I apologize in advance for EVERYONE I have left completely out of the loop in regards to my health for the past weeks.  Between my absence and then appearance last weekend coaching third I guess you could guess a lot of things.  The truth is, this has been really hard.

      The open biopsy of my right calf/shin did indeed confirm the worst.  That it appears to be another high grade sarcoma this time in the opposite leg.  I also need to keep a careful eye on my lungs as what was thought to be scar tissue from the last surgery may have grown and their may be a new area….for now it is just to be monitored.

      The news is sad….for once peoples reactions turned from sad to down right anger.  I was somewhere in the middle.  I then began experience incredible pain all throughout my right leg after the out patient biopsy…this pain, which was never point to anything landed me in the hospital for a Friday through Monday weekend, by Wednesday I was back in for pain and in through Sunday explaining my 2 week absence.  I don’t want to tub myself a “tough guy”.  But I think my resume of the way I have always played the game of baseball as well as surgeries speaks for itself. 

      By the time I pleaded my way out of the hospital I was a waste and may as well have been dead.  The experience cost me 10 lbs, which has since continued to slightly fall.  Any call or text from any Raven family or friend (who I am I kidding….I say holding nothing back…you guys are truly my family!)  The truth is I just didn’t want to talk about it, I felt dead….betrayed by a God who I have suffered for thinking I was finally seeing the bright side of a sad situation. 

      I feel like theirs two of me.  Theirs Boz that we all have known, and then theirs the side of me that the Holy Spirit has transformed over the past year, taking a way my bad habits and giving me better judgment in situations.  The biggest transformation has been trying to love all people.  Those 1^st few days at home…I wasn’t either….I wasn’t Boz with a bad attitude or overly competitive wanting to kick this tumors ass like last year, and I certainly did not feel Gods peace.  I felt lifeless.  For three days I would stay in bed from midnight till 5 pm the next day, barely responding to questions from my parents and not eating, anyone who knows my big personality knows me not talking is a problem.

      Finally I caved….broke down, and there has not been a day that I haven’t cried since.  I prayed with both of my parents and prayed that God would come like a flood.  In the next days I had more support from every single Raven then at any point, support that made me ball, and support that sometimes led to a trash can as the anxiety of both the good and the bad all was leading me to throw up.  Since I try and treat it like a project, you work on it a bit each day….cry each day, but then you put it away and move on with your day.

      I began radiation this last Monday.  A process designed to shrink the tumor so they can go back in an perform a surgery without amputation that will have the same desired affect of leaving me with a fully functional right leg.  The radiation people are nice and it is the easiest process in the world and completely pain free. 

      In the meantime I’ve talked to some people and each day I feel an old shell of me start to climb out giving me inspiration for my next tattoo.  I feel like I am below water drowning….I had let go….given up…..but again God’s strong arm grabbed me.  As he holds me up I feel as if I am treading water, but right next to that arm of God holding me, is the familiar hand of my parents, of Scot Arganbright, or Kris, Darren, Vinny, Gramps, Sepion, Dale, The Haugen Knights, and the Androski’s amongst all of you.  It would be impossible to mention all of you, and how much you all mean do me, but their isn’t a guy on this team that I don’t want to hug, and break down and cry with, despite last year and being a warrior…..this stuff is tough.

      The more I live though and the more conversations that I have I learn that its not about whether you win or lose.  It’s how you play the game….its how you live…..  So make me the promise that you will run out every ground ball and play every minute on the field as hard as you possible can, and after the games this weekend, have a few beers, and enjoy all of this.  You do that, and surely but surely I’m coming back.  If you thought I fought last year….you haven’t seen anything.  Last year I fought, but this time it is with an army of love in my corner.  An army God has put right here for me and I love you all.  I will continue to have the faith that God will deliver me, and that I will be a story of his Victory and be able to use this whole experience as a testimony to lead others to him.

      I will be taking the rest of the summer off as a player.  I have zero restrictions at the moment, but given my overall health and strength I am not where I want to be and refuse to take at bats from teammates who are at this time better capable.  I got up for 193 lbs this winter with high hopes of what my summer on Ravens could look like with that kind of strength.  Instead I guess it will have to be mental strength as I will go back to coaching 3B full time and once again continue to work my way back.  I will again try and do everything I can as a 3B coach and a teammate to help this team play good ball. 

Finally….Minor….please only leave this up for a week or so, I don’t want to see it after that, its time to move forward again!  I apologize if I’ve been smug to any of you over the situation.  As for now, I’m off to get a hair cut, get my ear pierced again, and maybe try and search for some “Boz” and with the Lords help he will meet me and I will be back in full gear soon. 

Please continue to pray and THANK YOU for the Support! 

CAW!

I know he is at work in my life through things that may seem spooky or odd to others, like a text message from someone I haven’t talked to in a month with no knowledge of the situation telling me God has been laying on her heart to pray for me, and to remember his blessings are upon us to a light coming on next door at my uncles house late last night.  When I looked into the house from my lawn chair, all I could see was a sign on the wall that said “Believe”. 

I will keep you all updated and should be in a Ravens uniform Friday….. 

Caw!!!

#1 Prescott Pirates vs. #4 Chippewa Falls Lumberjacks Fri. Aug. 10 @ 7:00 p.m.

#2 St. Croix Ravens vs. #3 Tilden Tigers Sat. Aug. 11 @ 12:00 p.m.

Championship game Sun. Aug. 12 @ 12:00 p.m.

The Tilden Tigers won the North Division of the Chippewa River Baseball League with an league record of 12-6, edging out the Bloomer Woodticks by one game. The Eau Claire Bears and Beef River Bulldogs, of the south division, finished with better league records, which likely explains Tilden slipping to a #3 seed. Tilden made an appearance at the Gazdik Memorial Tournament in Solon Springs a few years ago.

Anytime you mention the Prescott Pirates to players that were around two summers ago, they are likely to cringe. The Pirates and Ravens squared off in first-round action two years ago in Osceola. Up by three runs entering the bottom half the eighth inning, SCR squandered the lead and eventually lost 6-5.

Prescott had the best record in the St. Croix Valley Baseball League going 10-3 in league play en route to capturing the south division title.

The Chippewa Falls Lumberjacks finished with a 9-9 record, taking third in the Chippewa River Baseball League North Division. They are the regional hosts.

More tourney info will be posted in the coming days.

So I figured, since the season is well-underway, and it's been an eventful few weeks, what better time than now to churn out my first column of the season?

Now, you'll have to understand that I'm in a fiesty mood. I've thoroughly enjoyed the first month of the season. I'm as enthused about this squad more than any other we've put on the field since I've been here. I know that it's not practical to think that we'll finish with one loss all year, but I look forward to weathering all the highs and lows that a baseball season brings with these guys. We're a good group and it should be awesome.

I'm getting older. I'll be 27 in a few weeks, and one of the things that hasn't been a particular strong suit of mine for pretty much all my life is that I'm not much of a vocal leader. I've never really had the 'nads for that kind of role. When playing or coaching, it would take an awful lot to get me riled up to the point where I'd say something. In the game "good cop-bad cop", I would always assume the role of "good".

An example that comes to mind is when Vendela got into that semi-bench clearer with George Hanson and Oulu a few years ago. When the benches emptied, you could've found me hanging towards the back of the pack having a chuckle because it was kind of amusing. Granted, Soups was a hard guy to back sometimes, but we had guys out there doing it because he was our teammate, and that's what teammates do.

Last year was filled with such disappointment and frustration, that it felt like I had given up at some points in the season.

Now it's 2007. We have a good crop of new guys, solid returners, and everyone is contributing. It's going great. However, I've felt sort of a void with the start of the season. In past seasons, I've had something to get me riled up and motivated to finally get on the field and play ball. That hasn't been the case thus far this year, and I have REALLY found myself actually looking for things to get fired up about.

Over the winter, Proctor High School would host open gyms for anyone who wanted to come throw and take some cuts in the cage. Before one particular open gym, Garramone, Anthony Bush and Tim Rohweder started serious discussions about re-kindling the amateur baseball tradition at Proctor and getting the Padres into a league this summer. To be honest, the ideas they had and the enthusiasm they had talking about it made me envious.

So, when we scheduled the Padres for a few games this summer, I looked forward to those games with extra enthusiasm; not only for the chance to play against Garramone and Bush (two of my best friends from college ball at UWS), but also to play against some of the Proctor and Denfeld players that I had an opportunity to coach over the last few years.

And that brings us to last weekend. Friday's game was a good, competitive game. It was our home opener, and since guys like Garramone and Bush were playing, it hyped it up even more. It even gave some Bayside Vipers the urge to make the trip down 53 to check it out.

For those of you who don't know, or weren't there to see what happened, long-story-short, there was a lot of bitching (on both sides) about various calls throughout the game, culminating in a five-minute-long "civilized" meeting of the minds in at home plate during the middle of Friday's game.

I've referred to Anthony Bush as a big brother to me from our UWS days. He's taught me a lot, and you'd be hard pressed to find someone more well-versed about the game and history of baseball. That being said, I was really, REALLY pissed off about what transpired on Friday night. Not so much because for the fact that he argued some of the calls... he was standing up for his team, and Dale did the same for us; but for the personal attack on someone who has been a loyal umpire when we have needed him through the past nine years.

We had "official" umpires lined up for Friday's game. However, they backed out on Thursday, putting us in a tight spot to find replacements in one day. But we were able to find some. The plate-ump happened to be a twenty-year-old "kid", with the base-umpire being the aforementioned fellow that has helped us since we started up the club.

Anthony has listed his gripes on the message board:

"My criticism: if we don't have real umpires, perhaps we shouldn't attempt real games. In Friday night's game, the base umpire twice made calls before the play ended."

He went on to add, "At the risk of beating a dead horse, I'll add the plate umpire was inconsistent with the outside corner to right-handed batters and was too easily swayed by verbal protests made by the home team."

My response: The plate umpire, even though he's only twenty, is a certified high school umpire. The base ump was certified in the past before taking over as head varsity baseball coach at Northwood high school. I don't know how, from your vantage point in the dugout, can tell exactly how inconsistent an umpire is being on an outside corner. We don't have quest-tec set up at our humble neighborhood ballpark. We asked the ump why WE weren't getting any of the calls, and he told us that the catcher was set up off the corner of the plate. So our catcher made some adjustments on where he set up. THAT'S what happened. We didn't "sway" anyone verbally. Your own catcher could only point out three or four pitches that he might have called differently for you guys, but he could also point out a few that we didn't get that we should have.

Another gripe he had was: The best umpires are the ones that you don't even notice are on the field. If it is obvious, I, like Leo Durocher, Earl Weaver, or Billy Martin, will make it known how I feel about my noticing them. I believe coach/umpire arguments are as much a part of baseball as pitching, fielding and hitting. But I never take a game home with me and I never hold a grudge.

My response: Though maybe not to the extent that Anthony feels they are, I agree that arguements have a certain place in the game. If a manager or coach feels his team is getting jobbed, he has every right to express it and defend his squad. I do not, however, think that the display that took place on Friday, would fall under that category. The infamous "Viggiano foul-tip" seemed to be the final straw that ignited the whole fiasco. Vinny fouled the ball off. Everyone knew it. The batter knew it, the catcher knew it... But the umpire rang him up.

Dale went out there to contest the call and tell him to ask for help from the base ump, which he ended up doing. And they got the call correct. You see it in the pros all the time, when umpires confer to get a call right. Nick expressed his feelings to the ump about reversing the call and let it go. Anthony came out to do the same. He had a right to. Umpires usually don't reverse calls. But he should have gotten help in the first place. Chalk that one up to in-experience on his part. But there was absolutely NO reason to shout to the plate-ump, "You're gonna ask the guy in BLUE JEANS for help??? I'm not accepting that!!" The term "blue jeans" came up a lot in referrence to the attire the base umpire adorned (Keep in mind, this was a last-minute replacement, who doesn't carry his own "official" umpiring gear).

At first, I found it funny because I'd seen Anthony get into it with some umpires when we coached together, but the more he bitched more about the clothes that the umpire had on, rather than the call, I went from amused, to annoyed, to pissed off. I took it as him talking down to us. As if the way we run things are simple and not as good and "official" as the way they run their club. The more I thought about it, the angrier I got.

The very next call came on a stolen base where our guy would have been caught stealing, but the second baseman dropped the ball, so he was called safe. Cue up more barking and "blue jean" comments from the dugout. I was outside the dugout and I lost it and yelled "He dropped the f----- ball! Shut the f--- up!" across the field.

Just because the guy is wearing denim, does it mean he doesn't know what he's doing? Just because all the Proctor guys weren't wearing the same hat, does it mean they aren't on the same team? Isn't that UN-OFFICIAL? It's ridiculous.

Plus, they make tuxedos out of denim in Canada, don't they?

I'm over it now. I just didn't appreciate being talked down to. We don't deserve that. The calls went both ways, and when conferred upon, the umps got the questionable calls right. It's done with. I don't hold grudges either.

His last comment: "I love the Ravens and I wish them the best of luck this season."

My response: I love the Padres, and wish them the best of luck this season as well! ...and I love Anthony Bush too!!

I'm taking my role as a vocal leader more seriously now.  I love all the guys on this team (even Amys), and I'm gonna step up to the plate for 'em whenever I feel like one of my guys deserves it.  So, whomever talks shit to Dale about being pissed out and assuming the worst about getting pelted in the knee the other day can kiss my ass. He was on crutches Saturday, and he looks like someone took an anchor and raked it up his leg. He knows nobody was throwing at him on purpose, but if you think he's wrong for being pissed, suck it!  And if you want to hide behind an anonymous post, get some balls.... That's ME, Kris Minor, shortstop, saying that to YOU...