General Forum

Oh, yeah, Indy Car driver Johnny Rutherford was a member of the church my family went to when I was a kid. Got a signed picture of him at some Wednesday night dinner.

Never met him, but my dad used to work with former Dallas Cowboy Eugene Lockhart's wife.

Saw Jake Arrieta about a month ago at the TCU Alumni game. He was watching with his family. The only time I ever ever been with five feet of a reigning CY Young winner.

That reminded me - I was working at Boy Scout camp in 1986, and Bart Oates was there for part of a week.  I taught him archery. Really nice guy.

vrooomed wrote: Oh, I just remembered a couple more. In my church in south Jersey, we had Brad & Bart Oates (Phila Stars FB), Wally Ritchie (Phillies), & Jimmy Superfly Snuka's family (although he wasn't a member, he'd show up once in a while) all attending. In fact, I'm friends with Jimmy junior (he's my age, we were pals back when we were about 12 or so) on facebook. (I guess I've had more encounters than I realized!)

OK...I went to school with JACK TATUM [mean dude], Taught in the town that MOOKIE WILSON lived, he did numerous local benefits. CLARK HARRIS [Bengals] and GLEN CARSON [Cardinals] graduated from our local HS, watched them play and wrestle [Glen] many times.

Okay, here is my first two cents.   I umpired high school ball in the Trenton NJ area for around 20 years.   Some of the kids who were in games I worked and later made it to the majors or AAA were Jerry Davis (Padres),   Bill Schroeder (Brewers) and John Skorochocki (Brewers AAA).   John had the unfortunate timing of coming up as a SS at the time the Brewers had Robin Yount at SS.       Also worked games where Jim Sweeney, of the Boston College basketball scandal, played.     Sweeney and Skorochocki I already knew from my neighborhood.   I am sure there are others whom I have forgotten.

 Another 2 cents.   I worked in Trenton NJ for a number of years.   Being the state capital, there were always politicians around especially during an election year.    There I ran into and said "Hello" to Richard Nixon, Senator Eugene McCarthy, Jerry Brown and Senator Bill Bradley.    Only asked one for an autograph.    Yup, wasn't too hard to figure out.   Mr Bradley.

Ran into Jerry Olsavsky at a bar while at school (Pitt) along with Reuben Brown (huge).  Curtis Martin and Dietrich Jells lived a floor below me in my dorm. Waited after a Pitt game in 95 to meet Ray Lewis, planned, but still cool.

Add Frank "The Tank" Molinaro" to my list,

Frank wrestled youth wrestling with my son, both wrestled varsity for the local HS. Frank went on to win the States

YESTERDAY, he just qualified to wrestle @ 143 lbs in the Olympics. Great Job Frank.

I new him as a peewee wrestley when I became acquainted with  his parents.

In the racing world I have had the privilage of meeting five NASCAR drivers and 3 Indy Car drivers at various places and events. Indy drivers were Danny Sullivan,Bobby Unser and Al Unser.Nascar drivers were Cale Yarbourgh,Ryan Newman,Trevor Bayne,David Gilliland and Brandon Gaughan.

Unfortunately, can't say as I have ever met a player outside of an autograph session. I did have Major league Umpire Tim Welke on my mail route in Michigan. I had a package to deliver to him one day and he was outside washing his car. He was very polite, told me he was on his rotated shift off.

I went to a Pirate Game at Three Rivers in the mid '90's. It was a hot July day and we had pretty good seats behind the first base bag. I noticed a pretty good crowd gathered around a guy sitting in the next section over. I didn't recognize him, other that he was a dark haired, athletic looking guy with his shirt off. A big line was forming, and the guy was signing autographs. Not being a hockey fan, I asked someone what the commotion was, and they sai it was Kevin Stevens of the Penguins.