High Rise Bubbles Rising High


On first glance Reginald “Bubbles” Cousins seems innocent and carefree. The young switch hitting secondbasemen on the Texas Tech ball club is highly regarded by many scouts among the league but his history is troublesome to many who have personally heard this young 19 year olds story…

Reginald Cousins grew up in Baltimore, Maryland. His was raised by a single mother on a fixed unemployment income. The inner city of Baltimore can often times be dangerous and drug ridden. Reginald grew up in a well known drug apartment building called the “High Rise.” For much of Reginald’s youth his mother let the hard times get to her. She would leave Bubbles home while making money anyway she could on the streets of Baltimore. Bubbles was left to raise himself on his own. He’d never miss school even though he’d have to walk the dangerous streets to get there and to come home, He’d never miss his homework even though sometimes finding a pencil was even hard in his cluttered household, and most importantly he never let his upbringing define him… Until his mother never found her way back to there small one bedroom apartment in the High Rise.

When Bubbles was 16 years old he was a star player in the Baltimore Public Highschool system. Scouts eyes would be focused on Bubbles every time he step foot in the box. A switch hitter with discipline and power while only being 5’11 170 pounds. Bubbles was a unique talent. Scholarship letters were flowing through his apartment mail, adding to the clutter that already surrounded his apartment. Bubbles life was baseball, but unfortunately life outside of baseball was falling around him. His mother hadn’t been home for 3 months at the start of his sophomore season. Bubbles kept to himself; his teachers, friends, coaches, and counselors had no idea Bubbles had been living alone all this time. Bubbles turned to another thing for solace… The needle

A young junior in highschool with more potential than anyone in the Baltimore area in quite sometime began using. It was never hard to find, and with creativity and desperation money wasn’t an issue either. The boy, every news paper knew; the boy who was the focus of everyone on the field was going unnoticed off of it. Everyday Bubbles would use. He missed school for the first time and missed it often, he missed games, he missed homework, and most importantly he was letting his upbringing define him. Bubbles was going down the deep end until the day he got a bad batch of heroin… Reginald “Bubbles” Cousins the man unnoticed outside the baseball field was rushed to the hospital, overdosing on the only thing he thought he could confide in. Now everyone would be paying attention to the kid growing up in the high rise…

Reginald turned a corner that day. He started attending daily NA meetings. He took summer courses to make up for his time lost, and most importantly he found his way back onto the baseball field. Reginald’s coach, Daniel Brody took Reginald into his care. The boy was out of the high rise for the first time in his life.

Now attending Texas Tech, Reginald still attends NA meetings everyday, has a 3.5 grade point average, tutors in his free time, and finds himself on the baseball field everyday. The boy from the high rise has risen up above his upbringing.

Bubbles is expected to be in the 2025 amateur draft for the CBL. When asked who he’s going to celebrate with Bubbles said “the people close to me, Daniel (his HS coach) and probably my Sponsor Steve Earle. Those men have saved my life and I owe all my success to them; I can tell you I’m certainly not celebrating with my old friend needle.”

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