Rainey Blogs on Some Days

Chris Rainey (MVTHS Class of 1982) has been nominated by himself to become a member of the MVTHS Sports Hall of Fame for outstanding lifetime achievement in athletics. Chris was a three-sport athlete in football, basketball, and baseball, despite having a writer’s body, contemplative outlook on life, running the 40-yard dash in 5.7 seconds, and only being able to throw a football 45-yards with a modest wind at his back. Despite all of these limitations, he burst onto the football scene in the fall of 1979 during his sophomore year, being promoted to varsity after starting quarterback Chris Berner retired following the opening game of the year to pursue other interests. Rainey led the Rams to a 4-1 record during his five starts that season and completed over 50% of his passes, despite not enough being old enough to have a driver’s license or even shave yet. He was also starting third baseman for the legendary 1982 Rams baseball team, which won the South Seven Conference that year but l...

Truth is, I have struggled with self-esteem issues all of my life. High self-esteem. I know, I know. Sounds counterintuitive but it is the truth. I first remember being in sixth grade in about 1976 and had gone to a Mount Vernon Rams high school basketball game with Becky, who was in high school. She was my, well, I‘m not sure if she was actually related to me or not. She was my grandpa’s (who was technically my great uncle) cousin‘s daughter. We went to the games together that year. It was at one of those games that I knew I was different. I had left to go to the bathroom all by myself and then to get popcorn and a soda. Looking back, it was a little scary for a sixth grader to go to the bathroom all by himself. I had gone during the third quarter to avoid a big crowd, but there were still plenty of people in the men’s room. Somehow I did it, even though there were old white men with slicked back oily hair going to the bathroom and smoking at the same time. There were also young ...

Strangely, Mark McGwire's confession to using steroids when he broke the home run record sounded very similar to mine. "Now that I have become a blogger, I have the chance to do something that I wish I was able to do nearly thirty years ago. I never knew when, but I always knew this day would come. It's time for me to talk about the past and confirm what people suspected. I used performance-enhancing coffee during my years at J.L. Buford elementary school, Casey Junior High, and Mount Vernon Township High school. I remember getting up and having a couple of cups of coffee and reading the newspaper while I was in fifth grade, a pattern that continued throughout junior high and high school. Not only did I drink coffee, but I also had cream and sugar. And many of you will remember that my grades shot up in fifth grade to straight A's after I previously had been a mediocre student. I also tried out for the basketball team and made it the next year, even though I could o...