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mchenrycards
Featured Contributor, Vintage Corner, Senior Membe
Here in the northern Illinois/southern Wisconsin area they are calling for temperatures this weekend and Monday that will be in the minus 10 degree area. I am beginning to hate cold weather so much that even counting down to spring training isnt even helping me through this winter. So, in anticipation of the coming baseball season I ask....tell me a story. I dont care what kind of story as long as it has to do with baseball. It could be how you met your favorite player, how you pitched a no hitter in high school or even how you got hit in the mouth by a line drive while you were watching some girl walk by instead of paying attention to the game.
I will start this one off.
I have been fortunate in that I decided I wanted to work for the Chicago Cubs and was hired on right out of high school to work game day security for the team. Although I would go on to eventually get a job in the front office, it was the game day security detail I enjoyed the most. One of the "perks" to this job, being a bigger guy was that I was usually one of the guys who would get assigned special detail. In September of 1985, the Cincinnati Reds and their player/manager Pete Rose came to town with Rose needing only a few hits to break Ty Cobb's hit record. I was asked by my boss to partner with another co-worker and shadow Pete Rose that whole weekend they were in town. There had been some threats on Rose's life and they wanted to insure that the fans were not going to attack him harass him in any way. My co-worker and I met the team bus at the gate and shadowed Rose wherever he went. The clubhouse, the dugout, yes even the crapper (although we politely stayed out in the hall way for that event).
To meet the demand of the media during the chase to break Cobb's record, Rose would hold a press conference before every game that fall. There was no designated press area in Wrigley that was large enough to handle the large contingent of media at the games so it was decided the press conference would be in a picnic area under the right field stands of the old ball park. Rose, still dressed in his street clothes headed down to the picnic area via the field with my colleague and I in tow next to him. There was very little chit chat as we made our way down the right field line, past the Reds players who were warming up on this sunny September morning. After the press conference we headed back towards the Reds dugout but by this team Rose's teammates were taking batting practice. As we were walking down the right field line a ball headed our way, right at me. Now I had played an incredible amount of baseball when I was younger and was pretty good with the glove and without thinking, I stuck my hand out and snagged the one-hopper in short right field and, despite the pain coursing through my arm, I didn't not drop the ball. Pete Rose looked at me, got a huge smile on his face and said "man....good grab".
We continued to walk to the clubhouse and despite the pain I was feeling there was no way I was going to let it show by dropping that ball. Pete Rose was a guy I grew up watching, a guy I begged for an autograph as a kid and someone who was known as a baseball idol at that time. I was not going to let this baseball icon down by dropping the ball. The feeling eventually returned to my hand, the redness went away and I still have that ball but more than that I have a memory of a once revered player giving me a compliment on my baseball skills.
So lets hear your stories!!
I will start this one off.
I have been fortunate in that I decided I wanted to work for the Chicago Cubs and was hired on right out of high school to work game day security for the team. Although I would go on to eventually get a job in the front office, it was the game day security detail I enjoyed the most. One of the "perks" to this job, being a bigger guy was that I was usually one of the guys who would get assigned special detail. In September of 1985, the Cincinnati Reds and their player/manager Pete Rose came to town with Rose needing only a few hits to break Ty Cobb's hit record. I was asked by my boss to partner with another co-worker and shadow Pete Rose that whole weekend they were in town. There had been some threats on Rose's life and they wanted to insure that the fans were not going to attack him harass him in any way. My co-worker and I met the team bus at the gate and shadowed Rose wherever he went. The clubhouse, the dugout, yes even the crapper (although we politely stayed out in the hall way for that event).
To meet the demand of the media during the chase to break Cobb's record, Rose would hold a press conference before every game that fall. There was no designated press area in Wrigley that was large enough to handle the large contingent of media at the games so it was decided the press conference would be in a picnic area under the right field stands of the old ball park. Rose, still dressed in his street clothes headed down to the picnic area via the field with my colleague and I in tow next to him. There was very little chit chat as we made our way down the right field line, past the Reds players who were warming up on this sunny September morning. After the press conference we headed back towards the Reds dugout but by this team Rose's teammates were taking batting practice. As we were walking down the right field line a ball headed our way, right at me. Now I had played an incredible amount of baseball when I was younger and was pretty good with the glove and without thinking, I stuck my hand out and snagged the one-hopper in short right field and, despite the pain coursing through my arm, I didn't not drop the ball. Pete Rose looked at me, got a huge smile on his face and said "man....good grab".
We continued to walk to the clubhouse and despite the pain I was feeling there was no way I was going to let it show by dropping that ball. Pete Rose was a guy I grew up watching, a guy I begged for an autograph as a kid and someone who was known as a baseball idol at that time. I was not going to let this baseball icon down by dropping the ball. The feeling eventually returned to my hand, the redness went away and I still have that ball but more than that I have a memory of a once revered player giving me a compliment on my baseball skills.
So lets hear your stories!!