My mother made me....

"It's awesome, baby!" yells Dick Vitale, professional sportscaster. if you have ever watched a college basketball game, you have probably heard him - "He's unbelieeeevable!"

Dick hasn't always been this enthusiastic or confident. He says his mother gave him the courage to believe in himself.

When I was little, I accidentally poked myself in the left eye with a pencil. As I went through school in Garfield, New Jersey, my eye became worse. I was so ashamed of it. I couldn't see out of it, and it was always crooked.

In high school, my eye became infected and I had to wear a patch. Before I had my eye removed, my mother took me to many doctors. She wanted to find someone that could save my e e.

I finally told my mom that there was not a doctor who could bring my eye back. I had my eye removed. I have had a glass eye ever since.

My mom helped me not to feel sorry for myself. She helped me focus on my strengths and not on my weakness of having only one eye.

Since then, I've always tried to be the most enthusiastic person I can be. Now I even joke about my eye. If a referee makes a bad call, I'll say, "I could have called that with my one good eye."

I guess you could say my mom was a PTPer. That means "primetime player" - the best mom I could ever have had.