By Chandler Harris, Assistant Sports Editor

Every little boy has hobbies or pastimes when they are young, like building model cars, skateboarding or reading books. My favorite hobby was collecting baseball cards. Ken Griffey Jr., Mark McGwire and Juan Gonzalez were always popular cards to find in an overpriced foil wrapper known as a pack. I once dreamed that I too would one day be the subject of my own card desired by children like myself. Fifteen years later after some hard realizations that I am not in the least bit athletic, I can take solace in the fact that one ACU student has realized that dream.

Trey Watten, former ACU pitcher from 2006-08, was drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers in the seventh round of last year’s Major League Baseball first-year player draft and already has a card of his own.

Watten is not just some minor league pitcher in the Brewers organization; he now has instant credibility with a simple piece of cardboard. It is not as if his card is in short supply either. Jerrod Monsees, senior accounting major from Highlands Ranch, Colo., and avid card collector, pulled a Watten card from a pack over Christmas break.

“It actually happened by complete accident,” Mon said Monsees, who pledged Gamma Sigma Phi with Watten. “I purchased three packs of Bowman NBA cards on eBay and the seller sent me three packs of Bowman baseball cards. I opened the first pack and there was Trey. It was a pretty sick moment.”

The card has also made its way onto trading card marketplaces throughout the Internet including ebay.com and beckett.com.

I decided I wanted to also show pride for our ACU baseball team and its former players so I went to the local Wal-Mart and purchased a box of Bowman 2008 Draft Picks and Prospects to attempt pulling a Watten card of my own. I scoured through each of the eight packs but failed to land our Wildcat great.

Not to be outdone, I went to the Web and purchased a few Watten cards from checkoutmycards.com. It’s not every day you have a classmate who hits the big time.