Jay Baller

I never look at my old town paper but for some reason I just happened to take a peek today.  It was quite ironic what I saw was a headline about Jay Baller getting busted for cocaine.  I know Jay Baller. In high school I was very serious about baseball.  Off season I used to go to a local athletic club at 6 in the morning and meet up with my coach along with a few other players.  There was just barely the 60 feet needed to do indoor pitching drills.  Well somehow Jay Baller got involved in the program.

  Jay was a successful minor league pitcher and I think at that time he was just starting to break into the majors.  He was a big dude at 6′ 7″.  I felt small at 6’3″ and 155-160 pounds soaking wet next to him.  Anyway he would do some throwing of his own along with helping us with our technique.  He always was laughing and joking.  In fact one time he played a practical joke on me by grabbing the keys to my 69 Buick Special Deluxe and parking it around the corner so I would think it was stolen. ( I did)

Years later I had another connection with him, sort of when I was working as a computer tech at Entre computers.  We hired an attractive woman as a tech.  When she told me her name was Terri Baller and her husband was a baseball player I instantly put two and two together.  What a small world.  Terri didn’t work for Entre all that long but her and I got along well.  I remember at Christmas time she bought me a pair of socks that had HO-HO-HO all over them because I told her previously I had no holiday clothing. She was really nice. 

Jay’s major league career was nothing to write home about but at least he made it to the show, something I always aspired to but never approached.  He may be most famous for his ample chest hair on his baseball cards photo.

Well evidently nowadays Jay is a coke head.  I wonder if he is still married to that cute wife of his.  I sort of doubt it.  You would think a man that drives around with 15k in cash, cocaine and a loaded hand gun might not make for the most stable spouse.  Oh well, hope things get better for ya Jay.  Don’t snort your life away. Wow this guy is only 6 years older than me….