SOL9: Baseball Celebrity Sighting

               Every March I meet with a group of Mets fans to talk over the previous season, guess how many (or few) games the Mets will win this season, and play a sometimes easy, sometimes fiendish game of baseball trivia.  We often meet at a microbrewery as two of our members are beer aficionados or at a sports bar.

               Today, it was at BV’s, in Stamford, owned by Bobby Valentine, a former player and a manager of the Mets for seven years, including their 2000 subway World Series with the Yankees. The eight of us were in the middle of our trivia game, in a Jeopardy-format with an overall theme of Horseshoes and Hand Grenades (I think the only answer I got right was a manager who managed two New York teams, one with World Series in the ‘50s and one with losing seasons in the ‘60s—Casey Stengel) when who should appear at the end of our table but the owner himself. 

               It took me maybe five seconds to realize this was Bobby V himself. He regaled us with stories for more than an hour—he might still be there, but I had to leave to come back to the city to meet friends.

              Here’s one of his stories.  When he heard we were playing trivia, he reported having been at a recent event with Joe Torre, who was managing the Yankees when Bobby V was managing the Mets in 2000. Some “civilian” came up to them and said, “I’ll give you $5,000 if you can tell me who was in the starting Mets lineup in right field in the fifth game of the 2000 World Series.” Even Bobby V couldn’t remember in that moment what player that was. As he told the story, we all began guessing: Benny Agbayani (from Hawaii, and one of 10 known MLB players of Filipino background)? No, he played left field. Timo Perez? No, he was hurt. Mike Kinkade? No, he was hurt, too. The answer: Bubba Trammell, who no one could remember because he was only with the Mets for four months.

               There were many more stories, and it was clear that Bobby V hung out at his own bar so he could find new audiences for the stories of his baseball career.

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I’m participating in the 12th annual Slice of Life Challenge over at Two Writing Teachers. This is day 1 of the 31-day challenge.  It’s not too late to make space for daily writing in a community that is encouraging, enthusiastic, and eager to read what you have to slice about.  Join in!