Donate in memory of Joey Buchholz

Some of you have known Joey for many years and others more recently through his creation of the Utopian Baseball Universe. Either way, you knew him as a kind, humorous and passionate person. Joey had a bad ticker but a great heart. If you talked with Joey at any length, you knew his unmistakable laugh. If you could really get him going, that laugh would get louder and longer until the tears started flowing from his eyes. By the time that happened, everyone around him too would be shedding tears of laughter. That is the effect he had on those around him.

Joey sadly passed away on July 28th from complications following a heart attack. He was 46. It goes without saying that no one was prepared for this. I have been friends with Joey for over 35 years - since elementary school. I’ve seen Joey through many of the ups and downs of his ended-too-soon life. For the last number of years, he worked full-time taking care of his mother Nina – who he is survived by. He made it work financially, getting by with just enough. In recent years he’d tell me how differently he viewed money. He didn’t need or want much of it. He’d talk about how long he could make $20 last. Money and material things weren’t what made him happy. He found happiness in the things that were with him his whole life. Things like his family, friends, music, writing, and of course baseball. He was able to combine many of his loves with the creation of the Utopian Baseball Universe a couple of years ago. It was very special to him and to many of you. He worked very hard at it in his spare time. There is a ton of content that he maintained between the games, the streaming, baseball card creations, talk shows, and much more. He didn’t do any of it to make one dime. It was all just a passion and it made him happy. I am so grateful that he was able to create this universe and extract happiness from what turned out to be the final chapter of his life.

This fundraising campaign is meant to help with the final expenses for Joey. His sister Jill and their Mom have been through a lot in the last number of days. The money raised will go towards paying for the immediate expenses incurred when someone passes and soon towards a memorial for Joey. Jill is working through all of this and more details regarding the memorial will be provided in the coming days. You may know of Joey’s 2009 book ‘Two Loves’ about being a fan of both the Mets and Brewers. But his two biggest loves of all were for his niece Gina and daughter Grace. Any residual funds will be provided for the benefit of Joey’s daughter Grace.