoon. I'm looking forward to another shot at the course.

Fly Like an Eagle

I read a very intriguing article in the Bedford Times-Mail yesterday. It was written by my good friend Roger Moon and it detailed what struck me as a very cool discovery.

Earlier this year an injured bald eagle was discovered along a rural road somewhere in Tennessee. The bird was retrieved by the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. It was taken to a vetrinarian in the area and diagnosed with a badly broken wing. The people at the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency said there was no sign of a gun shot wound and it is believed the bird was hit by a car. I know none of this really seems interesting. However, the cool thing about the eagle was what the tag on one of the legs of the bird revealed. This eagle was actually from Indiana. It was released as part of the Indiana Eagle Restoration project in....1986!

The bird was about 6 weeks old when it was released in Monroe County in September of 1986...that means that this particular eagle is about 2 months older than me. I know...I'm wierd but the thought of an eagle flying around Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee for my entire lifetime is really cool to me.

Just the other day Jessie and I watched the Disney movie "Rescuers Down Under" which features a bald eagle as one of the main characters and...even though it was an animated film...the movie reminded me of how majestic these creatures are. It also served as a reminder of how close we had come to wiping the bald eagle out. But thanks to the Indiana Eagle Restoration project and other similar projects the eagle has made a comeback. The eagle was taken of the federal endagered species list last June and Roger's article revealed that just recently it was discovered that Indiana's bald eagles have achieved 100 nesting pairs.

Back in Lexington

I'm finally back in Lexington after a day at the North American Christian Convention in Cincinatti, July 4th at home, and a few days at Scenic Hills Christian Camp.

The week of camp I was at was students going into 6th and 7th grade. It was a very enjoyable week and a full week in terms of numbers. There were over 60 campers! I was representing teen mission during the week. I hope the offering is a good one.

I apologize for not writing for about a week. As you can tell I've been super busy. I should be able to write more often for a few days.

Also, if you would please keep my friend Sam Waldron in your prayers. Sam is part of the camp team that I spent two weeks with this summer and he was in an accident involving a lawn mower today. I don't know much about it other than the lawn mower supposedly severed a couple of fingers on his left hand. One of his passions is music and playing guitar so this injury will be extremely difficult.

Nothing too Crazy

I apologize for not having written in a few days. Really, nothing too crazy has been going on in my life.

I played Cherry Blossom golf course yesterday (It's been voted the #1 public course in Kentucky 5 years running). I played with the sports director at WKYT, Steve Moss, and a friend of his. I struggled to hit it in the fairways and it really cost me because the rough was very difficult. I shot an 87 and for those of you that know much about my golf game that's MUCH worst than normal. I really fell apart on the back nine where I shot a 47. But...if I get a chance to play there again I know it will be better.

Other than that...nothing very exciting going on. I'll be manning the Teen Mission USA booth and the North American Christian Convention in Cincinnatti this Thursday and Friday. If you're going to be there then please find me or give me a call.