Birds have historic Opening Day win

With Thursday’s now seemingly traditional Opening Day walk off victory, the Baltimore Orioles are undefeated, in first place (OK, so it’s a three-way tie for first) in the American League East Division and are on pace to win 162 games!

The Birds started the season looking like a contender, at least in the pitching department. Dylan Bundy engaged in a pitching duel with the Twins’ Jake Odorizzi, with both hurlers tossing shutout ball (Odorizzi left the game after six innings and Bundy exited after seven).

The Birds scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh and reliever Darren O’Day held the Twins scoreless in the eighth before giving way to Brad Brach to close out the ninth.

If only.

I was already getting a bad feeling, because I was watching the game in an establishment where the “fans” were already bashing players, second-guessing management and otherwise putting down the home team (it always amazes me when a bunch of guys are bellied up to a bar, guzzling beer and talking like they know more than the professionals who have been in the baseball industry for decades, but that’s a story for another day).

The folks who weren’t bashing the Birds were already putting the game in the win column and looking toward Saturday night’s game. Such talk always makes me cringe. It ain’t over ’til it’s over, and I get quite superstitious when watching one of pro sports’ most superstitious games.

And sure enough, Brach had a meltdown that saw a precarious two-run lead disappear.

Brach had a horrible outing, loading the bases and giving up two runs to tie the game. He recorded just two outs and was yanked in favor of Mychal Givens, who finally ended the painful inning with no additional damage and return to toss a scoreless 10th.

Richard Bleier got the nod to pitch the 11th, recorded three scoreless outs and found himself the Opening Day winner when outfielder Adam Jones sent the first pitch of the bottom of the 11th into the left field seats for a 3-2 win over the Twins.

Jones’ walk off homer continued a streak of Opening Day dramatic wins for the Birds. Fans might remember last year’s walk off home run by Mark Trumbo, and catcher Matt Wieters hit a single to bat in the winning run in the 2016 opener. Coincidentally, Trumbo’s homer also came in the 11th inning, resulting in a 3-2 win over the Blue Jays.

The three consecutive walk off victories, an MLB record, will undoubtedly be fodder for sports trivia quizzes in the future.

Obviously, I was being facetious in saying the Birds are on pace to win 162 games, but part of the glory of a new baseball season is to dream and dream big.

So, remember to cheer FOR the home team, let the professionals do their jobs and don’t put the game in the win column (or the loss column, for that matter) until the final out is recorded.

Let’s go O’s!

Opening Day and hope springs eternal!

It’s Opening Day in Baltimore — that much-looked-forward-to day when the Birds take the field at Camden Yards with a clean slate and fresh hopes.

True Baltimore baseball fans have suffered through way too many losing seasons, with the last World Series title coming in 1983 and, before the Buck Showalter era, way too many years had lapsed since the team made a playoff appearance (maybe 1997?).

But during manager Showalter’s tenure, the Orioles have enjoyed several winning seasons and a couple of playoff appearances, despite the absence of a notable pitching staff. The Three B’s kept the Birds competitive — Bats, Bench and the Bullpen's relievers.

As a result, it again became fashionable to be a Birds backer and Orioles gear became almost as popular as that of the Ravens. Younger fans came on board and the town was once again proud of the boys of summer.

But the wheels came off the bus last year, as some big, well-paid bats went silent and the bullpen, simply asked to pitch way too many innings, lost its edge.

This baseball cap, a fan giveaway many years ago when the Orioles called Memorial Stadium home, is weighed down with more than 30 years of Orioles history as played out on pins and buttons.

We ended the season with the first losing record of Showalter’s tenure and a last-place finish in the American League East Division. For the first time in six years, the lack of a pitching staff just couldn’t be overcome. We were grateful for the young stars on the team, and had hopes the big bats would come back in the spring well-rest and rejuvenated, but we also knew this was the winter something absolutely needed to be done in the pitching department.

As recently as six weeks ago, it appeared that we were going to come out of the off-season with nothing done to improve the team’s pitching staff. And then, bam! Word trickled out about the acquisition of Andrew Cashner and, more recently, the signing of Alex Cobb. All of a sudden, we have a pitching staff, with the two veterans joining Kevin Gausman, Dylan Bundy and Chris Tillman, the former ace of the staff who's hoping to rebound from an abysmal 2017 season. Cobb is still in Sarasota, having a private spring training because of his late signing, and is expected to join the team sometime next month.

Bundy, a 25-year-old pitcher who was the fourth overall draft pick in the 2011 Major League Baseball draft, gets the honor of starting today’s home opener.

Manny Machado — who will be found this year at shortstop instead of third base —Trey Mancini and Jonathan Schoop enjoyed productive spring training sessions and we can only hope that Chris Davis and Mark Trumbo (who’s starting the season on the disabled list) can reproduce past offensive successes.

So the Yard is all prepped, the Orioles have announced a Kids Cheer Free campaign which admits children ages 9 and younger for free (with the purchase of adult tickets), and Pizza John’s pizza can now be had at the ballpark (eastside fans rejoice).

We’ve got new players to “meet,” old favorites we’re pulling for and that clean 0-0 slate which allows us to dream for a while.

Play Ball! 

Reconnections

The summer of 1970 was a heady time with many different meanings for different groups of people. It was post-Woodstock and post-Summer of Love; it was not long after back-to-back assassinations tore this country apart; it was pre-Watergate; and the unpopular Vietnam war was raging — the Kent State massacre had occurred just six weeks previously.

I had just finished seventh grade and was too young at the time to fully appreciate the activism taking place or to understand the historical significance of many of the events of that era. For me, the first summer of the 1970s was significant because that's when I became a teenager and when I spent the entire break between seventh and eighth grades at what was then called Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Without divulging too much personal information or dragging out old baggage, it was a dark, difficult time of my life. I was hospitalized more than 60 miles from home and as a result, had no visitors for the duration of the stay. My mother couldn’t be bothered to visit and I didn’t find out until I was discharged and returned home that none of my friends or neighbors were even aware that I was sick, let alone hospitalized for such a long time.

Thankfully, observant, caring hospital staffers figured out I was alone. Many of them made efforts to spend extra time with me and found ways to keep me engaged in activities when I was able. But one nurse in particular went above and beyond the call of duty and took me under her wing. She was young and bright and fun and funny and sassy in an era when a deployment to Vietnam hung like a cloud over the heads of all military members.

This nurse, who I now know was only 21 at the time, came to the hospital on her days off to hang out with me and take me on outings. The simple act of treating me to lunch at Arby’s, taking me to her apartment so I could hang for a little while in a more home-like setting or buying peanuts and going out to the hospital’s park-like front lawn to feed the squirrels went a long way in normalizing a routine and making an abandoned, neglected, sick kid feel loved and cared about.

As we all know, time marches on. I went home and started eighth grade and a couple of months after that, my guardian angel nurse went to Vietnam.

As the years flew by, I never forgot her and the impact she had on my life. The altruistic effort she made to make a difference in a kid’s life, when she was at an age when socializing with peers and dating and all the other trappings of young adult life would have been more important, stuck with me my entire life.

When technology put the world at our fingertips, she was one of the first people from my past that I tried to find. Life is a little unfair to women, because most change their last names when they marry. That makes finding women a little more difficult than men.

My first few searches were unfruitful and then I hit upon just the right phrases for a search engine to find her. I was so excited that I responded with involuntary, spontaneous tears. But I didn’t have the nerve to reach out to her; it was enough for me to know she was alive and enjoying a successful nursing career.

But every couple of years, I repeated the search, just to assure myself that it was indeed her and to check to make sure she was OK (as much as that can be determined by a superficial online search).

Earlier this month I found her on Facebook. I finally bit the bullet and sent her a private message. Judging from what was publicly viewable on her FB page, it appeared as though she wasn’t extremely active on the site, so I didn’t hold my breath waiting for a response.

But when she did respond nearly two weeks later, it took my breath away. A brief but lovely online conversation allowed me to tell her what she meant to me all those years ago, and she assured me that she remembered me from that brief period.

It turns out that we have a real big thing in common. While I am a midlife crisis journalist, she — now retired from full-time nursing and teaching graduate-level college nursing courses — is a published author and “loves writing.”

I am hoping that we can cultivate a new friendship as much as time and distance allows. But I can scratch finding her off my bucket list, because it was that important to me to be able to tell her how important she was during that dreary time in my life.

Not many 13-year-olds have the ability to recognize such precious gifts, let alone express appreciation of them. The 60-year-old me was thrilled to perform that task on behalf of the 13-year-old me.

Pssssst! Looking for an unusual New Year's Eve party?

I’m not much of a fan of holidays that exist mainly to get drunk, with the “amateur” nights of St. Patrick’s Day and New Year’s Eve the main culprits.

That said, there’s an unusual New Year’s Eve party planned at the Bay Shore Bar and Grill in Edgemere if you’re looking for something fun and different to do.

With a nod to the prohibition era of the 1920s and ’30s, the restaurant is hosting a speakeasy. History buffs will know that speakeasies were illicit, underground establishments that illegally sold and served alcohol during prohibition. They were covert operations and customers had to know someone in order to be trusted with the location and the password needed to get inside. It is thought the name came about because of the need to not talk about the business and to speak softly while patronizing the place so as to not alert nearby neighbors or the police. It was also thought that many such businesses were run by organized crime mobs.

Bay Shore is paying homage to that past era by hosting the themed New Year’s party Saturday.. Customers must enter the property through the side gate and must know the password to be allowed entry. Fashions from the era are encouraged and costume prizes will be awarded. Music from the 1920s and ’30s will be played and folks who know a few dances from the era might be in for a few surprises.

The party will be held indoors as well as on the back deck and yard. With many believing that 2016 has been a year like no other, a burn barrel will be available for those who would like to destroy their baggage of 20-sucksteen. Write a letter to the year about to leave us and hurl it into the fire. Start 2017 with a clean slate and a positive attitude.

Chef Mike Spivey will keep the evening down to earth with a selection of gourmet burgers available until 10:30 p.m. I’m partial to the Brie Burger, which offers the Bay Shore top-quality burger topped with bacon, grilled brie and apple slices. Other offerings include portabella, black and blue, southwest (pepperjack cheese, guacamole and salsa), and Chesapeake (topped with a crab cake) burgers. Prices range from $9.99 to $14.99.

Jack and Connie Pennington will be your host and hostess for the evening.

A complimentary “Last Indulgence” dessert bar will be offered from 11 to 11:59 p.m. and all “lawbreakers” present will enjoy a complimentary champagne toast at the the magic moment.

There is no cover charge for the party. You just have to know where the speakeasy is and where to sneak in, and you need to know the special password.

Oh, and Chef Mike emphasized that the kitchen will be closing at 10:30 p.m. I guess even chefs would rather be ringing in the new year with a toast instead of slaving over a grill or slinging a mop.

And one more thing … that password?

It’s “Bee’s Knees.”

Be there or be square.

Or something like that.

Giving thanks

The sun has gone down on this Thanksgiving Day of 2016 and I’ve been moved to tears by several warm and fuzzy, feel good stories I’ve seen on television news today, and ditto several moving, poignant posts on Facebook and elsewhere on the web.

Hearing all these testimonies made me feel a little guilty that I have spent a lot of time recently wallowing about what wasn't instead of being grateful for what is.

The past three years have been among the toughest of my life. After being laid off from a job for the first time in my professional life, I lost pretty much everything I had, material and otherwise. In addition to losing property and spending every penny I had saved just to scrape by and survive, I also lost my self-esteem and self-confidence, as well as my very identity and reason for getting out of bed on a daily basis. I didn’t realize how much of my identity was sunk into my job until that job was gone.

But in the big picture, I have much to be thankful for. Those who know my medical history know I’m very grateful simply to be alive. Past medical treatment is beginning to take its toll on my aging body and my lack of mobility often forces me to make decisions about social events when my mind is more than willing but the body says, “No way in hell.”

I’m grateful for the friends that continue to extend those invitations, no matter how many times I turn them down, and I’m extremely thankful for the wonderful friends I have in my life, even though I’m often not as good a friend as they are (you know who you are). 

I strive to be a better person and a better Christian and I’m thankful my good friends and Jesus Christ continue to love me unconditionally.

I’m extremely grateful to once again be a working journalist and happy to be welcomed with open arms by a new professional family. My life continues to be a financial challenge with part-time work, but part-time work beats the heck out of no work. And doing what I love is priceless.

I’m thankful for all the writers, photographers, artists, thinkers and philosophers in my life who make me appreciate more the beauty of our world, the genius of all our brains, the passions and opinions of others and the thinking and researching those passions and opinions inspire me to do.

Chances are, if you’re reading this, you are a personal friend and I’m grateful for you.

Hoping all of you and yours had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day shared with loved ones.

Let the Christmas music begin …

Sometimes, adults should just butt out

I’m a little late getting this post out, but late is better than never most of the time, and definitely in this case.

I’ve been procrastinating a bit for a variety of reasons. First, I did all the interviewing and reporting for a news story that I pitched to a couple of established news outlets, which both passed on the story. I don’t know if it was because the story was too controversial, or if they didn’t know who I was to know the story was well-vetted and accurate (even though I offered to provide contact information for all my sources), or, as I strongly suspect is the case, it would have hit some advertisers that newspaper managers are more and more loath to upset.

Secondly, I had to decide how to approach this topic as a blog post, because it could go in about a million different directions.

In any case, here’s the deal. 

It seems that a few disgruntled, jealous adults have misused their power and authority (and perhaps even intimidation) over a youth-led organization to enact a new rule that was designed to exclude a very limited number of children from participating in a livestock sale at the Great Frederick Fair.

In what many people close to the situation and familiar with the organization involved believe is nothing more than a retaliatory, vindictive move, The Frederick County 4-H Beef, Sheep and Swine Club voted to exclude from its annual sale any youngsters who sold animals at another county’s fair.

The new rule is so specifically written that this year, it targeted two children and only two — Matthew and Mark Chaney of Libertytown.

Many believe it is no coincidence that the rule was enacted after Matthew won a couple of top prizes at the 2014 Great Frederick Fair.

Rather than encourage their own children to work harder and commit more time to their projects to defeat their competition, parents took it into their own hands to eliminate that competition.

And it worked.

Take a look at the news story I prepared and then I’ll follow up with the rest of the story as it panned out during the last week of the fair.

It’s too late to do anything about this egregious act this year, but someone needs to fix this for next year. Either Frederick fair officials need to demand that no one be excluded from an activity happening under its auspices, or the board needs to tell the Beef, Sheep and Swine Club it can no loner hold its sale during the fair. 

I’m sure a more youth-friendly group of folks would be more than willing to step up and run a similar sale for all exhibitors.

Here’s the story:

All is not well within the Frederick County agriculture community.

And more than a few people are upset about it.

At issue is a controversial move by the Frederick County 4-H Beef, Sheep and Swine club, which regulates and runs a livestock sale at the annual Great Frederick Fair.

In March 2015, the sale club passed a motion that would prevent youngsters from selling animals at the Frederick fair sale if they had sold animals at other fairs outside of Frederick County. The motion was so narrowly written that it gives the perception of specifically targeting just a few students, many believe, leading them to think the motion is vindictive rather than supportive of local youth agriculture initiatives.

Libertytown residents George and Carol Chaney believe strongly that the motion passed by the Beef, Sheep and Swine Club specifically targets their two sons, Matthew and Mark. And they believe that it is no coincidence that the boys’ participation became an issue only after Matthew won grand champion market lamb in 2014.

“If Matthew had gone under the radar instead of winning grand champion, I don’t think we’d be having this conversation at all,” Carol Chaney said.

The March 19, 2015, BSS Club minutes state, “We also had the 4-H versus FFA discussion and a motion was made by Kendall Harshman that if FFA members sell at a different county fair, they aren’t eligible to sell at Frederick fair. The motion was seconded by McKenzie Wolfe and was passed by the club.”

“I believe this motion was the act of adults who pushed it upon the children of the club without giving them full and accurate information,” Carol Chaney said recently. “The youth leaders of the Beef, Sheep and Swine Club were used as pawns to push the agenda of jealous adults.”

She also believes the motion was “railroaded” through at that particular meeting because she informed club officials she and her sons would be unable to attend because of a previous commitment. She told Leslie Harshman, an adult volunteer in the club, that her family had a Howard County 4-H function to attend that evening.

“I was told people asked to have the motion tabled until the next meeting but it was decided the action had to be voted on then,” Chaney said.

Rules make it clear that youngsters cannot belong to 4-H in more than one county. Because Carol Chaney grew up in Howard County and was a 10-year member of Howard’s 4-H, she chose to enroll her children there when they expressed an interest. Chaney also served on the Howard County Fair board for 19 years, so it was only natural that Howard County was where her family would devote its energy, she said.

But the Chaneys never attempted to join two different county 4-H organizations.

As Howard County 4-H members, Matthew and Mark over the years showed and sold animals at the Howard County and Maryland State fairs.

It wasn’t until they started high school and joined Future Farmers of America that they started raising separate project animals for showing at the GFF. Matthew, a Linganore High School senior, started showing at the Fredrick fair as an FFA member his sophomore year. Mark, a junior, will be participating in his second Frederick fair.

FFA rules prevent freshman from showing animals.

The boys attended the April 2015 meeting of the livestock sale club to plead their case. They read aloud from a letter spelling out information about their need to have two sets of animals; the requirement of attending a set number of meetings; and paying dues to two organizations to be eligible to participate.

“It is disappointing to know that adults in positions of knowledge know these facts but did nothing to communicate them to everyone,” the boys wrote in their letter.  “It’s disappointing to know that this was not previously discussed … and when others asked to have it tabled, they were denied. It’s disappointing to know that two very valuable youth agricultural organizations have not tried to work better together and that adults would not work toward promoting fellowship (one of this club’s objectives) and help build character among our members but instead to allow petty jealousy to fester and grow.”

Great Frederick Fair officials believe the decision to exclude certain participants does not support the mission of the local fair.

“These recent changes made by the BSS club do not coincide with our mission statement, ‘The Great Frederick Fair Inc. exists to promote agriculture and the education of our youth about the industry of agriculture,’ ” GFF president Joseph Devilbiss wrote in a March 9, 2016, letter to Frederick County Extension educators Todd McKinney and Donielle Axline.

McKinney and Axline are paid employees who oversee Frederick County 4-H under the auspices of the University of Maryland’s Extension Services.

Alluding to a previous letter sent to Rick Walter, without response or acknowledgment, Devilbiss wrote that the fair “felt inclined to readdress our position.” Walter oversees 4-H activities in Howard, Frederick and Montgomery counties.

“The Great Frederick Fair Board of Directors has come to a unanimous decision that all FFA members must have the opportunity to sell their animals during the Thursday night sale,” Devilbiss wrote. “We are hoping you can accept this decision and cooperatively move forward.”

By June, the fair board appeared to back off the strength of its previous letter when it sent another letter to McKinney and Axline.

“The Great Frederick Fair Board of Directors supports the 2016 Beef, Sheep and Swine Sale will be run as it has in the past, but encourages and continues to support the 4-H and FFA to find common ground for sale rules that will work for both organizations,” Devilbiss wrote in a letter dated June 3. “We are hoping you can accept this decision and cooperatively move forward.”

While the fair board appears to support the participation of all 4-H and FFA members, an Aug. 10 letter from BSS club leader Robert Fogle Jr. says the opposite.

“The fair board sent a letter in June informing the 4-H Extension educators and leaders of the club that they support the club and the club’s management of the sale, therefore the sale will be ran as it has been in the past under the rules and guidelines you as an organizational body approved at your meeting,” Fogle wrote in his letter.

After spelling out dates and times for arrivals and weigh-ins and other rule reminders, Fogle wrote, “You cannot have sold animals at another county fair either as a 4-H member or FFA member.”

Fogle’s statement contradicts the BSS Club’s minutes of March 2015, which state only that FFA members who sell animals in another county are not eligible to participate in the BSS sale. No mention is made of 4-H members.

Email and phone requests for an interview to Devilbiss were returned by Karen Crum, executive assistant to the fair board.

“The Frederick County 4-H Beef, Sheep and Swine Club has always run the sale but we expect 4-H and FFA members to be able to participate,” Crum said Sept. 8. “We expect the sale to be run as it has in the past with 4-H and FFA working cooperatively together.”

Chaney said that this decision as it stands according to Fogle affects only her two boys. Another child who would have been affected (and has also won grand prizes recently) aged out of the program, but a couple of siblings from those families will be affected in the next few years.

The decision to exclude a finely targeted group of youngsters from the sale mystifies community members and 4-H veterans alike.

“This decision doesn’t make any sense all,” Dan Braucher, a former 4-H extension agent, said Friday. “The rules state that you can’t be a 4-H member in two counties but that isn’t the case here.”

Members of both organizations have always been encouraged to take advantage of the educational opportunities offered by the fair, the 30-year agriculture educator said. Each organization sets its own requirements for participation and it is the responsibility of each youngster to meet those requirements.

“This decision to exclude some kids because they sold animals in another fair makes no sense, there’s no logic to it,” Braucher said. “You can only sell an animal once; these boys have two different sets of project animals to meet the requirements of each organization.”

Matthew and Mark have gone to the additional expense of raising two complete sets of animals needed to participate in the two different county fairs. In addition to the expense of raising, grooming and training animals, the man-hours are doubled as well. They have to keep two sets of record books and need to be able to discuss their projects with judges.

“This sale is important because that’s where the kids make some money back and allows them to buy animals next year,” Carol Chaney said. “This idea that the boys are ‘double-dipping’ is ridiculous. They work twice as hard to be able to show at the two fairs.”

Braucher said he just couldn’t come up with a single, positive, educational reason for this exclusion, or see any way it would help or support the mission of 4-H.

“I think it’s a personal vendetta that will hurt both groups,” he said. “We’re all role models and this decision puts a dark spot on us.”

Scott Shorrow, who owns Landscape Concepts in Frederick County, has supported the livestock sales for the past couple of years at the invitation of the Chaneys.

“I’ve been a fair vendor with a display for my company for several years,” Shorrow said. “But I started going to the goat and beef, sheep and swine sales because of the Chaney boys.”

Shorrow was disappointed to hear of the club’s decision that appears to target just the Chaneys.

“For them to be excluded from this sale makes no sense,” he said. “They have to have separate projects, separate record books, twice the expenses, twice the time involved. They don’t have an advantage over anyone simply by participating in multiple shows. You can only sell an animal once.”

Shorrow said he isn’t privy to all the inside politics and doesn’t know many of the families involved, but sees no positive outcome for the sale club’s decision.

“The Chaney boys work hard and do well in these shows, that’s what it is, cut and dried,” he said. “That’s what this is all about.”

Shorrow said agriculture is a way of life for Matthew and Mark.

“This is their life, their passion,” he said of the boys’ livestock training. “They don’t do sports, they don’t have jobs or other hobbies — this is their job, their hobby, their passion. Why should they be punished for having a passion that perhaps others don’t have?”

Shorrow said he would not participate in this year’s BSS sale.

“I’ve spent tens of thousands of dollars at these sales but I can’t participate in a sale that excludes anyone,” he said. “I can’t be a part of something that excludes kids.

He fully expects to support the goat sale, which is governed by a different club.

As of Tuesday, the statement from Fogle denying sale participation to the Chaneys was the last official word on the sale.

If, when the dust settles, that decision remains, Carol Chaney said her boys will abide by it and let it roll off their shoulders.

But exclusion from the sale won’t prevent the boys from showing their animals, and won’t stop them from their mission of breeding, raising and training champion animals.

“Both boys are extremely competitive and they are passionate about their livestock projects,” she said. “This decision will just make them more competitive.”

Swimming is creating lifelong memories for Long

Author's note: I'm using my blog to archive some of my favorite stories I've written over the years. Much of my work has been lost online because of news outlets creating new websites and not migrating old content to the new sties:

This article was originally published as a Talk of the Town column in The Dundalk Eagle on July 31, 2008. I reprint it here in anticipation of the Rio de Janeiro Paralympics, which kick off tonight with the Opening Ceremony.

Jessica Long continues to add to record books and her personal scrapbooks as she counts down the days to the International Paralympic Games that kickoff in September in Beijing.

Major media outlets, of course, are all over Towson’s Michael Phelps and Katie Hoff, who between them could bring home as many as 14 Olympic medals.

But lost in the shuffle are Paralympians at large, and here, Long specifically.

Long, 16, is the Michael Phelps of Paralympic swimming. She routinely wins seven, eight and nine races at every meet she enters and long ago lost track of the number of medals she owns.

Just over the weekend of July 13-15 at the Can-Am tournament, she set a new world record in her first dip in the pool — much like Phelps setting a new world record in his first Olympic Trials race in late June.

The girl who started her competitive swim career as a member of the Dundalk-Eastfield Rec Council team could hardly have envisioned what was ahead for her that first day when she jumped in her grandmother’s backyard swimming pool and discovered a second home.

She’s been around the world, met celebrities and made lifelong friends and has some pretty amazing photographs and memories to share with her grandchildren.

It would seem difficult to top 2007, when Long in April became the first Paralympian to win the James E. Sullivan Award, given annually to the nation’s top amateur athlete. Later in the year, she was named ESPN’s top female athlete with a disability, and along the way she won every race she won.

Bit it appears 2008 has not been any kind of a letdown.

Her success in the pool continues , and the recognition and lifetime moments outside of the pool  continue to pile up as well. 

On July 21, Long was one of 22 athletes invited to a reception and official send-off of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic teams at the White House. President Bush hosted the gathering in the Rose Garden, and then each athlete posed for individual pictures with Bush in the Oval Office.

Pretty heady stuff for a teenager!

President George Bush posed with Jessica Long on July 21, 2008 in the Oval Office at the White House. Jessica was one of the athletes selected to represent the 2008 Olympics and Paralympics teams at the visit with Bush. White House photo Eric Draper

In May, the double below-the-knee amputee was the recipient of the Juan Antonio Samaranch Award, named for the former president of the International Olympic Committee. 

The Samaranch IOC President’s Award has been presented annually since 1990 to an athlete, past or present, who in the face of adversity displays courage, desire and athletic ability to achieve goals in the competitive arena.

Long received the award during a ceremony at the 2008 Paralympic World Cup in Manchester, England, on May 10.

At the Can-Am Paralympic swim championships in Victoria, British Columbia, in July, the American swim team set 36 American, 18 Pan-American and five world records. Women set all five world records. including Long’s new record in the S8 100-meter butterfly. Her performance in that event earned her Swim of the Meet recognition, and she also claimed Swim of the Day honors on both Friday (100-meter butterfly) and Saturday (200-meter individual medley).

President George Bush met with members of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic teams in a July 2008 visit to the White House. White House photo by Shealah Craighead.

U.S. team head coach Julie O’Neill said in a statement that she’s pleased with the team’s performance following its final tune-up prior to China.

“Overall the team looks fantastic,” she said. “Most of them are in the middle of a hard training cycle right now and despite that there are still many lifetime best swims, new records and great races. All of the coaching staff is very pleased with how the team looks heading into Beijing.”

Paralympic swim competition will be held Sept.  6-17 in the same venue as Olympic swimming in Beijing.

Keep an eye on Long, who’s sure to make multiple appearances on the medal stand.