of our friends in each city hit us months in advance to volunteer. Part of what I wrote about in my 2006 book is about how baseball brings people together.
I also wrote that virtually all of my friends in the world from the first 40 years on the planet could be traced back to baseball.
I “collected” more really cool people this summer.
* * *
AT THE END OF A PLEASANT 10-minute conversation, he began to give me his email address. I already had his cell phone number because we had texted back and forth a few times before we connected.
“It’s Pastorini…that P-A-S-T-O-R-I….” and then I had to interrupt him.
“Dan,” I said. “I know how to spell your name. For crissakes, you were my favorite football player on earth from the time I was six until I was 13!”
And so I got the first of many laughs during our time together.
Anyone who knew me before 1995 knows just how big of a Houston Oilers fan I was as a kid, adolescent and young adult. They were beyond an obsession in my life.
I suppose many things I’ve done in my life appeal to the “fan” in me. That was probably the charm that made me the most listened to sports radio host in the history of Baltimore over the past 25 years.
I interviewed Dan Pastorini one time – on Radio Row at the Houston Super Bowl in 2004. He was nice to me and I had fun chatting with him and took a picture. But it’d be a wide stretch to say that I “know” him. I didn’t. And he had no recollection of me nor should he.
The mere notion that he would serve as my “celebrity” in Houston was truly a thrill for the “fan” in me.
Over the winter, during my radio pursuits at the Super Bowl in Arizona, the NFL Combine in Indianapolis and the Owners Meetings in Phoenix, I chatted with my media friends from various MLB cities and many offered help. No one was kinder than John McClain of The Houston Chronicle. He is respectfully dubbed “The General” and that’s because he gets things done. He’s a bit of a Winston Wolf in the realm of Houston miracles.
Not only is McClain a good man; he’s a connected one, as well. He knew of my lifelong passion for the Houston Oilers and kept saying to me: “You want me to get Pastorini for you? I’ll get him out there to watch a baseball game with you. He’s a helluva guy!”
I must say that no one was kinder and more accommodating and awesome than the Houston Astros. Unlike in some other places where I had a contact on the inside, this was simply an organization that was helpful based on the spirit of what we were doing.
Everything with the Astros was buttoned up, professional, first class. They did everything they could to make me a fan of the Houston Astros.
Director of Brand Engagement Christie Feliz met us at the front gate and showed us our booth, which was perfectly located between three beer stands right near third base. My cousin, Luisa, and her partner Stacy, were my only swabbing help in Houston and I had to train them and get the booth ready solo because Jenn didn’t make the trip to Minute Maid Park.
Moments later Dan Pastorini threw me a text and there we were standing on the concourse of a baseball stadium talking about life and what brought us together.
I spent the next three hours laughing, meeting Houston sports fans (who all wanted to say hi to No. 7) and swabbing Texans. As Pastorini said to me on the way into the stadium: “Luv Ya Blue is forever, trust me! You’ll see!”
Dan Pastorini was my favorite player on my favorite team was I was eight years old. He’s lived his life in the fastest of the fast lanes. He even dated Farrah Fawcett in both of their primes. He raced cars. He lived hard. He wrote a book about his sobriety and his excess and his demons.
And, at 66, Dan Pastorini is one helluva good guy. I told him it was an honor to know him and I meant it.
The Astros were incredibly kind and made a fan for life in me. I’m a little bummed I didn’t get one of these shirts. Or at least a Jose Cruz starburst throwback.
I got to meet J.R. Richard. We swabbed a bunch of people – even Yankees fans. The Astros beat the Yankees behind an impressive effort by Dallas Keuchel.
The Astros also treated me like a respected media member.
Meet Brett Oberholtzer, a kid from Delaware, who is trying to get back to the big leagues now but has an incredible leukemia story in his family.
Houston was one of my favorite stops on the tour.
Plus, there was an Aparicio family reunion. That’s always nice!
* * *
WHEN YOU DREAM UP A CRAZY idea to go to 30 ballparks in 30 days, it’s easy to conjure up images of stadiums, hotels, the joys of travel and hot dogs and beer. But in the months leading up to the tour, it was the people I was rediscovering and the thoughts of seeing old friends on the road that get me really excited about hitting the road.
I started reaching out to our friends who lived in other places who loved baseball (or me) and would want to come and watch a game.
In 1994, Brad Pennington was a member of the Baltimore Orioles when I was a young man covering the team and doing my early days of radio at WITH-AM 1230 and WLG-AM 1360. A promising, 6-foot-7 lefthander who could crack three digits on the radar gun, he was also a jovial giant who had a
