I need to figure out how to meet this boy!

My daddy brought a full-page profile on Kevin Slowey home for me today. :) (It's good to know that the St. Paul paper is good for something. Last year he brought one home for me on Mark Madsen.)

I need to meet this boy. Some of the things in the profile (the rest can be found at http://www.twincities.com/sports/ci_10293518?nclick_check=1):

"I would like my friends to say I'm genuine. I wouldn't mind if someone said, 'I don't think he's all that funny. Or say, 'He's kind of annoying.' As long as they say, 'He's genuine around other people.'"

"My dad has had the biggest influence on my life. Everything from how he works at his job to the way he carries himself. I'll never forget him showing up for our Little League games in his suit, straight from work. He was very clear that family came first."

"This is what I wanted to do. You grow up hoping and dreaming you'll play professional baseball at some level. Guys in this clubhouse all say we've been very blessed." [I've never seen him use the word 'lucky.']

"I was a pyromaniac as a kid. There were a couple of times I got in trouble for lighting matches in the house. I shouldn't have had matches to begin with. I was 7 or 8. I wanted to see if I could light things on fire in the bathroom. I tried to be as safe as possible and be around a water source."

"I'm definitely not happy after a loss. We have some great guys on the team that I'm great friends with. Somebody like Scott Baker I'll talk to. He'll remind me baseball 'is not the most important thing in your life. Your faith is the most important. Your family is the second-most important and then baseball. If you're really going to let yourself get that upset about it, maybe it's time to step back and refocus.'"

"My proudest moment as an athlete was pitching for Team USA in Cuba in 2006. It helped us qualify for the Beijing Olympics. Getting a chance to throw against the Cuban team in Cuba and wear USA across my chest was special. It went very well. We ended up winning, and I threw well that game. Barring the World Series, I don't know if I'll have that same feeling. You're in a foreign country representing your country. That was awesome."

"I'd want my last meal to be anything that my mom could make. She cooked every day for me and my two brothers and two sisters. She's an incredible cook. Everything was ready on time. I don't know how moms do that."

"The best book I've read is the Bible. You can learn something new every time you read it. I appreciate the psalms a lot. There are very genuine pieces of advice you can apply."

"I don't think there's anything I'd have to get out of the house if it's burning down. At least not yet. Hopefully, at some point, it'll be a wedding ring. There's no one possession I feel super attached to."

"I'll watch "Seinfeld" any time it's on, whether I've seen the episode or not. His humor is paramount. It's very, very funny. I own all the seasons (on DVD). It makes me laugh out loud a lot." [What kind of nerd says 'paramount'? Oh yeah, the same kind who uses words like 'anomaly.' :)]

"The best advice I ever got? I don't know if it would be advice as much as the best talk I ever had. It was with my mom when I went to play minor league baseball. She said, very genuinely, very motherly, 'We love you no matter what.' That was it. It wasn't like, 'Go get 'em and come out with some strikeouts.' It was, 'We love you no matter what.' Something like that means a lot."

"If I could trade places for a day with anybody, it would be a United States fighter pilot. I would love to fly one of those planes or get a chance to fly in one of those planes. I feel it would be unbelievable to take off from an aircraft carrier or land on an aircraft carrier."

and my very favorite:

"I want my epitaph to say, 'Here lies Kevin Slowey, who was a godly man.' After that, anybody can write whatever they want."