Both of my kids are students at Oregon State, and my daughter Pam, a sophomore who’ll turn 20 in a few weeks, is fond of telling me whenever she encounters any prominent Beaver athlete in one of her classes or anywhere else on campus.
She’s just a big OSU fan and not, like, a groupie, in case you were wondering.
Anyway, after her latest athlete sighting a couple days ago, I asked her if I’d ever told her I ran into former Beaver kicker Alexis Serna at the grocery store one day a year or two ago. She was unsure, so I gave her the story, such as it is:
“I came out of one of the aisles and he was there, pretty much right in front of me, and he was basically looking right at me. I thought it was him, so I said ‘Alexis Serna?’ He said yes, so I held out my hand, and we shook hands, and I told him, ‘Great career. Thanks for all the good work.’ He thanked me for saying that.”
“That’s nice,” Pam said.
“And then a few weeks ago I ran into Chris Stephens in the locker room at Timberhill,” I said, referring to the former Beaver basketball player and the gym where I play handball.
“It was the same kind of deal. I came out of the sauna, he was sitting on a bench and basically looking right at me. So I said, ‘Chris Stephens, isn’t it?’ He smiled and said, ‘Yeah.’ So we shook hands and I said, ‘I really enjoyed watching you play. Thanks for a great career.’ He smiled again and thanked me.’”
“Wait,” Pam said. “You just came out of the sauna? You shook hands with him while you were naked?”
I had to think for a second what my clothing situation, or lack thereof, was at that moment. While thinking, I reminded Pam, “It’s a locker room. Half the people in there are naked at any point in time.”
“I know,” she said. “But it just seems weird to be naked and shaking someone’s hand.”
Well, in this case I avoided coming across as a weirdo to Pam; I recalled that while I had been in the sauna, I was clad in handball togs at the time. I’d gone in there momentarily before playing just to help get the aging muscles loosened up on a cold day.
2 comments
dainsma says:
Apr 17, 2010
I have never really understood the appeal of autographs, I've never asked for one after my tweens, (I used to live in Scio so in order to combat boredom I used to write letters to people I thought were cool, like…Jim McMahon).
We spend so much time at the ballpark we inevitable see lots of players but I would never ask them for an autograph, it just seems a little weird.
My son always gets a few balls during batting practice but he isn't that interested in asking for autographs either. Sometimes it just happens. During Spring Training last year Bruce Boche tossed a ball to my son. When he came back to show us, Pablo Sandoval came over, reached out, and took his ball to sign it. It was so funny. Also, when we first moved to San Diego I developed a big crush on Trevor Hoffman and during one game he threw a ball to my husband, asked for it back, signed it, and threw it back to my hubby. It's kinda fun when it just happens.
BTW, I am on Trevor Hoffman watch, only 6 more saves until 600. It would be really cool if he could get it while in San Diego at the end of the month. I miss all the pageantry that came with "Trevor Time" and he would get a huge reception here. We attended his 550th save two years ago and it was really fun.
Lundy: Autographs? Why? « Steve Lundeberg says:
Apr 19, 2010
[...] A couple days ago, I wrote about encountering well-known people. [...]