Great teammates and friends

Andy's dinner was great last night. There was a nice mixture of his former teammates and family and friends. The picture below was the "couple's table" From right to left - Nancy (fiance), Sarah and Knodel (one of my roommates from college, left handed pitcher and an all-around goof-ball), Allison and Drew (same class as me, a great shortstop in his own right, and a great companion for 3 bonnoaroo's and countless other concerts), Crissy and Colin (was a freshman my senior year, ended up becoming an awesome catcher and lived with me for a few years after college - his parents also live in central vermont and have opened up their home on several occasions to both jason and I when we are in new england for ski races), and danny (played shortstop at RIT after drew graduated, and now works in alumni relations).

The picture below from right to left is George (works with me and has been brought into the "inner circle"), Brendan (same year as Andy, played left field for us and did a good bit of mashing as a hitter, he and I also split a basement at RIT for three months and worked together for a short period of time in a meat shipping warehouse on a night shift - definitely a living situation and a job that kept both of us motivated to stay in school!), Joe (he's basically the godfather of RIT baseball, two years older than me and used to pitch), Tim (senior my freshman year, really took me under his wing when I was acclimating to play at the college level, also was inducted into the hall of fame last year, had an error free senior season and hit .398 playing 2nd base), dan (from fairport and played baseball and football, played corner opposite andy on that 97 state championship team), kurt (also a fairport football/baseball guy and played baseball at RIT, threw a no-hitter in his final collegiate game, which was the only no-hitter I called, and that all happened 8 months after he tore his rotator cuff), kevin (works at Harris, is the sales guy for Georgia and originally from fairport) and berger (from fairport, played hockey at brockport and now lives in the Rochester area).
I didn't get any pictures of Andy's family, but they were there in full force, including his younger brother Jamie who also played baseball at RIT and was a freshman my senior year (Jamie, who lives in seattle and was a former state champion alpine skier, and I decided last night after several shots of jack daniels to win the "pole, paddle run" 2-man relay event in Bend, OR next April, I think we have a good chance). There were a few other people inducted last night, but over half the dinner was people there in support of Andy.

That got me thinking that I really am very lucky as I know a lot of former college athletes who aren't anywhere near as close with their former teammates as I am with mine. Not even pictured here are three of my other former classmates who couldn't make the trek back to rochester (although I know they wanted too), but will be integral parts of my wedding.