Sunday, Sunday...

Happy Sunday as we get ready for the first Monday of the school year (for St. Mary's at least). Quick reminders to read above about the forms for volleyball and soccer. We need as many players as possible.

Moving on, two videos to show today. One of them is the absolute worst football play ever, in the history of the sport. And since everyone is a football fan nowadays, it should interest you. And the other video is a little delayed like a lot of the videos that go up nowadays, BUT, this is from the summer when Derek got PWNED.

Aubrey Huff goes to bat for Joe

There are countless stories about selfish athletes and all the bad things about players in professional sports, but there are also the good ones, such as Giants first-basemen/outfielder Aubrey Huff, who befriended a 7-year old kid from Texas who is battling cancer.

Monday, I went out to the ballpark and interviewed the family from Texas and here is the piece that aired. Also, below the video, check out the personal blog that Aubrey wrote himself, which will give you more insight on the story.



A Special Visit by Aubrey Huff

Some of you might know already about Joe Turner from some stories in the paper. He's a 7-year-old kid I learned about through a friend of mine. He lives in Aledo, Texas, not far from where I grew up.

 In April, Joe felt terrible pain in his abdomen and his mother, Elizabeth, took him to the emergency room, where doctors found a large tumor on his kidney. Doctors removed the kidney and a small part of his liver. Then Joe underwent grueling sessions of chemo and radiation. 

 

As a dad myself, my heart went out to this kid and his family. I sent him a hat signed by the Giants and ball signed by me. I also sent him a note, telling him to keep fighting and that when he was up to it, I would fly him and his family to any Giants series they wanted to attend. They sent me back an orange rubber bracelet that says, "Going to bat 4 Joe.'' I never take it off. 

 

Today I finally got to meet Joe. 

 

He is in the midst of a break from his chemo treatments (he has three more left spaced out over nine weeks), so he picked the Reds series here in San Francisco to attend. I thought I wasn't going to get to see him until after the game because they just flew in today and I figured he's be tired. But sure enough, there he was strolling onto the field while we were taking batting practice. 

 

I trotted off the field and opened my arms.

 

"Joe, give me the real deal,'' I said, hugging him and lifting him off the ground. "Nice meeting you, partner.''

 

He told me he was going to go back to playing baseball in the fall. And he wants to play first base like me. 

 

What a great kid and a great family. I got to meet his parents Elizabeth and Kevin, and two of Joe's three brothers - nine-year-old Ben and four-year-old Will. All five Turners were wearing black T-shirts with my name and number (17) on the back. And like me, they were all wearing "Going to bat 4 Joe'' orange bracelets. 

 

It was awesome. 

 

Elizabeth and Kevin thanked me and took pictures. But the truth is it's a great feeling to be in a position to do something, no matter how small, for a kid who's going through such a tough fight. 

 

The family will be out here tomorrow and Wednesday, too. I hope to introduce Joe to some of my teammates. (At least the more normal ones. I don't want to scare the kid.)

Wax Museum

In Washington D.C., we paid a visit to the Wax Museum. Here are some of the highlights and some of the video courtesy of Mr. Tom.


Untitled from Bryan Cheung on Vimeo.

Class of 2010 Video

It will come together slowly, but surely. Here is a quick snippet of Day 1 and 2 from the Class of 2010 DC/NY trip a week or so ago.

Video Courtesy: Mr. Tom

Happy Birthdays

A belated Happy Birthday to Mark yesterday and today, we wish Andrew Chuong, brother of Jeremy a Happy Birthday.

I met Andrew when he was in Kindergarten and he used to hold my hand on our way to mass. He was part of my spirit family. Strangely, during SMILE this summer, he would still hold my hand when we walked to the bus stop.

A little rehash from last year's birthday wish to Andrew on the blog.

I was in 7th grade when they started Spirit Families, probably the best idea our principal at the time ever came up with. It gave a chance for all the students in the school to get to know at least one person from each grade.

In 8th grade, I got stuck with a little rascal named Andrew. He was about 2 feet tall, big ears and everyone always raved about how cute he is.

I coached him for 3 years when he was in 5th, 7th and 8th grade -- two championship appearances and one championship victory in 2007.


As a special treat, I had a friend record a video just for him.

Interview with a Giants broadcaster

One week from now, school is back in session.

This may be a re-post from before, but with the Giants in the heat of the playoff race, I thought I'd post an interview I did back in 2007, in my younger years when I had the pleasure of having a 1-on-1 with Giants broadcaster Dave Flemming. This was taped for our show in college. It's two parts. If you are a Giants fan or know someone who is a Giants fan, a parent, friend, older cousin or grandparent, take a look. Very well done in my opinion.

Adonal Foyle hangs it up

One of the best ambassadors of the game of basketball is calling it quits -- former Warrior Adonal Foyle. Foyle is best known for his defense and shot blocking ability and also known for getting posterized on a yearly basis. He had no fear trying to block someone's shot and every now and then he'd be on the other end of a facial.

There are so many players in the NBA right now who are afraid to challenge a dunk, fearing they will be on the wrong end of a in your face dunk, so they don't even bother. Foyle was not one of them.

Foyle is very articulate, born in Canouan, a very very tiny island. He will one day become a politician as he is very educated, knows his politics and always gives back to the community. If you ever get a chance to meet this guy, he is one of the nicest and most humble soft spoken human beings ever to live.

My best memory of Adonal Foyle is when I used to work at the NFL Shop at Pier 39, and for Christmas, I bought my Grandma an Adonal Foyle jersey.

He had a solid NBA career and most recently played with the Orlando Magic.

Here is his goodbye letter to his fans:

By: Adonal Foyle

Love Song to a Game

How should I tell thee goodbye?

What can you say about a love affair to rival that of Romeo & Juliet?
This is not just some melancholy ode to a hackneyed love of mortals.

I found our love deep in the entrails of the Caribbean Sea. Love that
swept me to a land where our embrace became mythical.

You showed me a world that few have dreamt of.

Colgate's golden steeple, a sojurn where ancient teachings flooded my mind.

There in the Chenango Valley where 13 sang my soul to flight,
basketball laid siege to my soul.

I do not cry for the passing of our love for it stands radiant while
my brittle bones crumble through swift time.

I have known you by so many faces; I will spend my end of days recalling.

You have infected so many with the allure of riches and black gold.
But I am not angry with you my love. For to a boy who was lost in the
bosom of nothing you gave hope and home.

Like the flickering of a light we come and go without much fuss. So I
leave you to fend off seekers, hoping they too will cherish your
unyielding countenance.

As for me, I will forever live in the glare of your loving embrace.
From time to time I hope you will look in on this pitiful fool.

I will miss brothers of a quilt struggling with burning lights. If I
offer advice, pierce beyond the glaring lights and see the faces
behind the wall. Don't be fooled by the magicians' nibble fingers. For
this is a life with mirrors and screens. Its only truth lies in the
understanding it will all end.

The sound I will take home is the symphony of thousands of screaming friends.

Warriors, Magic and yes, Memphis too, I sing you praise, hope, blessings,

Flowing from a boy's songs of thanks to you and you and you,to all I knew.

Please stay my "immortal love."

Change, change, change

Today marked the first day of high school for the public schools in the San Francisco Bay Area and the St. Mary's Class of 2010 officially are now no longer apart of St. Mary's. Crazy how time flies. Hope everyone had a good first day and has a great freshmen year.

In other news, we are less than two weeks away from the start of St. Mary's for the 2010-2011 school year. Hope you are ready for that as we will look to have a great year here as well.

I finally got a picture of myself stuck on the roller coaster at Six Flags, so take a look at these.

SMILE

My highlight reel

Absolute terrible quality on these videos, BUT this will have to do. I created myself in a video game and this is my highlight reel.

Two incredible catches

A few days ago I posted some "great" catches by our baseball team this year in practice. Now take a look at two of the most incredible catches of the summer, if not the year.

The Awards Night DVD

It seems like it has been ages since Awards Night 2010, BUT the good news is that the DVD is almost complete. It was very arduous putting it together.

A lot computer mumbo-jumbo that you won't understand, but basically I had to convert it to several different formats in order to even start editing the actual show. And on top of that, I added a whole bunch of stuff to the show so you aren't just watching a stage for 2 plus hours.

There will be exclusive video of each person and team, so if you haven't ordered yours, it is not too late. It's really some great stuff and I'm not just saying that.

Here is a sneak preview of a special 7th Grade Girls Championship retrospect.

Great catches

Yesterday, I stumbled across some baseball video from this year and found something pretty incredible, relatively speaking. Take a look.

The Vendor

Congratulations to the blog for its 700th post last night. This is #701. If you haven't checked the blog in a while, there is a lot of stuff you may have missed out on, so PLEASE, be human -- please be human and scroll down and check out everything you have missed.

On to today...

When I was a freshmen in high school, I really started going to games, baseball especially, and then soon followed by basketball, football, hockey, wrestling events, etc...

At these events are people selling stuff in the stands, and it was probably five or six years ago, I started to realize that the vendors are at each event, none more popular than this one vendor named Steve.

Steve the vendor we call him, a real pro's pro. My friend once looked at him long enough and looked at his name tag and saw that his name was Steve.

So next time you are out at a game, look out for Steve.

I was working a few weeks back and saw a vendor on during the A's game, and what do you know? It was Steve. So I took the time to edit together his fifteen minutes of fame and decided to give him some video fame.

ENJOY! THIS IS EPIC!

Exclusive Drum Corps Video

POST #700!!!!

The St. Mary's Drum and Bell Corps visited Shanghai last month. CBS-5 did a quick little bit on it.