32 - stewaat's Blog - Operation Sports

stewaat's Blog

Posted on November 28, 2008 at 10:42 AM.

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When I first arrived on the campus of Notre Dame I had about a million different topics running through my head. Among these topics was what uniform number for the baseball team I would choose when I was given the opportunity. In all honesty I probably would've tried to take #20, which served me well throughout high school. If the people in the athletic department could've figured out the number my grandfather wore when he played at ND I would've tried to take that, but they were unable to figure it out.

It turned out that I wasn't given a choice in the number because when I showed up to my locker I saw #32 on my locker magnet which had my name on it. I was fine with the number, I thought it was pretty cool, and most importantly, it had a 2 in it. For some reason I feel the need to always have a 2 in my number. Anyways over the next four years I definitely fell in love with the number and took it on as my own.

Fast forward to Thanksgiving, 2009.

I'm in the living room watching football and my mom says she has something for me. I believe she said something like this: "Hey Jess I have something to show you. Do you remember when you were a little kid and you would always go to your grandmother's house? Do you remember the towel set she bought you and that you always used? Of course I remember but the details weren't 100% clear. Well she just so happened to dig up one of the hand towels and opened it up in front of my eyes.

The towel had a bear on it jump roping. The bear was wearing a basketball jersey. To be more specific, the jersey was green with gold numbering.

The number, 32.