This Day in My History (November 11, 2003)

First a little bit of background.

1.) Veterans Stadium, home of the Phillies and Eagles for 30+ years, closed forever in 2003, and was imploded about 7 months ago. Since it was closing down, the Phillies decided to make money by selling pairs of seats that the fans could order during the final year and pick them up when the season was over. I ordered a pair of these seats and I am cuttrnylu lookinf at therm while tuping thus.

2.) Larry “LA” Andersen is the current color broadcaster for the Phillies, and was an above average relief pitcher in the Majors from the late 70s to the early 90s with teams like the Phillies, Astros, and Red Sox among others. He will go down in baseball history as the man who the Red Sox traded future Hall of Famer, Jeff Bagwell for many years ago for a playoff run that ultimately failed for them in more than one way. Larry was also on my favorite team of all time (1993 Phillies) and I enjoy his current work.

LA in his playing days with the Astros:



On November 11, 2003 I headed down to the Vet to pick up my seats. The line of cars waiting for the seats in the parking lot wasn't as bad as I thought and I was in and out of there pretty quickly with my dirty, clunky Vet seats. It was a cloudy day, with the possibility of rain if I remember it correctly, but I was feeling good because I was now in possession of a piece of Philadelphia sports history. I pulled up to my house and parked the car across the street because there was some large black SUV that I had never seen before parked in front of my house. Since it was the middle of the day I wasn't that upset about it because most of my block was empty so there were a lot of parking options. So I figured that I would just go inside and have lunch and later on figure out how to carry the two connected seats which weighed about a ton collectively into my house. As I was crossing the street though, I noticed a tall bald man walking out of my now former neighbor's house. This man was Larry Andersen. Now it's not like I've never seen a famous person (strike that, semi-famous-to-certain-people person) before, I had just never seen one in front of my house. So, like the retard that I am, I screamed out:

Me: "Hey! (long pause) Larry Andersen!"

This caught him off guard (or at least I like to tell myself that it did) and stopped him in his tracks for what would definitely be an awkward conversation. My conversation skills are much better as the third-man, not so much the one on one, so I knew that this could potentially be dangerous but I had already called out his name like a mentally challenged stalker. Here's what followed, to the best I can remember:

Me: Hi, it's nice to meet you.
LA: You too.
Me: So, ah, I went and got my Vet seats today.
LA: Oh, really? I got mine last Saturday. We got to gets ours early.
Me: Ah I see. So you didn't have to wait in any lines like the rest of us.
LA: Yeah, it's one of the perks.
Me: Wow, nice.
LA: Yep.
Me (now realizing that I had nothing more to talk about): Well I gotta bring mine in, but first I'm gonna have lunch.
LA: I hear they're pretty heavy so good luck. Enjoy your lunch.
Me: Ha ha, I will. It was nice meeting you . . . I'm a big fan.
LA (confused): You too. Goodbye.
Me: Bye.

When I got in my house, I looked out the window to make sure that he had driven away, which he had. I was now free to laugh for the next five minutes, which I did. What an awkward conversation. Not only did I fail to mention my name or ask him why he was visiting my neighbor, but I somehow managed to get Larry Andersen to admit that he was a big fan of mine. It was unintentional, of course, but that's how it came out. Looking back, what I should have said was, "I'm a big fan . . . it was nice to meet you," but that's not what happened. Larry Andersen is a big fan of mine thanks to a technicality. Beat that, Jesus.

TO CLEAR THINGS UP: My former neighbor was a seamstress and was a friend of LA's wife so he was there to discuss curtains or dresses or whatever at least that's what I'm told.