sense of humor and was trying to break into the show on a team loaded with veterans like Cal Ripken, Rick Sutcliffe, etc.
Pennington’s control issues were legendary – then and now.
At this time in my life, I had long hair. No, I had very long hair. Pennington always gave me a hard time about my pony tail and because I had broken up with the girl who encouraged me to grow it, I made a bet with him on the radio – my pony tail vs. his goatee.
On a hot spring night in Texas, he took the mound and proceeded to walk the first batter.
I won the bet but we still found a way to shave his goatee and cut my beard at Hooters at Harborplace (one of my original early sponsors) for donation for the Ed Block Courage Awards Foundation.
Pennington is best remembered for his prodigious home run and head jerk to Ken Griffey Jr. on a Sunday afternoon at Camden Yards. His career lasted parts of five seasons in the big leagues.
I hadn’t seen – or heard anything about – Brad Pennington since 1998. One night during the winter he showed up with a similar friend on Facebook. I hit him. He hit me back. I found some old Van Halen pictures from a night we spent with Mike Mussina at Merriweather meeting Sammy, Eddie, Alex and Michael from the glory era in 1994.
And, suddenly, we were planning to rendezvous in Miami for the Marlins game on Day 11.
Some of our best pals live in South Florida so that night – despite the ridiculously awful stadium in Miami – was one earmarked for a lot of fun. We hit the Clevelander nightclub in left field and drank beer. I even dove into the pool.
But the story gets better.
No, even better than this…
Back in February, my wife saw a story on morning television about a college baseball player in South Carolina who sacrificed his senior season to donate bone marrow to save the life of a 5-year old child in France.
His name is Jason Boulais, a pitcher from University of South Carolina at Beaufort, and after I had him on my show to discuss his donor status and his story in April, we told him that we were doing the tour. He came down from Cocoa Beach with two pals and joined Pennington and our group for the fun at the Clevelander.
The friends who were with Boulais were not on the registry. Jenn changed that after the game.
These guys then missed the last train back to Fort Lauderdale from Miami so we ran over to the station and drove them 40 minutes north to their car. It turned out to be right across the street from our hotel.
The serendipity of baseball. It brings people together. And as I told Jenn, this would give us a great excuse to meet new people, get to know people we already know better and add some memories to our lives.
The world needs more people like Jason Boulais and less like the Washington Nationals.
* * *
THE FIRST TIME I EVER saw Adam Schefter was on ESPN on Sunday mornings as a fill-in panelist on “The Sports Reporters” with Dick Schaap, who I’ve admitted is an inspiration because he “collected people.”
I’ve gotten to know Schefter a little over the years through my media dealings and we’ve always had pleasant interactions. He’s been a guest on the show many times. We’ve had an occasional hello at parties at Super Bowls or media events around the country. He also knows Jenn from our travels and reached to me late last year when he heard about the baseball tour.
Schefter told me at the Super Bowl that he was
