Monday, June 15, 2009

Friendly Encounters

This is another in a series of meetings of my friends and celebs.

Global Traveler's Fran Gallagher is an excellent golfer (or so he says). He even claims he could beat Louie Atsaves, although the two have yet to tee it up together. Gallagher is pretty much a casual sports fan.

When he told me he would be playing golf with former major leaguer Bob Uecker, I was very tempted to set up my friend. I thought about telling Gallagher about Uecker's World Series grand slam. Or Uecker's 25 game hitting streak. Or Uecker's 20 homer season batting behind Hank Aaron.
Of course, any real baseball fan knows that none of those events happened to Uecker. Uecker was a backup catcher for 6 seasons. He finished with 14 career HR's and a crispy .200 batting average.
Oh how easy it would have been to let Gallagher spout off some hilariously wrong stats to Uecker. Mr. Baseball might have even enjoyed the joke. In the end, I settled for telling Gallagher about Uecker's only grand slam and that he and I share a birthday (1/26).
I let Gallagher off the hook on that one. Of course, anyone who knows him knows that buys me nothing for the future. I am still on the receiving end of most of his humor.
I know I should have told Gallagher about the unassisted triple play Uecker made while playing for the Padres in 1970! Darn it!
Bob Uecker and Fran Gallagher in Yardley, PA-Summer 2008.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I went to the World Series --- you did not! FXG

Johngy said...

Just one more reason why I admire you.