What’s good mushes? Alright, alright I’m from New York but I’ve been trying to pick up the lingo and advance the Newtonian vocabulary into the civilized world. So far, I’ve only help expand it to Syracuse, which you could definitely argue is not civilized.

What brings us here today? Average athletes. The roster fillers. The guys with heart. The dude’s who lace up the cleats, sneaks, or ballet shoes every day and receive none of the glory. These are the world’s heroes. These are the people who make the young herbs of little league believe they can make it to the largest stage of their prospective sport.

For far too long, over four score and seven years, these warriors have not had their due. However, here where the Culture is Touched we’re going to bring it to you weekly and this is the inaugural post.

Let’s kick it old school to an era when men were men and baseball ran rampant with steroids and excitement. I’m talking the early 2000’s and I’m thinking we start with one of the most average teams of the decade: the New York Metropolitans.

The New York Mets in the year 2000 went 94-68 and included names on the roster like Mike Piazza, Robin Ventura and the man with arguably the worst batting stance of all time, Todd Zeile. Forget them, and Bobby V with his fake mustache, lets talk about someone with way more heart, who was more charismatic, and was insanely on par: the big glass of Hawaiian Punch, Benny Agbayani.

Benny had a short career, spanning from 1998 to 2002 but his average presence on the Mets, Rockies and Red Sox earns him a spot on the Touch My Culture all Average Squad. With a career record of .274 with only 39 dingers and 156 ribbies, Benny was on pace for one of the most prolific decent careers of all time.

Just to put in perspective how much of a legend this guy was, he once caught a fly ball with no outs and bases loaded and proceeded to hand the caught ball to a kid in the stands thinking that was the end of the inning. Instead, each runner advanced two bases. Talk about silly.

Lets use this day to remember one of the forgotten heroes of our childhood by singing Benny and the Mets and drinking Hawaiian Punch. I’m sure Benny would be proud.