Summer interns

At the company I used to work for, before we were bought out, we used summer interns. These interns would learn how our business works and after a week or two of observing, they would choose a branch to work at for a paid internship for a few months before heading back to school in August. They were college kids, and with me being in my 20’s back then, I usually became fast friends with a few. In 2007, one of the interns named Ryan (who was going to Pitt University) chose our branch to work at during his summer internship. Ryan was pretty cool, and a huge sports fanatic so he and I became pretty close that summer. One Friday night in particular Ryan came by my condo to hang out with my buddies and I while we watched baseball. My friends asked him where he was from, and he said New Jersey and then he got to talking about a baseball player from his hometown named Billy Rowell.

At the time, I had no idea who Rowell was, or much of the younger players who had been drafted. I played in a 10-team fantasy baseball league with our IT department, and if a guy wasn’t in the top 200 players or had a hot streak and wasn’t a good waiver wire choice, chances are I didn’t know much about them. Ryan told us some stories about Rowell and how great of a hitter he was, and occasionally after that night, I would check out his stats. His stats really never jumped out at me as superstar potential, but Ryan swore up and down that this kid was going to make it. 

After the summer was over, Ryan went back to finish his last few semesters of school. I remember him shooting me an email asking if he could use me as a reference for a job the spring of 2008, but I hadn’t heard much from him until around 2011. He came out for a wedding for a friend of his from college and he met up for a beer with me in town. We talked for about an hour, and he said to me, “Remember when I told you about that guy from my hometown who got drafted by the Orioles? Well, my brother hung out with him, and I guess he is switching from 3rd base to a pitcher.” I thought that was pretty wild. Ryan then told me how he was moving to Viriginia soon for a job. In 2012, he and I text back and forth a bit and he let me know that he was engaged to his girlfriend. I congratulated him, and we kept in touch every so often. One day, I received an invite in the mail to his wedding in Virginia. It just so happed to be on the same day as my wedding reception (my wife and I eloped in Tybee Island, Georgia in May of 2014, so we had a reception a month later to celebrate with friends and family). I called Ryan the night I received the invite and told him about the scheduling conflict. I did end up sending a gift though to the lucky couple for their "big day". We received a thank you from them in July 2014 and a few years had gone by before I heard from Ryan again. 

Every so often, I would either get a random text or an email from Ryan. He was doing great at his job and working through rough patches here and there with his wife, but other than that, his life seemed good as far as I knew. One morning early in 2022 (February I believe), I decided to check my old email address (I hadn't done this in almost 6 months). There was a message in there from Ryan from December 11, 2021. I opened the email and soon had tears in my eyes. Ryan's wife had emailed Ryan's contact list to let everyone know that he had passed away from his short battle with cancer (he had passed within 8 months of his diagnosis). She had given the funeral arrangements in the email, and I immediately felt like a jerk for not being there. I looked at the last text message I had from Ryan. It was April 17, 2021: "How is your little one doing? I hope all is well with you guys. Went to the Admirals game last night. I wish I watched more hockey in my lifetime. I am regretting this a lot. You were right, it's an awesome sport. Would have been awesome to see you play." It just so happened that was the day my youngest son was born prematurely, and I forgot to respond. Now, I really regret it. Was this Ryan telling me he was sick and knew what was ahead? Also, I felt numb with a lump in my throat. The entire day I reminisced about the times Ryan and I hung out at work, outside of work, and also our conversations. I let my old buddies know about Ryan's passing since they all had hung out with him plenty of times that one summer and all of them had about the same thing to say: "That's awful news. He was cool! RIP" "He was a good dude, loved sports and was one of us. RIP." My friends really liked the guy. He was a good person. I told my wife about him and how he passed away, and how bad I felt that I wasn't there. I wished my wife and kids could have met him, even if he wasn't one of my best friends. If he had lived closer, I could almost guarantee he would be my best friend. 

Later that night, my friend asked me if I wanted to meet with him at this card shop for a trade night in 2 weeks. These trade nights are not really my thing, but I decided to go with him and took a really small box with some traders. While at the trade night, I was flipping through a guy's cards when I saw it. A Billy Rowell printing plate. I smiled a little bit, but then started to get a bit sad. The guy asked me, "What's wrong man?" Well, I told him about my friend who had passed away and how bad I felt about missing his funeral and the email and how he grew up in the same town as the guy on the printing plate. The guy looked me in the eye and said, "I don't need that plate as much as you do, please just take it." I didn't take it from him, but I did trade him a nice Taylor Ward card he liked and made the deal. When I got home, I told my wife about the plate and showed it to her, she thought it was pretty cool.

2006 Bowman Chrome Draft Picks & Prospects Billy Rowell Black Printing Plate 1/1

I put this card in a brand-new sleeve and toploader, put some painters tape on the back and hung it up in my office on the wall next to my light switch. It definitely reminds me of my buddy Ryan.

Fast forward to Father's Day this year. It started just like a normal day, my kids fighting with each other and my wife and I figuring out what we were going to do that day. She had gotten me a tin of Upper Deck hockey cards. My oldest son and I opened them up and I pulled an Owen Power Young Guns, so I was pretty thrilled. We then went about our day. We went to a local park/playground and ate some pizza and had ice cream at the ice cream shop near our house. Once the kids ate dinner, were bathed and headed to bed, my wife started a load of laundry. I was getting our dishwasher ready to run and she said, "Oh no!" I looked back to see she had a long cylinder box in her hands. She said, "I'm sorry hun, I totally forgot I bought this for you forever ago for Father's Day. It's been in the box in the linen closet this entire time!" She handed me the box and I popped off the bottom of the box and took out some packing paper and out slid a bat. I looked at her confused and then I twirled the bat to see who's bat it was...

Billy Rowell Rawling's Game Used Bat

My wife actually listens to me when I talk to her and she's pretty ok in my book. Also, if you take anything from this blog post, make sure to keep in touch with your friends. Even if they aren't your best friends, just do it. I wish I had. RIP Ryan, you were a "good dude" as my friends put it. Sorry for not being there for you...