Michael Brangwynne is the newest member of our FanRates family!  He will be blogging about all things sports in Massachusetts and I am sure taking some cheap shots at New York teams as well!  Anyway, we wanted to share with you his compelling story as told by Michael himself.  If you wish to contact Michael, feel free to at brangberg@gmail.com

I was born in 1984 in Dorchester, MA which is a part of Boston and is seen as the worst neighborhood and most dangerous section of New England. My father is a hardcore Boston sports fan, especially the Bruins, so immediately sports took over my life. I would find myself playing every sport growing up; baseball, hockey, football, basketball and a little bit of soccer. At a very young age my parents split and my step father, also named Mike, came into my life. He immediately accepted and loved me, and he also became my basketball team’s coach.

He married my mother in 1989, the same year baseball became the #1 sport in my life because of one man, Ken Griffey Jr. Don’t get me wrong, despite loving Griffey, the Red Sox and their seemingly never ending heartache was still the team my heart was with. The Bruins, Red Sox, Patriots and Celtics – I am a die hard for all of them and will be for the rest of my life.

Eventually my sports careers dwindled down to baseball, I was good, real good. Ranked among the best in high school, I entered freshman year pitching with a 85 mph fastball and was ranked #5 in the entire state among all H.S. players; not just freshman. Sophomore year I moved up to #3 in the state and had already established my name in the baseball world. I was seen as many to be the best thing since sliced bread and was slated to be the first ever #1 rated Junior pitcher in MA history.

By now I had spoken to agents of half the teams in Major League Baseball and had been offered a scholarship to over 20 different colleges throughout the United States. I was also trying out for the infamous Cape Cod league along fellow pitcher and current Red Sox Craig Hansen. I had 4 no hitters in the Babe Ruth league and a 22-5 record that year. I began starting a regimented diet and weight program alongside former Red Sox pitching coach Dave Wallace and was moved from shortstop (my other position) to second base so my arm strength would be saved for pitching. This however, was all about to change.

At the end of my sophomore year my school nurse questioned my mother one day about my legs and the strange walk that I had. My mother thought it was just because of my slender figure as I walked similar to my father who has the same body structure, lean and muscular. The nurse recommended that I go get checked out because she thought it was getting worse, unfortunately she was right.

My legs began a steady decline that ruined my pitching form and leg drive towards home plate, my baseball career was over. We discovered that my calf muscles were constantly tight and did not expand and contrast like they normally would. This made me a toe walker and explained the way I was walking. The doctor then came with the biggest shock of all; there is no cure and I will permanently be in a wheelchair by the time you are 18 and done with puberty. Without question, this was the saddest day of my life.

The fight, however, was not over! I knew that and so did everyone else when they saw the determination in my eyes. I began the fight then and there. Finally, my diagnosis was known, an extremely rare genetic disease that is very similar to the well known MS; it is called Familial Spastic Paraplegia (FSP). Sports still continued to be in my life both watching and playing with friends, my legs and ankles were getting weaker and had more and more wear and tear, which would never stop me.

Amazingly now at 25 I am in and out of my chair and can still walk because of my athletic background the doctors say. I have fun standing and playing sports but don’t mind sitting in my wheelchair when I need to do a lot of walking at the mall and such. I will never give up on playing sports, wheelchair or not. I love sports and have accepted that it is what I want to spend my life enjoying. I hope you all enjoyed my story and hope it can somehow keep you motivated into doing what it is you love.

Tags: affordable sports tickets, baseball tickets, basketball tickets, boston blazers tickets, boston cannons tickets, bruins tikcets, celtics tickets, cheap sports tickets, discount sports tickets, discounted sports tickets, fanrates, football tickets, hockey tickets, lacrosse tickets, mlb tickets, mll tickets, nba tickets, nfl tickets, nhl tickets, nll tickets, patriots tickets, red sox tickets, Welcome our newest blogger Michael Brangwynne

This entry was posted on Monday, August 10th, 2009 at 7:24 pm and is filed under Lacrosse. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.