Star quality improves on all-county team
Hopefully all of you enjoyed last Sunday's Bottom Line, which looked back at the past 20 years of excellence in Columbia County high-school baseball.
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There were, however, a couple of oversights. The only explanation is that maybe I couldn't see the forest for the trees.
While compiling the all-Columbia County high-school baseball list from 1983 to 2003, I didn't include a first-team player for the right-field position.
I want everyone to know that one of the county's top three outfielders over the past 20 years was former Augusta Christian School star BJ Hawes.
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The 1999 AC graduate had two great years for the Lions. As a senior, Hawes hit 18 home runs to set a new county record, and led Augusta Christian to the state championship. Hawes was drafted by Cincinnati, and currently is playing minor-league ball with the Reds.
Also, the all-Columbia County honorable-mention category should have listed Lakeside High School graduate Parker Dye, one of the county's top catchers over the past two decades.
When I decided to determine a list of the best prep stars from a 20-year span, I originally wrote in Hawes at shortstop. Then, after scratching short and contemplating an outfield spot for Hawes, his name was accidentally omitted from the Sunday column. Dye similarly slipped through the cracks and also missed making it into print.
Consider this a correction - at least there were only two strikes!
Now that we've cleared the bases, it's your turn to come out swinging.
BJ Hawes, Augusta Christian
Photo by Michael Holahan
What are your thoughts on the all-Columbia County high-school baseball team? Was it a home run or a swing and a miss?
If you were happy or angry about the selections, or just want to inject your thoughts on the matter, e-mail me (AB@WRDWAM.com) no later than 6 a.m. July 9.
My plan is to include your feedback in a future column in The Columbia County News-Times.
eBay update
I have recently resurrected my hobby of collecting sports memorabilia.
From around the age of five through 1992, I was an avid collector of sports cards, but the card companies began to saturate the market, and it was impossible to keep up. As a result, I sold my entire collection, which featured more than 800,000 cards.
This past August, I was bitten by the bug again and started buying cards again.
The biggest change in the process is eBay. The Internet auction site sells hundreds of thousands of cards every day. That makes it easy for collectors to purchase items featuring their favorite teams and athletes.
Also, eBay allows collectors to find hard-to-get items from obscure players.
I recently spent a few hours surfing the site for local athletes, and here are the results:
Todd Greene - 14 items listed. Seven of the cards are autographed, and the prices ranged from one cent to $4.
James Shanks - two items listed. Shanks has a limited number of cards available, but this is his lowest number of eBay items in several months. The two Shanks cards are a 2002 Bowman Chrome ($2) and a 2002 Bowman Chrome Parallel ($3.25).
J.J. Johnson- one item listed. Johnson's only listing is a 2002 Upper Deck minor league card. It was priced at $1.
David Rivers - four items listed. Rivers' items are his 2001 rookie cards, when the former Lakeside football player was with the St. Louis Rams. The cards all were below $1.
Ashley Brown - 12 items listed. Unfortunately, none of these have anything to do with me. They are items of twin actresses Mary Kate and Ashley Olson, and "brown" was a lipstick color.