I don’t have much today. Been a little off (physically and mentally) and didn’t get as much done as I wanted to today, therefore haven’t had as much to stimulate the mind into thinking of a funny blog topic. Whatever.

But I figured since I couldn’t really think of anything, I’d just pass this along. It’s a link for a good cause from a Offsuiter from way up north. She was working as a grad assistant at NU when I got there in 2001, so she’s legit (despite the pronunciation issues).

Anyway, if you’re anything like me (I know, not a chance), then you give to a charity or cause each year. Take a minute and consider helping out, even for just a few bucks like I did. I normally gave a bit to the united campaign on campus each year, but this past year I decided to make my donation individually. With this one I’ve given my personal limit for the year, but I hope if you plan to give a little to a charity and haven’t done so for the year, you can help them out.

Earlier in the spring I gave to the Jim “Catfish” Hunter Chapter of the ALS Association. Hunter was from eastern North Carolina and battled ALS, the same disease that took the coach I probably learned the most about my job. His name was Keith LeClair and he was hired away from Western Carolina and started the resurgence of baseball at East Carolina in 1998. That was also my first season as an assistant SID.

I remember leaving ECU to go to Nebraska and the day I went down to talk with Keith and tell him I had a great job offer, he was having some back problems. He had back surgery the previous spring and missed a few games, but this wasn’t the same thing. He played it off like nothing, but it was pretty obvious it wasn’t. Soon after when he was getting tested for the problems with his back is when they found out he had ALS. I sorta felt guilty for having left when I found what it was that summer. I know I couldn’t have done anything and I was better off where I went, but still, you always want to be around good people when they need a hand, and he was great people.

We had a former player and coach from those ECU teams come out to Nebraska for football games at different times in the years after, and they both talked about Keith and his spirit and how hard he persevered and his faith and family. He had to give up coaching after 2002 and I’m sure that was difficult. I emailed him once, in 2004, and he was still the same guy despite his circumstance, which was pretty bad by then. He even gave me shit by saying he thought he’d end up seeing me on ‘Survivor’ before he’d hear from me, and asking if I had completed the SID anger management classes that he knew I needed.

Our last weekend together was at Layfayette, La., in 2000, when ECU was the No. 1 seed at the Louisiana-Lafayette regional. After the first game Saturday, he and I got into a massive yelling match about players talking with media. He was right, hands down, considering they had to play again that night in the loser’s bracket. That was the time I realized one of the best thoughts to live by: “Know who the boss is, and don’t piss him off.”

I learned a lot of other things from Keith, even though I probably need to keep those lessons in mind more often. Like helping others. Even if it’s not for this cause, do your part to make the world a better place today somehow, someway.