The Camden Chat community has lost a treasured member

I am writing this article with a heavy heart. Earlier this week, I learned that a longtime member of the Camden Chat commenting community, Jakubazookas, died last month. He was killed in what was apparently an act of random violence while he was walking to work.

Jaku, as we knew him for short, was a treasure to have as a regular. He was a part of so many random and fun discussions as he shared things he was passionate about in life. Many a Bird Droppings involved his discussing some movie that he had seen, quoting back and forth with people who recognized his references. In recent years, he had gotten into baking, and he was known to post his tasty-looking bakes to an excited and envious group of people who were interested to see his progress.

He posted to us from Hawaii, which meant that when he would hang out with us during games, we’d be hearing about his workplace happenings while the Orioles were in the middle of playing. He always painted such a vivid picture of the peculiar cast of characters who made up his professional life, in both his office job and eventually too in the baking job that he took because he was good enough to bake as his work. I am amazed at anyone who keeps their Orioles fandom alive from the other side of the world, where it is inconvenient to be plugged in at all. That is a love of the team that is second to none.

My wife and I took a vacation to Hawaii a few summers ago. Since we were right there, we took up the opportunity to have dinner with Jaku and his wife. It was a lovely dinner at a Japanese place in Honolulu. I tried octopus for the first time in my life. They were both very nice people. I was glad that we were able to make that meet-up into part of our vacation. Now, I am even more glad, since it turns out that was the only chance we were ever going to get.

Any time the Delmon Young Double in the 2014 ALDS against the Tigers came up in these comments, Jaku was seldom far behind to remind us that, not only was he one of the lucky ones who got to witness that moment in the stadium, he was right there in the front row in left field. If you know where to look in the replay, you can see him banging his palms against the padding on the left field fence as the ball lands out there. That is the picture that I will try to always have of him, experiencing that moment of joy along with tens of thousands of other Orioles fans.

The family has set up a Gofundme to help his wife with expenses. If you enjoyed Jaku’s presence here, I hope you will consider contributing and letting them know that he will be missed by the people of Camden Chat.

Do you have any favorite memories of interactions with Jaku on Camden Chat? Please feel free to share them in the comments.