[Bumped BACK to the top of the page because ... we have audio!]
Original post after the jump.
It's probably best to just start from the beginning.
THE BACKSTORY
It all started about a year ago in a Rock M Roundtable. It was a simpler time. We were all enthralled by how Roger Ebert skewered Sex and the City 2. RPT was still in school instead of big-timing us about his job. Bill C.'s unborn child was just a twinkle in his eye, which was, of course, giddily fixed upon the 1978 Liberty Bowl between Mizzou and LSU being replayed on ESPN Classic at 1:30 in the morning while his wife managed to roll her eyes sleeping in the other room.
In the roundtable, Bill asked us to "name the person from your school (current or former player/coach/whatever) that you wish was on Twitter more than anybody else, just for the potential day-to-day entertainment prospects."
My response was Ehren Earleywine, the Mizzou softball coach. I didn't know much about Coach E except that A) he ran an outstanding softball program, and B) he gave good quotes. I Google Image'd him and said perhaps the most noteworthy thing I've ever said (and yes, that's a most depressing statement):
"Hey. I'm Ehren Earleywine. Yeah, my name's spelled a little funky, but what I lack in normal namehood I make up in tremendous stubble.
Now, to be fair, look at this:
I mean...c'mon. That's the kind of facial hair that says, "Sup, losers? I'm here to rock your freakin' world with my array of hit-and-runs and sacrifice bunts. Don't like it? Psh. Whatevs." And then he'd give an umpire the Stone Cold Stunner, sign an autograph for a kid and help a woman on her way to church across the street. And then win a Big XII softball championship.
I mentioned that it would be a dream come true for us nerds if coach E would mention the phrase "tremendous stubble" in a media outlet, and it kind of took off from there. "tremendous stubble" became "Tremendous Stubble", which became #TremendousStubble. That led to this, which led to this.
In short, Mizzou softball coach Ehren Earleywine, aka Tremendous Stubble, is our super-best-friend (which, by the way, Coach Stubble, we're still wondering which half of the heart necklace you want..."Be Fri" or "st ends"?)
Which brings us to now...
TREMENDOUS STUBBLE 2.0
Look, last year was fun. We all grew beards, or some semblance of beards. It was cute, right? It was cute.
But more importantly, it was a neat way to rally the online community together around a bunch of girls who usually don't get the publicity that they really, really deserve. Our little Mizzou world came together there for a hot minute under the flag of #TremendousStubble, and it was pretty cool.
And now...we want to use the community rallying ability to do something even better.
RMN wants to raise money to benefit the MU Children's Hospital. We have it on good authority -- namely, friend of RMN, MU softball SID and all-around swell dude Steven Keers -- that coach E is particularly fond of helping out children, and the MU softball team has done charity work at the hospital. Not sure what the MU Children's Hospital is? A little bit from their website:
University of Missouri Children's Hospital serves patients from every county in Missouri. With over 30 pediatric subspecialties, a pediatric ICU, adolescent unit and child life therapy, as well as teams equipped and dedicated solely to transporting infants and children, MU Children's Hospital is mid-Missouri's largest and most comprehensive pediatric health care facility.
In brief: ZOMG CUTE KIDS IN OUR OWN BACKYARD WHO ARE SICK AND NEED OUR HELP. Right? Right.
WHAT WE'RE ASKING OF YOU
The idea is simple: for every game the Mizzou softball team wins in the Women's College World Series (which starts Friday, May 20 at 7:30pm when the Tigers take on Illinois State), you pledge to give a certain amount to the MU Children's Hospital.
Now, before you decide how much money to give, consider that should when Mizzou wins the national championship, they will have won no less than ten (10) games and no more than twelve (12). So consider that.
And it doesn't matter how much you give; just give something. If you can only afford to give a dime for every win? Terrific! It's still going to a great cause! If you're a turbo-rich author like Atchison and can give $50,000 for every win? Equally terrific! The point isn't how much you give; it's that you give.
HOW YOU PLEDGE
First of all, we'd love for you to pledge aloud in the comments of this post. Just tell everyone how much you will be giving for every Mizzou win. Here, I'll start:
I, ghtd36, pledge $5 for every win by Tremendous Stubble and the MU softball team in the Women's College World Series.
See? Not so bad.
And we'd love for this to go way, way, way beyond RMN. Post it on Facebook. Post it on Twitter. In fact, here's a Tweet, all 140character'd up and everything:
I pledge $5 to MU Children's Hospital for each win by #TremendousStubble & the MU softball team in the WCWS. http://tinyurl.com/RMNTSCharity
We're collecting through PayPal. The Donate button is below.
If you choose to donate for each game, that's wonderful. If you choose to give a lump sum at the end, that is also cool. Your money, your call.
THE BOTTOM LINE
While we're growing our own stubble, let's turn the Tremendous Stubble (and #TremendousStubble) into not just a rallying cry for the community around the MU softball team, but a rallying cry for the community around the MU softball team and doing some good.
Go RMN. Go cute sick kids. Go Mizzou softball. And, of course, go Tremendous Stubble.