Well after a fun filled Friday with my family in Dallas, Jess and I returned home early Saturday morning. Our plans were to just hang out, I was going to clean a little and wash clothes then we were going to head over to Longview for Date night! We were going to have a nice dinner and then catch a movie. Around 5:00 I got a call from one of our friends here asking if we were back in Kilgore. I was kind of confused because he is a guy and he is close with both Jess and I and had both of our numbers but called me. His mom is a very sweet lady that I worked with at Kilgore Heights and we still get together for lunch sometimes. He was calling to see if we wanted to come to a Charity Event for the Boys & Girls Club of Kilgore. His mom is a "Chair" on the board for the Boys & Girls Club and wanted us to come eat and dance the night away. She had previously asked us to be a part of the event but we declined because we thought we were going to have already shipped out to Arizona for Spring Training. As he asked me if we wanted to come my heart sank. I told him I would talk to Jess and get back to him once I had an answer. We had already made plans for date night and Jess had just woken up from a nap. (Jess is not in a good mood when he first wakes up from a nap) I knew talking to 200+ Kilgorites about baseball was not something Jess wanted to do on a Saturday night and might I add a Saturday night during the offseason. At first he shut me down, he said "Erica we already have plans and we aren't going". So I turned around and went back into our bathroom and continued getting ready for date night. As I stood there, heart heavy and all I knew we had to go. So I put down my my eye shadow brush and marched back into the living room. I said "Jess we need to do this, we need to go!" He looked at me and laughed and said "Babe I'm not going, I dont feel like talking to a bunch of people about baseball". What did I tell you? I knew it! Im sure your thinking to yourself what's the big deal about talking baseball with the people of Kilgore? The first couple hundred times its not bad, but when they ask questions off of wrong information they have that is annoying for Jess. So in reply I said "You are very blessed in the talent God gave you, don't you want to do something good for the town you grew up in while you can". Thank goodness that God gave me the right words to say to my husband in order to get him to go! He said "Fine! I will go, but Im not happy about this!" So we both got ready and headed out the door. The event was held at a place here in Kilgore that has Quincenera's, so it was a pretty big place. After rubbing elbows with some of Kilgore's finest Jess was asked to autograph a ball so it could be auctioned off. It was a dirty old little league ball that had been thru at least 7,000 innings of baseball. Then Jess had an idea! He said "You know all those balls I had autographed by different players after games?" I said "Yes", (with a puzzled look on my face). "We should donate one to be auctioned off too!" Jess said. "But which one?" (Jess) "Hmm...Idk" (Me) "Well how about Mark Texeira?" (Jess) "Uhhh" (Me) "He played for Texas and you know everyone here like Texas" (Jess) "Yeah" (Me) "Yeah! Let's do him! Because there is no way Im giving up my Mariano Rivera ball!" (Jess) So I agreed and Jess made a call to Kim, he asked her if she could go get the ball from our house and meet him with it. Thankfully she did and we got the ball to the auction in time for it to be auctioned off. At this point in time Jess was in the Charity Event spirit and was having a good time. Then....the unthinkable happened! They asked him to get up in front of everyone at the auction and speak about the balls! You all know my husband, you all know how he has a career where he is in front of millions of people and has to perform his job. So whats the big deal about speaking in from of 200 people? Well like he says he is an athlete, not a public speaker. So he said no, they then asked me to do it. I obliged because I like doing stuff like that and I was so proud of Jess for getting in the spirit to help out that I couldn't say no. When it came time for me to speak I just kept it basic. I told them who I was and that the signed ball from Mark Texeira came from the Indians vs. Yankees series and that the significance of that series was that A-Rod was due to hit his 600th home run and luckily Jess struck him out and sat him down with bases loaded and 2 outs! I don't know if it was my wonderful story telling skills or that it was Jess Todd's baseball's but those baseballs ended auctioning off for $1,200.00! The 2nd highest thing sold that night! The baseballs beat out a football that had been signed by Troy Aikman! I know that was so awesome for Jess! After the auction ended they had a band and we hung out with some of Jess' old classmates and danced. It was a great night and we both had a wonderful time. We decided that we are going to do more because it felt so good to give back and help out a good cause. I hope we can continue to give back and give help where it is needed because last night was irreplaceable in my heart and I will never forget it.
Love,
E
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