{"id":2306,"date":"2011-04-05T21:10:46","date_gmt":"2011-04-06T01:10:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=2306"},"modified":"2011-04-05T21:13:48","modified_gmt":"2011-04-06T01:13:48","slug":"jmu-baseball-shows-us-what-is-good-about-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=2306","title":{"rendered":"JMU Baseball Shows Us What Is Good About Sports"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/jmusportsblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/0402-justin01.jpg\"><img data-attachment-id=\"2308\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?attachment_id=2308\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/jmusportsblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/0402-justin01.jpg?fit=534%2C354&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"534,354\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"0402-justin01\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/jmusportsblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/0402-justin01.jpg?fit=300%2C198&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/jmusportsblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/0402-justin01.jpg?fit=534%2C354&amp;ssl=1\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-2308\" title=\"0402-justin01\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/jmusportsblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/0402-justin01.jpg?resize=300%2C198\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"198\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/jmusportsblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/0402-justin01.jpg?resize=300%2C198&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/jmusportsblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/0402-justin01.jpg?w=534&amp;ssl=1 534w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a>The JMU Dukes baseball team has had plenty of highlights on the field this season. The team&#8217;s best highlight might have come\u00a0last Friday at\u00a0Buckland Mills Elementary School in Haymarket, Virginia however. On that day, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www2.insidenova.com\/news\/2011\/apr\/01\/team-makes-surprise-stop-pick-kid-cancer-survivor-ar-944240\/\">Dukes made a special appearance at the school to surprise 8 year old Justin Brown<\/a>, a cancer survivor. The team was waiting for Justin when he entered the gym for what he thought was just a regular school assembly. As soon as he entered however, he was greeted by the team who was there to surprise\u00a0him and take him on the team bus to that afternoon&#8217;s game at George Mason.<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;ve written about the Diamond Dukes special relationship with Justin before and it&#8217;s one of the things that makes us most proud to be JMU fans. Justin was diagnosed with a brain tumor when he was only 2 years old, which caused him to lose his pituatary gland and left him blind in one eye.\u00a0He was\u00a0connected with the baseball team 2\u00a0years ago through the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.friendsofjaclyn.org\/\">Friends of Jaclyn Foundation<\/a>. The Foundation supports children with brain tumors by matching them with college or high school atheltic teams for support. Justin was declared an official member of the JMU baseball team last year with a letter-of-intent signing ceremony the team held for him. Since becoming a member of the team, Justin has formed\u00a0a special bond with players on the team. He got to throw out the first pitch at a game last year, has joined the team at games,\u00a0and even has his own locker. His mother explained the members of the team call Justin at home and have formed special friendships with her son.<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;re constantly reminded of some of the negative aspects of sports, but that just makes stories like this one about Justin Brown and his JMU baseball teammates, that much better.<\/p>\n<iframe src=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/like.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fjmusportsblog.com%2F%3Fp%3D2306&amp;layout=standard&amp;show_faces=true&amp;width=450&amp;action=like&amp;colorscheme=light&amp;height=80\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height:80px;\" allowTransparency=\"true\"><\/iframe>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The JMU Dukes baseball team has had plenty of highlights on the field this season. The team&#8217;s best highlight might have come\u00a0last Friday at\u00a0Buckland Mills Elementary School in Haymarket, Virginia however. On that day, the Dukes made a special appearance at the school to surprise 8 year old Justin Brown, a cancer survivor. The team [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[33,457,165],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":553,"url":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=553","url_meta":{"origin":2306,"position":0},"title":"This Sunday is Justin Brown Day at Veterans Memorial Park (corrected)","date":"April 5, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Sorry folks, I mixed up the dates. Please see the changes below and a special thanks to Kevin for pointing out the mistake. We've mentioned the special relationship the Diamond Dukes have with their #1 fan, Justin Brown before. This Saturday, April 10\u00a0Sunday, April 11 has been declared Justin Brown\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;JMU Baseball&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/jmusportsblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/park.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2320,"url":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=2320","url_meta":{"origin":2306,"position":1},"title":"JMU Sports Weekend Wrap","date":"April 10, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"JMU baseball dropped 2 out of\u00a03 against Georgia State this weekend. The Dukes dropped the\u00a0final game of \u00a0of the series on Justin\u00a0Brown Day\u00a0when they gave up a grand slam in the 9th innning. JMU now sits in 2nd place and is still in a strong position to make it to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;News&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/jmusportsblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/jb-day-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":832,"url":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=832","url_meta":{"origin":2306,"position":2},"title":"Cold Bats Doom the Dukes","date":"May 30, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The Diamond Dukes took the CAA regular season crown by winning every conference series it played in. Unfortunately for the Dukes, their bats went cold and they lost 2 straight to be eliminated from the conference tourney. After a thrilling victory over UNCW to open the tournament, the top seeded\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;JMU Baseball&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2474,"url":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=2474","url_meta":{"origin":2306,"position":3},"title":"Your Bandwagon Guide to the JMU Baseball Postseason","date":"May 31, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The Diamond Dukes are red hot, fresh off CAA regular season and tournament championships, and headed down to Chapel Hill, NC to play in the NCAA tournament. It sounds like the perfect time for fans everywhere to jump on the bandwagon. At the risk of offending all of the hard-core\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;JMU Baseball&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/jmusportsblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/jakelowery1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2233,"url":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=2233","url_meta":{"origin":2306,"position":4},"title":"OGL Links: Sports Illustrated, the CBI, and College Baseball Hall of Fame","date":"March 17, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of this week's issue of Sports Illustrated or click here to read\u00a0the magazine's\u00a0profile\u00a0of JMU's very own Dawn Evans.\u00a0It\u00a0might not\u00a0turn\u00a0you into a women's hoop fan, but it will make even the most cynical of us Dawn fans. Dawn and her teammates are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;JMU Baseball&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jmusportsblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/d-dukes-300x224.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2436,"url":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=2436","url_meta":{"origin":2306,"position":5},"title":"Diamond Dukes Clinch Playoff Birth","date":"May 15, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The JMU baseball team closed out the\u00a0home season with a sweep of Towson this weekend. The high scoring Dukes got the series started off right witha 13-9 win on Friday night. Catcher Jake Lowery had another monster\u00a0game at the plate, going 2 for 3 with a home run and a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;JMU Baseball&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/jmusportsblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/diamondduke.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2306"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2306"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2306\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2311,"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2306\/revisions\/2311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}