(I'm sorry, I didnt spellcheck, I got a game to get ready to listen to)
March 31, 2013 starts the 2013 baseball season
The Houston Astros vs the Texas rangers.
FUND RAISER AT FENWAY PARK
My mom got me two tickets for a fund raiser for HD to be held at Fenway Park and the special guest is Jackie MacMullan, a sports writer who has been working for about 25 years for the Boston Globe, Sports Illistrated and now ESPN and is known as the beat writer for the NBA. She also covered the 2012 Olimpics and many other sporting events in her career.
She wrote the biography for Larry bird and later on, a book on Larry bird-Magic Johnson, which is currently a Broadway play. She also wrote many other sports biographies and sports books in general.
I went with a friend, Zac. He’s a huge sports fan. He is a freshman in college and attends BU. So we met up a few minutes before the event was to kick off. It was to be held at the EMC Club in Fenway Park, a section of the ball park that over looks the park from behind homeplate. Half of this section is outdoors, where they have nice seats and at the top of this section, there are glass doors that go into a dining room-function area. This is where the event would be held.
So we got there a few minutes early and they were still setting up so we couldn’t go into the club yet. We were stood around the loby and he noticed they had the plaque of all the redsox hall of famers. We went over and touched them all and he read me all the names. That was pretty cool.
Eventually we got to go in and you had to check in at the desk. We were assigned to table 18. There was a silent oction and a regular oction. They also had a 50-50 raffle. Before we found our table we went over to see the things that was being octioned off.
*everything is signed except one item so unless noted, assumed they are autographed so I don’t have to write it after every item lol*
Jason Varitek bat, Shawn Thorton hockey puck, Gronkousky-herenandez photo, Dave Roberts shoes, photo of Bill Russle and Wilt Chamblen, a photo of Bird and Magic, a photo of bird-mccale-parrish with a piece of the Boston Garden’s Parque and the item that was not autograph and someone had some a scense of humor… (you have to know what happened with the red sox last year to understand this) a Puppeye’s (restaurant) bucket with a gc for KFC for $25, a 6 pack of bud light and a baseball card of Josh Beckett. That’s just a few of the items you could bid on for the silent oction.
We sat down at our table and it was nice, they had table clothe and Zac read me the night’s lineup. We walked around some more, checking out the silent oction prises every like half hr or so. We both wanted to buy into the 50-50 so we went over and two young college age women were doing it. It was 1 ticket for $5 3 tickets for $10 and an arm’s lenkth for $20. The lady asked us who’s arm did we want. (there was two working it) he chose the one who looked to have longer arms and then she said not us, of you guys. Well, he had much longer arms than I do so we went with his arms… good thing lol it got me like 20 tickets. He bought the same. Someone from the event wanted to take a picture of the tickets down Zac’s arms, that was fun.
Usually when you have a special guest, they come, do their speech and leave…
We had sorta walked into Jackie MacMullan. She was in the croud, just saying HI to everyone and taking questions. Jonathan being Jonathan, all I could say was “hi, my name is Jonathan” Zac, always the schmoother, had a conversation.
There was a DJ there who played music and said that for $10 he would play any song, any song at all. People gave the donation, it was all going towards the fundraiser. There was 3 girls, I don’t know if they were drunk or just being silly, but payed $35 and sang along with a song, like a karioki without the words in front of them lol. It was so bad…it was funny.
In the corner near our table, they had the two most resent Red Sox World Series trophies on display. So we went over and got pictures in front of it. That was pretty cool.
However, the most awesomist part of the evening…
Near the beginning of the night, when there wasn’t many people there, Zac had saw the door that leads out to the chairs. He went over and tried to open the door and it opened. We went out side and walked down to the front row, high above fenway park. There was no one in the stands and there was no advertizments on any of the walls. It was perfect and as Zac said “I could stand here forever” He took a picture of me, facing away from the stands, looking up at him as he took the pic from a few rows up and the field-stands-boston skyline in the background. It was… PERFECT.
(It will be my FB pic by Monday afternoon)
We stayed outside for about 10 minutes. It was nice.
We went in.
They set up a buffet in the hallway. It was Passover so I had brought some mom made muffens that I had in my jacket pocket. They did have a salad so I had two helpings of salad. Zac isn’t so observant of Passover. He had chicken and a hotdog but no bun or bread. It was a very nice buffet though… Grilled chicken, pull pork, hotdogs, salad, coldslaw and some other side dishes.
Next up was “warming up with Jackie Mac”
The hoste of the evening introduced Jackie, her background and her connection to HD.
They then had a power point presentation of pictures of sports people. She would give a comment about them as they went through the pictures. …I’ll come back to this in a moment.
There was a 10 minute break. Then they had the oction where they had two different trips, one to fl and one to Cali. I don’t recall the 3rd item but the forth one… I would love to have and by the prices people were paying for the silent oction items, I thought we would have a chance. There was 2 tickets in the EMC club, plus dinner plus two red sox jackets. However, it went for like 700 dollars.
Larry Bird: I went to his 200 acher property. Larry likes to ride 4-wheelers and he took me for a ride. After a while of riding I asked him where are you taking me? He said you will see. A little more while of riding around in this forest I ask him again, where are you taking me? He said not to worry, we are almost there. Then we came to a clearing and there was a saloon. Larry Bird had his own saloon on his own property. We go in and he asks me if I would like a beer? I said “fuck no, I want something better”
Shaq o’niell: It was 2000 when he was playing for the Lakers. It was December as just likehe always does, he shows up in Comptin, a very poor and bad part of L.A. at a homeless shelter dressed as Shaq-aclaws. He asks the kids one by one what they want for Christmas. One girl says a pink bike. A boy says, he wants a boombox cause his mother doesn’t want him to have one but what would she say if Shaw aclaws gets me it? She would have to be ok with it. Then there was a boy who was standing in the corner by himself. Shaq says to the boy “hey, what can Shawaclaws get for you?” the boy says “what I want you cant get me” Shaq says try me. The boy says no, you just cant get me what I want. you don’t understand. I don’t know who my father is and I have a lot of brothers and sisters and my mom brought us here because we cant afford anything. So you cant get what I want. Shaq says come on buddy, just tell me? The boy says “I want to get out of here. I want to go somewhere that has snow.” Shaq thought about this on his way home and Christmas day, Shaq, along with 5 dump trucks filled with snow, went to the housing place and dumpt all the snow on the propity and had a snow ball fight with the boy.
Denis rodnim: Denis wasn’t always this whild and crazy guy. He was a very misunderstood kid. Before he had all these tattoos and piercings, he was just a young kid. I remember the 1990 all star game and I was standing in the hall with him as they are announcing the players. They called his name and everyone booed him. He turned to me with a sad face and said “why do people hate me?” I told him that people don’t hate him, they just hate the team. Go out there and play your game and keep your head up.”
Bobby Valentine: I had never met him In my 30 years covering sports. So last year on opening day I was standing with a few of my colleagues on the field and Bobby comes over. I introduce my self and we chat for a few minutes. He says “you will have to excuse me, I have a team meeting before the game” A few minutes later, I saw Dustin Pedroia signing autograph so I went over to him. I said how was the team meeting? He said I don’t know about any meeting?
Bill Russle: I went to an event when my daughter was young. She’s a bit shy, a bit awkward and sat by herself. Bill Russel came over to her and said hi. Russle is a bit awkward and shy himself so he struck up a conversation with my daughter. My daughter thought it was awesome. A few months later, I was at a function with the hockey coach of BU and he’s a huge Celtic’s fan. Bill Russle was there at a different table. He said that he wanted to meet Bill but he was nurvis. I told him to go and say hi. My Daughter leans over and said “he’s a nice guy once you get to know him”
Kevin McCale: He’s not coming back to Boston. As many of you probably know, he lost his daughter last year to Lupis. She was only 22 years old. He’s still taking it difficult. Besides, I think he’s doing a good job with Houston. He has them over achieving. When the new ownership for the Celtics came in, It was McKale who they called to see if he wanted to be the GM and he turned it down and the next person on their list was Ange.
Red Auerbach: I was a few years out of college and working for the Boston Globe. I was sitting in the front row before the game when Red came down the isle and sat down next to me. I was so Nurvis. He said “hi” to me and I said “yes”… He asked me if I wanted an icecrea. I was thinking, I’m trying to cover this game, I cant eat an ice cream but how do you say no to Red? So I let him buy me an ice cream. After half time, and the cheerleaders came off the court and the players were coming back out to warm up, Red said “how do you think they were?” I said that I thought the Celtics were doing well. He said, no, I mean the cheerleaders. Arent you the cheerleader’s coach?
Hockey realinement: I don’t see how they are going to do it. I cant imagine them expending the lead by two more teams. The team is already watered down. I don’t think the Comish of the NHL cares about hockey. Few people know that before he was the comish of hockey, he worked under the comish of the NBA. I think he was a basketball fan but doesn’t have the passion as he should for the game of hockey.
Football locker room: I was in the Philladulphia locker room and one of the players came up to me and said that he didn’t want me in there. I explained that I understand but I’m just doing my job, I’m a reporter. He said that he didn’t care, he didn’t want me in the locker room. He said that a football locker room is no place for a lady. I said ok and…and this is what I love about my profession, all my colleagues got up with me and left.
When it was all over, we got our jackets on and I said to Zac “do you want to try to get a picture with Jackie?” he said sure. So we walked through the croud to the area where Jackie was and we got a picture with her. That was pretty cool.
A phone call with Karen on Wednesday night. This is for me, as a keepsake.
somehow we got to talking about how people think she looks and sounds like her mom. I said that she sounds nothing like her mom. her mom has a different accent to start with (I continued) ...but I only talked to your mom for 20 seconds, 30 tops. she goes "maybe you'll get to talk to her this weekend" *grin*
I always think it's a good thing for me, when someone (Karen) wants someone they care-love (me) to talk to their mother
lol she talked for most of 40 mins and then she said she was going to sleep, I laughed and she goes whaaaaaat? I said you talked for most of that conversation. I didnt tell you about my day. she goes (and she has a zillion
times) I told you to tell me to shut up when I'm talking too much. (and my response as always) but I would miss something you would want to tell me.
she goes, ok, it's your turn to talk. I said, nope, you want to go to sleep, good night. she goes, no, I want to hear about your day and I'm not going till you tell me. so I told her about my day and then we said our good nights
I got a lot of sleep so had to rush a bit because i worked today, so folded laundry, two loads and had lunch, took a shower etc went to work, told her about my work day, came home, had dinner, listened to a basketball game and then "waited till you called me" to which I got an "awww" from her
The only contact she gave me since Thursday night on her way home from work was that she responded when I texted her to find out if she made it “home” (she was going home for the holiday weekend) and she replied “yes I am”
I was hoping she would call me to let me “ride” with her on her way home. It was a 90 min drive but she never called me. I texted her “happy easter” Sunday late morning, and she never responded to that either… *sigh*
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