Cade is out of the office for the next few weeks, so in the meantime, you’re stuck with the rest of us. Today, it’s my turn to pinch hit for the pinch-hitter.
Yesterday, the ACC announced the members of the 2015-2016 All-ACC Honor Roll. To qualify for the Honor Roll a student-athlete in a varsity sport must register a grade point average above 3.0 for the entire year. This year, a conference record 4,378 student-athletes made the Honor Roll, with Georgia Tech accounting for 165 members. Some notable names on the list include former OL Trey Braun, AB Isiah Willis, and OF Grant Wruble, all of whom made the Honor Roll for the fourth time, and track & field team member Samantha Becker, who made it for the fifth time. To see a full list of ACC Honor Roll members, click here.
The lineups for the MLB All-Star Game were announced Wednesday night. The big news nationally was the Chicago Cubs somehow placing their entire infield into the NL starting lineup, but I’m going to take a moment to recognize Pro Jacket Matt Wieters, who made his fourth All-Star game. The Orioles’ catcher was selected as an AL All-Star reserve by his peers. Wieters is currently slashing 0.270/0.323/0.437 with 9 HR and 37 RBIs (all while anchoring my fantasy team). Fun fact of the day: with Wieters making the AL All-Star team, the Orioles’ have an All-Star catcher at every level of their organization (shout out to /u/gbatt1024 on /r/baseball).
Another former Yellow Jacket star picked up a good bit of screen time this week. Chris Bosh joined former ESPN columnist Bill Simmons on Episode 3 of HBO’s Any Given Wednesday with Bill Simmons. Bosh, Simmons, and Anthony Anderson (star of ABC’s Black-ish) spent roughly 15 minutes talking NBA free agency, focusing on Kevin Durant’s decision to join forces with Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors. Simmons isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but I’m an unabashed fan of his and am actually watching the episode as I type this. Bosh does a pretty good job in the interview, providing an interesting perspective as a member of the Heat’s Big Three. If you don’t have access to HBO to watch the full episode, you can at least check out this clip.
Finally today, we take a bit of a somber turn. Former All-American DE Greg Gathers is in need of another kidney transplant. Gathers, who is second on Georgia Tech’s all-time sack leader board despite having his career ended by a kidney disorder 3 games into his senior season, had his first transplant 11 years ago, but his health has recently taken a turn for the worse. One of his former teammates, RB Sean Gregroy, has set up a GoFundMe to help Gathers and his family in this trying time. I think I speak for all of us when I say that I wish Gathers and his family the best of luck and will keep them in my thoughts over the upcoming weeks. Get well, Greg.