Friends and a Baseball Game

Ben:

I met your dad for the first time in college in Houston, TX, although ironically it turned out we lived and went to high school just a few miles apart in Maryland. I have many stories I can share about getting to know and becoming and being friends with your father, but I picked this one to start.

In 1992, I traveled to Houston and planned to be there for a few weeks. Of course your dad offered me a place to stay at his apartment and I was happy to take him up on the offer. He had recently graduated from Rice, and I had gradutated a few years before him. He was working for a small local newspaper, I think wearing several hats, one of which was sports editor. He attended Houston Astros home games that season and watched from the press box and preparing his game stories. He also tried to get some photographs during the course of each game from the photo wells at the edge of the field.

One of the first things he said to me on my arrival was “you need to see an Astros baseball game from the press box.” I think I concurred loudly before he even finished the sentence. He handed me the camera and a press pass and said “You are the photographer. The game is tonight.” We headed off to the Astrodome, which sadly no longer exists in Houston, for a game between the Astros and Expos (also no longer in existence, but later did become my local team, the Washington Nationals). We arrived for batting practice on the field. Greg and talked about anything and everything and snapped pictures of the players.

As batting practice was wrapping up, I asked Greg about interviewing the players and he let me know that he did interviews in the locker room after each game. He noted that as a protocol players did not generally talk to the press before the game, but when we saw Gary Carter, future Hall of Fame catcher, in one of the dugouts by himself, we convinced each other that I should see if he would talk to me. I nervously approached him while trying to think of some questions to ask as I walked. He could not have been nicer as I asked him a couple of silly softball questions and the interview was completed quickly.

We headed to the press box, which for me was such a great once-in-lifetime experience. We watched and talked and I met some of the other members of the press. Midway through the game, Greg suggested that I take some photos from the field level. I went to the first-base side camera well and started snapping photos. It took me some practice to get the hang of timing the swings of the batters, but I started to get better the more I tried. Sure enough, I was able to time one swing that ended up being a Jeff Bagwell homerun. Sadly, the quality was not newspaper-worthy, but it almost made it into the paper according your dad, who reviewed the photos for the sports section of the paper.

What an incredible and memorable night it was for me. And all because your father was thoughtful enough and creative enough and rebellious enough to come up with the idea and pull it off. This is how your dad operated all the time as far as I could tell. Just a good person doing good things for his friends. If more people lived life the way your father did, with such humor and good-naturedness, the world would be a better place. I am proud to call your dad a friend of mine, just as you should be proud of what a great person he was to so many around him.

Sincerely,
Mark