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Jason McDonald
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Location: Blogs . |
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| Posted by: Content Administrator |
2/11/2007 |
My name is Jason McDonald, Lovett ‘00
2 Games
7 at bats
2 Runs scored
1 RBI
1 Walk
3 Strike Outs
1 Sacrifice
And 1 home run robbed …… That pretty much summarizes my one and only baseball season at Rice. Having read the stats above most of you reading this are probably wondering, why would RUBPA do a spotlight on this guy? To be honest; I was wondering the same thing when I got the email from Skaggs.
I really don’t remember much about my baseball career at Rice as far as baseball itself goes (I had to look up the numbers above on the net), but I do remember trying to convince Coach Graham that I had something to do with the fact that we won the two games I did play a combined 28 - 4. What I mainly recall are the late night movie sessions watching Caddyshack with Justin Berg, endless video game marathons with Marc Gwyn, rodeos with Will Ford, poker night at Jason Richard’s apartment, here you go Skaggs – skipping chug practice at orientation to take BP with Skaggs, and so many other activities with various teammates. The older I get, I find these are the things that I miss and remember about Rice Baseball – the people. I feel truly blessed to have been a part of something so special, even if only for a short time. Thanks Many (Joyce) for making me enroll. So, without further adieu, here’s where I am now, and how I got here.
For a brief background, I came to Rice by way of Panola Jr. College and walked onto the team for the 1998 season. During my last semester at Rice, I participated in an internship program with Enterprise Rent-a-Car. Upon graduating in May of 2000, I decided that interviews and job searching would be pain in the neck, so I accepted an offer to continue on at Enterprise full time. While this was actually a much better job than it would seem, it did not last long. After only six months or so, I turned in my resignation and was off to work for Black and Decker. There I sold faucets and door knobs and locks for two years while living with my old teammate, Will Ford, who had come back to Houston after his stint in pro ball. Those two years were extremely fun and entertaining for me, but I was still not sure what I wanted to do when I “grew up.”
Sometime in 2001 I decided that I needed to get myself in gear and start being a little more serious about something other than happy hours. It was time for me to pursue something resembling a career. Law School was the obvious choice for me considering I had a degree in “something that doesn’t require Math or Science” and I did not particularly want to teach Political Science or History to 9th graders. I was accepted to the Texas Tech School of Law and began classes in the fall of 2002. From very early on, my Rice education was helpful in law school. I remember being told that if I graduated from Rice, I should have no trouble making outstanding grades in law school. My grades suggest that I may have relied on that statement a little too much; however, I managed to graduate in May of 2005 and passed the Texas Bar Exam the following November.
Keeping with my propensity to avoid the interviewing process all together, I decided to open a practice with a friend of mine from law school who graduated a semester ahead of me. We opened a law office in Crowley, Texas and for the last year and a half I have been slowly teaching myself the practice of law. I still have a long way to go, but in just over a year we have managed to turn a little corner building into a profitable law office.
About the time that Skaggs was contacting me about doing this for RUBPA, I was offered a job with Greenfield Land Services, a small Oil and Gas Company in Orange, Texas. Both my wife, Nikki, and I grew up in Orange and we are looking forward to going home to be with our families, raising our two boys, Mason (7) and Jace (2) in our hometown, and living closer to Rice.
To wrap this thing up, I read the other Spotlight pieces before sitting down to write mine. One thing that I want to echo that was in every other Spotlight is the overwhelming sentiment that Rice played such a major role in the success of each person. Whether it was in Professional baseball, Oil and Gas, Financial Planning, Insurance, or Law, we all owe part of our success to Rice, to baseball, and to the combination of the two.
I can’t wait to take my two boys to Rice baseball and football games. Hopefully we’ll see some of you there.
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