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| Sterling and Jose Lobaton |
| Sterling Myhre
is a 16 year old Junior at St. Albans High School in Washington, DC.
Sterling started his blog, The First Week Of Summer, in October of 2013
with the goal of chronicling his annual baseball trips with his Dad that
take place during the first week of summer vacation. In July of 2014,
Sterling's blog became a MLB Pro Blog and one of only four "youth pro
blogs." Since then Sterling's blog has evolved to also focus on various
other baseball subjects like the MLB Draft, his stories of acquiring MLB
players autographs, and his favorite team, the Washington Nationals.
You can find Sterling's blog at www.thefirstweekofsummer. |
As we head into the interview, I would just like to say a huge thank you to Sterling for his cooperation, and the insight.
1: Now let me ask you, how many MLB games have you attended?
So
far this season I have seen 30 games if you include the two spring
training games and the one exhibition game that I saw before the season.
In total, in my life, I'm not sure exactly how many games I have seen.
My first game was an Orioles vs Mariners game all the way back in 2004. I
recently started using a website called hardball passport to try to log
every game that I have ever attended. So far I have entered 140 games
into the system, with 64 of those coming at Nationals Park. 140 is a
pretty good number but in some seasons, like 2013 for example, I've only
logged eight games. In reality, I probably attended between 20 and 25
games that season. So I'd say I've probably been to somewhere between
200-250 games in my life.
2: Are you excited about the recent acquisition of Jonathan Papelbon from the Phils to the Nats?
I'd
say that I'm definitely excited that the Nats got a good relief pitcher
because I think that the bullpen has consistently been the weakest part
of the Nats roster this season. Although, I'm not so sure that Papelbon
was the right guy to get. Drew Storen definitely did not deserve to
lose his job as the closer, especially not to Papelbon who has, in my
mind, had a worse season than Storen this season. If the Nats had gone
out and gotten one or two good setup men, I'd be extremely pleased. So,
like I said, I do think that it is a good thing that the Nats got
another good reliever but I really don't think Papelbon was the right
guy. I've heard that he doesn't have a good attitude and him demanding
to be the closer has to bring a lot of tension and turmoil to the
clubhouse.
3: Who is you preferred baseball player on the Washington Nationals?
I've
been following the team ever since they moved to DC in 2005, and for
the longest time Ryan Zimmerman was my guy, and I still find it hard to
admit but I am starting to gravitate more towards guys like Bryce Harper
and Max Scherzer. Obviously their on-field performance is awesome, but I
think it's really that competitive spirit that they both display game
in and game out that make me love each of them so much. I'm also a big
fan of some of the lesser known players on the team like Manny Burris,
Matt den Dekker, and Jose Lobaton. Burris is a former coach and camper
at the baseball camp that I work at, Home Run Baseball Camp, and I've
coached his nephew so altogether, him being a DC guy and being a part of
Home Run Baseball Camp is a big deal to me. When den Dekker was on the
Mets, I saw his first career home run which was and upper deck homer
which was pretty cool because his Twitter handle is @UpperDekker. I also
got a chance to meet den Dekker which was really cool. Jose Lobaton
just seems like an all-around awesome guy who is pretty funny, and he
has some awesome hair. He has had a lot of playing time this season and
he had performed well, and like den Dekker, I got a chance to meet him
which was pretty cool.
4: Any trades that you thought the Nationals should've conducted before the trade deadline "expired."
I
think the Nats' biggest issue is the bullpen which they did strengthen
by adding Papelbon, but I would have rather seen them acquire a couple
of good setup men like, Tyler Clippard and maybe Tommy Hunter, Kevin
Jepsen, or Steve Cishek.
5: What's the best part about your annual trips to various ballparks every summer?
There's
really a lot that I love about the trip. During our 9 trips, we have
had a lot of long drive so I get to spend a lot of quality time with my
Dad. I also love getting to see new cities that I probably wouldn't have
visited yet if I hadn't gone there on the baseball trips. Also, you
know, seven baseball games in seven days... Whats not to love about
that?
6: You ( and your blog ) are one of the few pro- youth baseball bloggers for MLB.com, how has this experience helped you as a writer?
I
think being part of the MLB Pro Bloggers group had helped me most as a
writer by just giving me more confidence in my blog. I started my blog
back in October of 2013, but didn't really start writing until May of
2014 and I'm not sure how long I would've kept going if I didn't get
that "boost" from becoming a Pro Blog in July of 2014.
7: Where would you like to see yourself in ten years?
If
you ask my friends they'll probably tell you that baseball really is my
passion, and they would probably say that I'm going to be the General
Manager of some MLB team. I defiantly love to do that, but with their
only being 30 jobs available in the entire country, I think that it
might be somewhat of a stretch. I'm really interested in becoming an
agent for athletes or even continuing as a baseball writer.
8: Have you made plans to see the new Washington Nationals exhibit at the NEWSEUM in Washington, DC?
This
is going to sound really bad since I tell everyone that my favorite
museum in DC is the NEWSEUM but, I hadn't actually heard that there was
going to be a Nats exhibit. I actually visited the NEWSEUM back in late
June and I'm surprised that I didn't hear about the upcoming exhibit.
Now that you mention it, I'm going to do some research about the exhibit
and will make sure to go and see it as soon as I can.
9: Like all sportswriters who have a motivation to write, what is yours?
I
think my main motivation, and the reason I created my blog originally
was to document all the awesome baseball experiences that I've had. Back
in 2007, when I started going on the baseball trip with my Dad, I kept a
hand written journal of the trip and I did that for the first four
trips but then I got tired of it and stopped. So the first idea for the
blog was to be an online journal so I could remember all those great
trips and let other people hear about them. Another form of motivation
is being an MLB Pro Blog, I'm one of only four "youth bloggers" in the
Pro Blog system and I feel like they made an investment in me and I have
to return the favor by producing good, consistent content. I'm also
hoping the blog will help me make good contacts in the baseball world
and will help me out later in life. Another thing is that I really just
love talking, thinking, and researching about baseball so I figured I
should record my thoughts and findings somewhere.
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| Photo Courtesy of Nationals.com |
10:
As seen from your recent blog posts, you have many autographs, A) How
many autographs do you have? B) What is your most-cherished autograph in
your collection?
You
know, I wasn't really sure how many autographs I had until you asked me
this question. But I did a little "research" and as far as I can find, I
have 621 signatures. I'm sure there are some others that I haven't
counted because I couldn't find them, but for now that is as many as I
can assure you that I have. I think my most cherished autographs have to
be a signed, game-used bat from Michael Morse, and a signed, game-used
jersey from Jeff Kobernus. But, I cherish those more because they are on
such valuable items, I think if I had to choose based on signature
alone, I think it would be an extremely hard choice. I have multiple
Bryce Harper autographs, which I really love, and same goes for Stephen
Strasburg and Ryan Zimmerman. For awhile my favorites were some Prince
Fielder and Ryan Braun signatures I have. But as of right now, I would
have to say the best, and therefore most cherished autograph I have is
Miguel Cabrera. I have a lot of other great players like Ozzie Smith,
Ivan Rodriguez, Paul Molitor, Jim Palmer, Jim Thome, Yogi Berra, Andre
Dawson, Justin Verlander, and Goose Gossage. But, I'd have to say that
Miggy (Miguel Cabrera) is the best. Right now the two autographs that I'm after are Mike
Trout and Max Scherzer. Trout has skipped me a couple of times when I've
been trying to get his autograph and I haven't really had a shot a
Scherzer but I'm sure I will get both eventually.
11: How do you tend to know where the visiting team of an MLB team is staying?
Finding
out where a visiting team stays is really kinda random. According to my
Dad, teams used to publish in their media guides where they stayed in
every town but recently took that out because they were worried about
the safety of the players. We use various different ways to try to
figure out where teams are staying. There is some website that is
probably pretty out-of-date that has where teams at least used to stay.
Recently we asked the local ticket agent that we bought from in Tampa,
and he knew where the teams stayed. Once when I was in Toronto I
actually asked one of the Nationals assistant coaches, and he told me
where they were staying. If I can't find a suggestion online and asking
around doesn't work, normally we just walk around the city about 4-5
hours before game-time to see if there are any autograph seeker standing
outside of some of the fancier hotels.
12: In your mind, what was the biggest blockbuster deal of the 2015 trade-deadline?
There
were really a lot of big name guys dealt at this years deadline,
personally I think there were the most in recent memory. When I think
about the biggest blockbuster of the deadline, there are a couple of
names that come to mind. Yoenis Cespedes, Cole Hamels, David Price,
Carlos Gomez, Troy Tulowitzki, and Johnny Cueto. I think it is pretty
obvious that the Hamels deal will have the biggest long term affects.
That's just bound to happen when you have a trade with eight players
involved. But right now, for this season, I'd have to say the Yoenis
Cespedes trade is the biggest deal. This decision was pretty hard seeing
as I think both the David Price deal and the Carlos Gomez deal will
give the Blue Jays and the Astros a much better chance to win their
divisions, and the Johnny Cueto deal will help the Royals run away with
the AL Central even more. But when I look at the Cespedes deal, the Mets
have had literally the worst offense in all of baseball, and they are
now getting a big bat. That combined with the fact that they are tied
with my favorite team, the Washington Nationals, for first place in the
NL East makes it the biggest trade of this season in my mind.
13: Favorite MLB player? (Aside from Nats)
This
is actually a really tough question that I myself have been pondering
in my free time. I've come up with a list of guys who I really like and
its pretty hard to pick out who my favorite is. Right now my list
includes, Steven Souza Jr., Kevin Kiermaier, Munenori Kawasaki, Carlos
Rodon, Zach Walters, Huston Street, Bartolo Colon, Yoenis Cespedes,
Odubel Herrera, Nick Hundley, Yasiel Puig, and Justin Maxwell. Out of
that group of guys, I'd have to say my favorite is Yoenis Cespedes. Its a
really tough decision and I almost like Kevin Kiermaier better. I
really love the hustle that Kiermaier plays the game with but talent and
swagger that Cespedes plays with just over matches Kiermaier. Yo - as
they call Cespedes - is just really awesome to watch.
14: Describe the sport of baseball in one word.
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