Doug Nicholas

Husband, Father, Attorney, Football Official and camper

[Doug Nicholas @DougNicholas]

@MarkMaddenX Sure was. They weren’t sure until right before if Andre was going to let them. It happened right as Immigrant Song started. True story.

[Doug Nicholas @DougNicholas]

@mariolopezviva I don’t play Asshole as much as I used to while pregaming, so if that counts as stopping I guess I’m guilty.

[Doug Nicholas @DougNicholas]

@BobsFunGirl I had the pleasure of meeting both of you at various Opening Days. Bob was so genuine and nice, those chats were my first memory when I heard he passed. I would bet anyone who ever had the pleasure of talking to him thought the same. I am so sorry and you are in my prayers.

[Doug Nicholas @DougNicholas]

@PatMcAfeeShow You nailed it. I remember the summer of 2016 driving to work listening to you, @toddmccomas and @ShaunLatham talking about comedy shows in Myrtle Beach. Pretty amazing to see what that turned into.

[Doug Nicholas @DougNicholas]

@LanceMcAlister I think Guevara was the only pre-Covid guy who played for 7 years. Or at least it felt like he was there that long.

[Doug Nicholas @DougNicholas]

@mariolopezviva @3YearLetterman may want to have a word…

[Doug Nicholas @DougNicholas]

@TAZ33254 @3YearLetterman The number of kids wearing them that have never, and will never steal a base, much less slide head first is incredible.

[Ben Sasse @BenSasse]

Friends-

This is a tough note to write, but since a bunch of you have started to suspect something, I’ll cut to the chase: Last week I was diagnosed with metastasized, stage-four pancreatic cancer, and am gonna die.

Advanced pancreatic is nasty stuff; it’s a death sentence. But I already had a death sentence before last week too — we all do.

I’m blessed with amazing siblings and half-a-dozen buddies that are genuinely brothers. As one of them put it, “Sure, you’re on the clock, but we’re all on the clock.” Death is a wicked thief, and the bastard pursues us all.

Still, I’ve got less time than I’d prefer. This is hard for someone wired to work and build, but harder still as a husband and a dad. I can’t begin to describe how great my people are. During the past year, as we’d temporarily stepped back from public life and built new family rhythms, Melissa and I have grown even closer — and that on top of three decades of the best friend a man could ever have. Seven months ago, Corrie was commissioned into the Air Force and she’s off at instrument and multi-engine rounds of flight school. Last week, Alex kicked butt graduating from college a semester early even while teaching gen chem, organic, and physics (she’s a freak). This summer, 14-year-old Breck started learning to drive. (Okay, we’ve been driving off-book for six years — but now we’ve got paper to make it street-legal.) I couldn’t be more grateful to constantly get to bear-hug this motley crew of sinners and saints.

There’s not a good time to tell your peeps you’re now marching to the beat of a faster drummer — but the season of advent isn’t the worst. As a Christian, the weeks running up to Christmas are a time to orient our hearts toward the hope of what’s to come.

Not an abstract hope in fanciful human goodness; not hope in vague hallmark-sappy spirituality; not a bootstrapped hope in our own strength (what foolishness is the evaporating-muscle I once prided myself in). Nope — often we lazily say “hope” when what we mean is “optimism.” To be clear, optimism is great, and it’s absolutely necessary, but it’s insufficient. It’s not the kinda thing that holds up when you tell your daughters you’re not going to walk them down the aisle. Nor telling your mom and pops they’re gonna bury their son.

A well-lived life demands more reality — stiffer stuff. That’s why, during advent, even while still walking in darkness, we shout our hope — often properly with a gravelly voice soldiering through tears.

Such is the calling of the pilgrim. Those who know ourselves to need a Physician should dang well look forward to enduring beauty and eventual fulfillment. That is, we hope in a real Deliverer — a rescuing God, born at a real time, in a real place. But the eternal city — with foundations and without cancer — is not yet.

Remembering Isaiah’s prophecies of what’s to come doesn’t dull the pain of current sufferings. But it does put it in eternity’s perspective:
“When we've been there 10,000 years…We've no less days to sing God's praise.”

I’ll have more to say. I’m not going down without a fight. One sub-part of God’s grace is found in the jawdropping advances science has made the past few years in immunotherapy and more. Death and dying aren’t the same — the process of dying is still something to be lived. We’re zealously embracing a lot of gallows humor in our house, and I’ve pledged to do my part to run through the irreverent tape.

But for now, as our family faces the reality of treatments, but more importantly as we celebrate Christmas, we wish you peace: “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned….For to us a son is given” (Isaiah 9).

With great gratitude, and with gravelly-but-hopeful voices,
Ben — and the Sasses

[Doug Nicholas @DougNicholas]

@Sedamsville14 @coreydillon_28 @TAZ33254 You should try to break the record again Friday night, but substitute steamed hotdogs for beers

[Jeremy Rauch @FOX19Jeremy]

Here’s the thing.

This #Bengals defense essentially took a year of Joe Burrow’s prime away from him in 2024.

They are effectively killing any Flacco feel good stories in 2025.

[Mike Dyer @MikeDyer]

Undefeated Seton High School volleyball team ranked No. 36 nationally by MaxPreps https://t.co/roAO1bY0tB @WCPO @setonhsports @MaxPreps @OHSAASports

[Doug Nicholas @DougNicholas]

@TAZ33254 I believe this store was located where Delhi Chili ultimately took over. RIP to both.

[Doug Nicholas @DougNicholas]

@TAZ33254 Bigger issue in my eyes: Where are the all the people that live, work and play there? That street is abandoned.

[Doug Nicholas @DougNicholas]

@usavolleyball For those of us trying to plan vacations, can you say what exact dates the 17u National tournament will be next year in Indy? I know there is a 9 day window, but what dates specifically are each age group? Thanks.

[Mel Brooks @MelBrooks]

I told you we’d be back

[Doug Nicholas @DougNicholas]

@TAZ33254 This needs to happen this weekend. I nominate Schneeds…

[Gray Hardison @BellyoftheBeast]

It's been 10 years since Brian Walker tried to fake his way on base. Let's explore the video https://t.co/iOI1t24lXl

[Doug Nicholas @DougNicholas]

Thank you Senator! I am fighting an All State subsidiary. They denied my claim based on their adjuster’s report. Problem is they never sent an adjuster. Wasn’t until I threatened legal action and demanded a copy of the report they had to admit the lie and reopen the claim.

[CSPAN @cspan]

Sen. @HawleyMO: "You haven't changed a lick. We've got your word against everybody else's. Why should we believe you?"

Allstate Executive VP Mike Fiato: "Because, I'm telling the truth."

Hawley: "You're asking us to look at all the evidence and don't believe our lying eyes."

[Doug Nicholas @DougNicholas]

@PFTCommenter Glacier

[Super 70s Sports @Super70sSports]

Nothing better than a Little League concession stand. Your five dollars still goes further there than just about anywhere else plus you get the added bonus of parents awkwardly serving their involuntarily “voluntary” community duty. Pure Americana.

[Doug Nicholas @DougNicholas]

@TAZ33254 @Sedamsville14 @coachcjames @kobestopper1 @jbtommy While your betting those early lines, don’t forget the empty backfields with not enough on the line of scrimmage penalties-hammer the over.