Sloane and Daddy Day

Riding back to Indianapolis from St. Louis on a hot smelly bus following a disappointing loss is never fun. In case you didn't know a charter bus loses its luster or mystique after you have basically been living on one the last three months.  Three months on a bus is a long time, but when it's during a long college baseball season and you are over 6 feet tall and a catcher, it is basically the worst.  Well let me rephrase, when you win its an amazing time.  When you lose it's the worst. Compared to a van it is a nice way to travel, but still isn't satisfying when its hot and you've been beaten.  Adding more insult to this situation is when that trip home is following a season ending loss. This is somehow even worse than before and don't even get me started on the "bathroom". The year is 2006 and I have just finished my first full season as a travel college player.  It's my sophomore season at the University of Indianapolis and I am sitting next

May 25, 2014, was a banner day for Sloane and Daddy! Sloane Kathleen Paul (more on the name later) made her triumphant entrance into this world at 8:18 PM, weighing in at 6 pounds and 15 ounces.  She wasn't exactly a prize fighter by size but had already endured quite a fight to enter this world. Sloane's mother was in labor from about 12:30 pm till 8:18 obviously, and began pushing around 4:00 pm. Sloane began to enter this world with a wrapped umbilical cord, was sunny side up, had low blood pressure, had a compact arm blocking her way out, was extremely jaundiced, and had terminal meconium. Her doctors and nurses were incredible and did everything they were trained to do in those moments. If you have never had children or witnessed birth you cannot possibly understand how miraculous and scary it is at the same time. The Lord blessed us that day and gave me and her mother the greatest gift ever, a fire engine red-haired spitfire that has never met a stranger or someone she