Wookie of the Year

During the 1999 season Major League Baseball decided to have a promotion called "Turn Ahead The Clock"which was sponsored by Century 21.  

The Minnesota Twins participated during their game against the Seattle Mariners on July 24th. The Twins were planning futuristic costumes for the game. They invited fans to participate if they were so inclined.  We had our on-field announcer, one Jim Cunningham, wore a Star Trek shirt ala James T. Kirk. He looked dashing pretty cool, to say the least.  But what do I have to do with this story? Well...

The Twins had contacted a gentleman who owned one of the NINE original Chewbacca costumes from the first three Star Wars films (which we later learned were the last three Star Wars films).  The plan was for him to wear the costume during the game and walk through the concourses and mingle with the crowd.  But at the last minute, the owner had an obligation which would prevent him from wearing the costume on game night.  An e-mail was sent through the Twins front office letting us know that they needed a volunteer to wear said costume.  I fit the criteria: I was taller than 6 feet and I could fill the costume.  So I volunteered and I was just about set to make it happen.

Now, I was not well versed with Chewy, as I had not seen the films in which he appeared.  So my good friend and current Twins Vice-President Dave Horsman loaned me his VIDEO TAPES (google it, kids) so that I could take a crash course in Chewy's mannerisms and sounds.  I stayed up late and worked on the distinctive "speech" which Chewy uses to communicate.  

I made my way down to the ballpark and "suited-up".  Not many people knew who it was, but I would try to give hand clues for those in the front office, much like a roving game of Charades.  

I was in the dugout and on the field during the pre game festivities.  I was having a blast.  I roamed the concourses in the heavy costume on a night when the temperature at game time was 97 degrees.  While I didn't have to go outside for very long I still had to pass the gates when moving throughout the concourse.  I loved enjoying interacting with the kids and taking numerous photos during the game.  I actually met Tiger Woods during batting practice, while in costume, although I'm sure he's forgotten our meeting long since.  

During the game the Mariner left fielder, Butch Huskey, went back on a ball hit over his head by Jacque Jones.  He got to the warning track and then forgot what the track was warning him about.  He then proceeded to face plant himself and nearly knock himself out cold.  The next night someone ( I know not whom) made a chalk outline of Butch on the outfield wall with chalk.  It was fantastic! (Check it out on youtube).

The Twins won the game that night and I was on the field and in the celebratory line as the team came off the field.  The only time in my life when that has happened, but oh so cool to say the least.

After the team made their way up the stairs toward the clubhouse I stayed on the field and stood on home plate, clapping my hands over my head, with "Good Times" by Chic blaring on the stadium speakers.  Talk about a surreal moment.  

Fast forward about a week.  

I'm delivering some items to the ticket office on the afternoon and Mike Stiles says to me, "Nice picture in the Sporting News!"  I said, "What are you talking about?"  It turns out that he had a copy and showed me. Turns out that during the pre game I was sitting with pitcher Joe Mays and catcher Terry Steinbach just chatting about who knows what.  Anyhow, I never saw a photographer during those few minutes, but apparently there was one, who got the photo published in full color on page 3 of that week's Sporting News.  

After work I tried to buy as many copies as I could get my hands on.  I believe I ended up with nine.  

That's the photo which appears in the Facebook.

It was one of the most amazing events of my life.  And now you know something else about me that you never knew.  That is, if you care at all.  But since you took the time to read this whole thing, I'm guessing you did.

.........I'm just sayin'.

Addendum:  Fast forward 17 years later.  

I attend 2016 New York Mets Fantasy Camp in Port St. Lucie, Florida.  Prior to traveling to Florida I found out that one of the returning former Met players who would be attending would be one Butch Huskey, who appears in this blog posting.  

I had received a couple of the extra jerseys from the game that night which were blank without names and numbers on them.  I took one of them with me and presented it to Butch in the clubhouse as he had a locker stall almost directly behind my own.  He had not seen one of these jerseys in over a decade and I gave it to him along with a set of numbers and letters which he could have stitched on to make it appear like the one which he wore in the game that evening.  He informed me that teammates Jay Buhner and Ken Griffey, Jr. were responsible for the chalk outline on the outfield wall the next day.  

So now he has a jersey from that infamous event.  And now the circle to THAT story is indeed closed.

...............I'm just sayin'

Simon Says

Okay, this story has nothing really to do with the TSA, but it could if they decide that they decide that the current criteria aren't quite aggravating enough.

In the spring of 2007 I was working at the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport for AirTran Airways.  I was working at gate 10 of the Humphrey Terminal.  The flight I was working was a non-stop from Minneapolis to Orlando, Florida. The flight was going to be delayed a couple of hours because of severe weather in the Twin Cities.  

My co-worker on the flight was Christine Edwards. A great co-worker and someone who always was able to find something to laugh about on a very tough day at work.  We knew that we were not going to have an aircraft for at least two hours from the time we arrived at the gate, so we did some mild brainstorming as to how we were going to keep these people and their excited children entertained.  More accurately, how were we going to keep each other entertained.  

I had an idea which was only humorous only in my head.  We had a large expanse of carpeted area and I thought about these 30 or so kids playing "Red Light, Green Light".  But I quickly envisioned a 13-year old boy just obliterating the 6-year old girl who stopped short in front of him on the way to the front wall.  I also saw in my mind's eye a kid who looked like Goldberg from the first "Mighty Ducks" film just pancaking an unsuspecting Urkel-looking kid after not being able to stop his momentum as he ran toward the front wall.  

But Christine came up with the solution.

Simon Says.

It was a stroke of genius.  Truly, a stroke of genius.  

So I got on the p.a. and told the passengers in the gate area that we would be playing Simon Says in the large carpeted area. If they were okay with their kids playing, go ahead and send them over to us and the game would begin.

I've always enjoyed Simon Says, but as an adult you don't get to play it very often.  I recalled the Saturday afternoons when I was a teen watching The Superstars on ABC.  They had a segment on the show which involved a guy who did a great job of playing the game with these athletes.  

I looked in front of me and there were probably 20-22 kids, ranging from the ages of 6-15. I had a hard time starting from scratch, but quickly got into the flow of things, keeping things very simple for quite a while as to not discourage kids from playing and keeping them entertained as much as possible.

I weeded through the kids until I got down to the last three, all aged in their early teens.  They were tough and I knew that I would need to be sharp in order to dispatch them quickly and start another game shortly thereafter.  

I got down to the final two and I duped the younger boy and raised the hand of the winner.  I announced that we were going to play again, knowing that our inbound aircraft was still en route.  

Everyone who played the first game came back for the second and the second game didn't last ask ing as the first, although it was just as difficult to dispatch the last few as it had been in game one.

I raised the hand of the game two winner just as Christine yelled my name and said that our aircraft was "on the ground".  There was a round of applause when she made the announcement and I stepped over to the microphone and told all of the kids "thank you" for playing and asked their parents to "see if Northwest will do that for ya".  There was much laughter after the comment.

It was one of the most uncommon things I have done in my 15+ years in the industry, but I will always remember it.  One amazing fact is that the photo, which can be seen on my Facebook page, was taken by a frequent flyer who gave me a copy.  She just happened to be on that same flight that day. It further reminds me of my great experience. 

There are many days in my job which are better left unmentioned after they are over.  But every once in a while a gem shows up. Just enough to make one look forward to tomorrow.

I'm just sayin'.