POMEROY — “Don’t give up on your dreams. They just may come true,” said Mike Sharp after writing the lyrics to “Touch ‘Em All,” which was set to music by Erwin Musper, performed by One Horse, a Cincinnati-based band, given a visual life on video by Cam Miller, and premiered on July 29 at the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame.
For Sharp it was a dream come true. He said baseball had always been a big part of his life.
“I remember in tee-ball I would hit the ball and not stop running ‘til I “touched ‘em all,” he said.
He began coaching tee-ball in 1972 at the age of 12, and it was that year that his father took him to Cincinnati and Riverfront Stadium to see his first major league baseball game.
“I walked down close to the dugout, and Johnny Bench signed my ball. From that moment on, Johnny Bench was my favorite ball player,” said Sharp.
He said that now he has the joy of passing on his love of the game to his two daughters, Maria and Hannah. It was after a tee-ball game that he sat down and wrote the lyrics to “Touch ‘Em All” while watching a Reds game.
“I wanted to write a feel good story about how even major league players once played tee-ball, and even they were once a child that needed help to get to where they are today,” he said. “I started thinking about my dad, grandpa, uncle, coaches and teachers. We all have been helped by so many people along the way. We’ve all struck out many times in life, but we grab the bat the next time up and swing again. You never know, you just might hit a home run.”
And with that said Sharp’s song, “Touch ‘Em All” is his dream come true. He credits the music producer, the band and the video producer for seeing that the lyrics he wrote got where they needed to go.
Sharp attended Ohio University where he studied journalism and worked as a sports writer for his hometown Ironton Tribune from 1973-1982. He then went to the St. Mary’s Hospital School of Radiology in Huntington, W. Va. and has worked as a X-Ray/Cat Scan Technologist at various hospitals in four states over the last 30 years. For the past 15 years he has worked in the Radiology Department at O’Bleness Memorial Hospital in Athens.
He and his wife, Pam, and their two daughters live near Tuppers Plains.
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