Mark Wesley Pritchard
Bio
You can call me Wesley. Former cosplayer, retro gaming fanatic, die-hard Texas Rangers fan, and nostalgic freak. Need I say more?
Threads: @misterwesleysworld
Instagram: @misterwesleysworld
Stories (398)
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The Good and the Downright Ugly
If you're having the case of the offseason blues, I know the feeling. With the Winter Meetings set to conclude on Wednesday and Spring Training starting in February, baseball will return before you know it. If you're new to the baseball community and unsure of what the point of the Winter Meetings, they are held the first full week of December, and teams aim to sign players to their respective teams. In case you haven't been up to speed on the happenings of the MLB offseason, here are a list of players who will be wearing different uniforms for the 2026 MLB regular season.
By Mark Wesley Pritchard 2 months ago in Unbalanced
The Hall of Shame: Baseball's Most Despised Players
The National Baseball Hall of Fame Museum in Cooperstown, New York, which is known as the Birthplace of Baseball, celebrates and recognizes the contributions of baseball players and other figures. Nearly 400 individuals are inducted in the Hall and almost 300 of them are players. Speaking of the Hall of Fame, there will be a new member to the 2026 Class: Jeff Kent. The reaction to the news was mixed. While some were pleased that Kent will be inducted next year, others expressed their frustrations with the Baseball Hall of Fame for not selecting Barry Bonds. Other players who have missed out on being part of the 2026 Baseball Hall of Fame Class were Gary Sheffield, the late Fernando Valenzuela, Don Mattingly, Dale Murphy, Carlos Delgado, and Roger Clemens. This story will primarily be focused on Bonds and the latter player. Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens will not be eligible again for the committee ballot until 2031. My brutally honest opinions about both of these men aren't going be sugar-coated.
By Mark Wesley Pritchard 2 months ago in Unbalanced
Loving Yourself is the Best Gift This Holiday Season
Greetings, Vocal readers! The holiday season is a joyous occasion where people spend time with their loved ones. However, that is not always the case for LGBTQ+ people. Family, especially parents, are supposed to love and accept their children as they are. Unfortunately, we've seen too many stories over the years about parents kicking their own children out of the house or deny their own existence because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. That is an emotional gut punch that they have experienced or are experiencing now. We have a president and his administration who are slowly trying to strip protections of people like us. They're spreading hateful rhetoric that puts our lives at risk daily.
By Mark Wesley Pritchard 2 months ago in Pride
The Annoying Bro Epidemic
I have a huge bone to pick with this younger generation and some millenials. I've noticed in the last several years there's a word that these people constantly use. That word is bro. Growing up in the 90s, there was a plethora of slang that people would use for a period of time, then it would eventually die down. Fast forward to now, the use of the word bro is seen everywhere, especially on YouTube. Many individuals would excessively use this word and honestly, it makes me want to puke. It's not just younger people saying it so much. Older adults are guilty of this, too. I'm a millennial who's in his late thirties and the last time I ever called my youngest brother bro was several years ago. I would never use that annoying term on social media or in any stories I write and publish on Vocal. I have a theory of why Gen-Zer's have difficulties finding jobs. Their communication skills are terrible. Imagine referring to their future managers or bosses as bro. They wouldn't last very long at their places of employment. I'm a believer of using proper grammar towards authority figures, people that I work with, and the elderly. Whenever I go to the comments section of a video on YouTube, the overuse of the word bro is present among others. It's a lack of communication skills, as if they don't have anything else to say. It's always bro this and bro that. I believe the excessive use of the word bro is the biggest cancer of this society. Also, it's one of my biggest pet peeves. I remembered back in the day when slang words were used for a period time, then they would be buried for good. I can't take anyone seriously, regardless of age, who uses the word bro in conversations. It's the equivalent of girls and women using the word like. Speaking of which, girls and grown women are also using the word bro, especially towards each other. I've always found that weird and cringey.
By Mark Wesley Pritchard 2 months ago in Education
2025: The Final Countdown
Go ahead. Hum that song if you want to. Greetings, Vocal readers. 2026 will be here before you know it. For now, we're eager to finish 2025 on a high note. It has been a long year, especially for me as a writer on Vocal. Us writers have been busy writing and publishing our stories to reach our audiences. As I approach 400 stories on Vocal, I look back and am proud of how far I've come since joining this platform in 2018. The bigger question is this: Will I be able to reach the special milestone of 500 stories written and published around this time next year? It's a huge longshot, but it's not impossible either. In the almost eight years that I've been a writer on Vocal, I have yet to win a challenge. However, these writing challenges motivate me to use them as an incentive to strive even harder. That's one of the goals that I'm trying to pursue in 2026. I've received a few honors in the past, which is always very appreciative.
By Mark Wesley Pritchard 2 months ago in Writers
The Joys of Christmas
Hello December! Happy Holidays. Happy Hannukah. Season's Greetings. Feliz Navidad. Happy Kwanzaa. Merry Christmas. However you say it, we all love this time of year. There's a lot of things I love about Christmas, which I'll get to that in a moment. The debate whether how early is too early to think about Christmas will always be a main talking point every year. The responses will always be split. In this story, I'll share the reasons why I love this holiday so much. After you're done reading this story, feel free to share your favorite Christmas memories in the comments section below. Please give it a like once you've read this story. Make sure you follow me on my socials. Finally, like this story and please leave a generous one-off tip. It'll be found at the end of this story. Big or small, your tips will support creators like me so we can keep publishing new stories and share them with everyone.
By Mark Wesley Pritchard 2 months ago in Geeks
PlayStation 2: 25 Years Later
2000: The New Millennium was filled with a plethora of pop culture events. The debuts of Big Brother and Survivor. Artists like Britney Spears, Eminem, and *NSYNC were a heavy presence on the charts. Ken Griffey, Jr. crushed his 400th career home run. Amongst all of this was the release of a new game console: the PlayStation 2. It was released in the United States on October 26, 2000, and 160 million units were sold worldwide, making it the best-selling game console of all time, which still holds true as of 2025. There were over 10,000 game titles with 1.5 billion copies sold. Manufacturing for the PS2 ended in 2013, but we still love it after all these years. At the time of its release, yours truly was a 12-year-old who enjoyed playing it with my younger brother. I'm glad that I grew up at a time where life was simple, exciting, and less stressful.
By Mark Wesley Pritchard 2 months ago in Gamers
Wesley's Favorite Forgotten Texas Rangers Players: Part 2
Greetings, baseball nerds and fellow Rangers fans! Recently, I posted a story about my favorite Texas Rangers players that fans might have a recollection of in passing or vaguely, but no one talks about these days. If you would like to see my previous story about that, click the link down below and see if any of your favorites made the list. I'm back for a second part of this story. Just to note, I won't be highlighting players like Michael Young or Ian Kinsler on this list, since Rangers fans are fully aware of who they are. Alright, let's get this show on the road!
By Mark Wesley Pritchard 2 months ago in Unbalanced
A Token of Appreciation: Marcus Semien
The 2023 World Series and the Texas Rangers capturing their very first championship in franchise history is a moment fans will remember for years to come. From 2021 to 2025, three-time All-Star Marcus Semien has been a wonderful contributor to the Rangers and if you remember in Game 5 of the aforementioned World Series, he made a statement by hitting a two-run homer to put them in a great position to win a World Series title that had slipped through their fingers twice before. He's now a New York Met, but he'll always be a legend in Arlington. Now, I know the word legend gets thrown around so much. However, Semien is a true example of that. When a player wins a World Series title, they have earned that label, even though they haven't retired yet. Past Rangers players such as Michael Young and Josh Hamilton will forever be legends in Arlington. Ian Kinsler and Mike Napoli were fan favorites in Texas, but both of them retired as World Series champions, due to them playing for the Boston Red Sox. I'm not implying that a player has to win a World Series title to be called a legend. If a player spent a significant amount of time with a team, they deserve to be called a legend, with or without a championship. Ichiro: legend. David Wright: legend. Anthony Rizzo: legend. Derek Jeter: legend. Ryan Howard: legend. I could go on for hours, but you get the picture. The players that I just named have earned the right to have the Legend label attached to them for the rest of their lives.
By Mark Wesley Pritchard 2 months ago in Unbalanced
Being Alone and Fine with It
Greetings, Vocal readers. Thanksgiving, a time of spending time with our loved ones, will be here before you know it. According to a study posted on Vice, five percent of Americans plan of celebrating this holiday all by themselves. This was significantly lower from 2024 where it was around 14%. The last time I've spent Thanksgiving with my family was back in 2010. Nearly 15 years later, I've since had a different perspective on this holiday. Many people would feel sorry for me because I'm single and alone on Thanksgiving. While the gesture is well-intentioned, I've resigned to the fact that I don't have to make a huge deal out of this day. Also, I don't necessary need people to make me feel happy. The only person who's responsible for my own happiness is myself. In the past, I would watch my Dallas Cowboys play on TV every Thanksgiving. I now treat this day as a regular one.
By Mark Wesley Pritchard 2 months ago in Families
Let's Make a Deal: MLB Offseason Edition
The offseason means one thing: teams making deals and acquiring the best players. Spring Training is nearly two months away, so baseball will return before you know it. Whether or not Pete Alonso will be in a different uniform for the 2026 MLB regular season is uncertain and speaking of the Mets, the following blockbuster trade that was recently made caught everyone by surprise. The New York Mets traded outfielder Brandon Nimmo to the Texas Rangers for three-time All-Star and World Series champion Marcus Semien. While many Rangers fans wished the second baseman well, others were disappointed. However, at the end of the day, a player being traded is business. It's nothing personal. In an Instagram post, Nimmo, 32, thanked Mets fans for welcoming him to the Big Apple.
By Mark Wesley Pritchard 2 months ago in Unbalanced
The One Texas Rangers Game You Probably Forgot About
Before the Boston Red Sox won their second World Series title in four years, the Texas Rangers gave baseball fans and the entire sports world something to talk about in 2007. The evening of August 22 of that year was a date that Rangers fans remember very well. I graduated from high school nearly two months before the following game that I'm about to discuss. On that aforementioned date, the Rangers played the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards, which was part of a four-game series. Just to note that it was a game that was rescheduled from Monday, due to inclement weather and part of a doubleheader. The starting pitchers for that rescheduled game were Kason Gabbard (Texas) vs Daniel Cabrera (Baltimore). I'll give you some grace if you don't recall watching this game, but it was one of the best Rangers games I've ever watched on TV. Sure, the Rangers weren't having a good season, but this game in particular will forever be etched in the minds of die-hard Rangers fans. To avoid boring everyone and detailing every play-by-play in this story, I'll just detail bits and pieces of this historic game.
By Mark Wesley Pritchard 2 months ago in Unbalanced
