I have seen some great athletes in my day.  I have played basketball in high school against guys like Bret Buscher, Eugene Wilson, and Lonnie Randolph.  They are all great at what they do.  I will go farther, I have played even greater athletes in college. I once played a guy who played for the number 2 team in the Nation in NAIA ball.  We nicknamed him "Tank".  He was about 6' and he looked like a gorilla. He dunked and I think his head hit the roof.  Anyway, this article is not about all the guys I played against, but a guy I played with.  Of all the great basketball players I've been around, I've never seen a better athlete than Matt Lams.  Maybe I am biased because he is my friend and maybe I haven't seen many athletes because I only play hoops, yet of all I've seen, no one is more naturally athletic than Matt Lams.

I played hoops in high school with Lams.  I miss those days, I really do.  Matt was a big part of my history, a part of high school that I truly miss.  Despite all this, I got to play softball with Matt Lams last summer.  I'm not a good player, I will never say that I am.  I go to be around good guys and really enjoyed it.  I didn't enjoy playing with anybody more than Matt.  He is just a great guy to have on your team.  Maybe the best thing about Lams is that he is great to have in the clubhouse.  I say that hypothetically, in that he is great to have on your side in any sport because he is a total team player.  I haven't even begun to talk about how great of an athlete he is.

While in high school, I saw him race two of the fastest and best athletes in school.  Matt didn't want to race, but he got talked into it.  So he did.  Matt won the race by a large margin.  The guys he beat were fantastic athletes period.  In basketball he was the fastest man on any floor flat out.  Don't be fooled, he was playing great athletes too.  No point guard in the Region was faster than Matt Lams.  When it came to playing softball this season, I had never seen him so good.  You see, I didn't get out to any baseball games my senior year.  I apologize to Matt and Bob for that, I really do.  I finally got to see what these guys were all about.  Bob Glover at short is amazing with his glove.  If the ball is hit to Lams in center, you might as well just walk to the dugout, cause he is catching it.  When Matt went to the plate, despite the fact that he was one of the shorter guys in the league, every outfielder always backed up to the fence.  He could turn a single into a triple so fast.  If he hit it out of the infield it was probably a double and if he hit it even remotley deep in the outfiled, might as well just given him a run.  He was like a blur around the base path. (Editor's Note:  Jeff is right about this, the stat sheet only shows Matt for 3 homers last year, but we did not keep track of stats for the first 6 games, a time during which Matt probably had at least 6 inside-the-park homers.)

I've played with better basketball players and there are probably better baseball players out there than Matt.  He will admit that I'm sure, yet I have never been around a better athlete.  He is simply great!  He could have been great at any sport he chose, I'm just happy he chose to play the one I was involved in.  I wouldn't care if he was slow and couldn't dribble- he is a great teammate and those are the most important, when you get older and look back.  Sure, I remember the games we played and how much fun it was, but what truly matters, when it is all over, and you've aged and matured a little, is the friendships you built with the guys around you.  That is by far what I remember.  I wish Matt and everyone else great success this year in softball and I will most definitely be there to watch them bring home another title-  Renner

Renn's views most certainly represent the views of this site- I am out!