Scott Isaacs

Sorry for the semi-silence since moving to the new blog. Yesterday I sat down to write about something pertaining to UC athletics, but got some bad news. One of my friends from high school passed away in his sleep Monday night. Right now, no one has said what happened. This really affected me. I have never had anyone I was friends with die. Secondly, he was as old as I am. We went to high school together. I’m not even 30, people I know can’t be dying this young. I know that it happens all the time though, for no rhyme or reason. It’s one of the things that happen in our lives. The last thing when you think about it. I couldn’t write anything yesterday without stopping and trying to find out some news, or having my mind drift. I really thought about it when I went to sleep. It’s pretty horrible how one’s mind thinks of terrible things when all you want to do is sleep. I’m not writing this to have some profound piece about death. Mainly, because I suck, and death scares the shit out of me. Especially when it’s someone I know. And this was the first person that I’ve known who’s died in a long time. My grandparents died when I was young. We lived in Cincinnati, they lived in Louisville. You don’t remember the bond you had with your grandma as a little kid. When you grow up and move away, all you remember are things like how she had shelves of romance books, had a mousetrap on her stove or counter and one time there was a mouse in it and you couldn’t stop starring at it and it haunted your dreams, and how she would give you a dollar for every kiss. I think that last one was my great grandma, but the point stays.

I just want to take this time to write a few words about Scott Isaacs. He wrote a political blog and something on the examiner. I didn’t necessarily agree with everything that he wrote, but no one would give you a good debate better than him. In  history class, he would start asking questions and he and the teacher would have debates and that would be the class. There was a project we had to do where everyone had to stand up and read a presentation. He would bust everyone’s balls with questions after. I sat next to him in study hall one year. Not only did he let me copy his homework, but he also told me questions that were on the tests, because he had math before study hall, and I had it after. Good times. I was a nerd so I brought magazines to read in study hall, one of them being ESPN. He hated, hated, hated the EJ Hradek on the Hrink column. He complained about it every time it was in there. He would talk your ear off about the Bengals, Reds, and his favorite, Kentucky basketball. After graduation, we played in fantasy baseball and football leagues together. He was always the toughest person to trade with. He would do beyond sabermetrics to make sure it was a fair shot. I got Greg Maddux and A Rod in a trade from him once, so he wasn’t that great. I kid. I really pissed him off one year. Edge James tore his knee to bits on a Thursday night, I think, game. Later that night, I offered him in a trade to everyone in the league. One person almost took it, and it was Isaacs. I had lost touch with Isaacs outside of facebook the past few years, due to me moving and him being wrapped up in the Hamilton political scene. But, every time I messaged him, or emailed him, he always answered back and had an interesting point of view. Scott Isaacs was a pretty great guy, and it’s a shame that he had to go so soon.

The blog has been extremely sappy lately, but hey, what can you do. There will be a Oh Say Did UC? linky thing going up tomorrow or Friday. Thanks for bearing with me on this post.