Autobiography

My name is Andrew Joseph Merritt. I am 31 years old and was born February 3rd, 1981 in Tucson Arizona. I was born to my mother, Cheryl Flake, who at that time was in the Mortgage business and my father Dennis Merritt, who was a Tucson Police Officer. By the time I was two years old my parents were divorced. In 1985, my mother met another man by the name of, Tim Barger, who he and his brother Jon Barger owned three jewelry stores in Tucson. Park Avenue Jewelers was the name of their stores, and are still there today. In July 1986, Tim and my mother got married. Shortly after that my mother and Tim bought a house in the Tucson area. In 1987 my mother had my sister, Christina Barger. I went to Thornydale Elementary School in Tucson from Kindergarten to Second grade. Kindergarten is when I started having an interest in Baseball, and so my parents got me into Little League. One thing I do remember at a young age is watching The University of Arizona Wildcats basketball team make the Final Four in 1988. I have been a huge Arizona Wildcat fan since I was about six years old.

During the summer after my Second grade year in 1989, my mother and step-father decided to move our family to Washington State. They decided on a city called ,Bellevue. My step-dad opened his own Jewelry store in Factoria Square Mall called, The Diamond Source. I did not have a favorite baseball or football team at that time since Arizona did not have a baseball team yet, and they had just got the Cardinals from St. Louis for football. I decided to be a fan of the teams in Washington. I have been a big Seattle Seahawks and Seattle Mariners fan since 1989. After that school year was out we moved again to Redmond, where I went to Fourth grade. Also during our time in Redmond, in October 1990, my brother Thomas Barger was born. I also played Little League Baseball. I was selected to play in the Majors, where I would be playing with kids one to two years older then me. I remember one day in fourth...