SteadyFreddie

Brush with fame

The most famous athlete from my high school is Eric Wedge.  He is now the manager of the Cleveland Indians.  I played baseball and I was a catcher 5 years after Wedge was there.  Some pretty big shoes to fill. 

Brush with fame

Cool blog Steady. Every year in April I head to Edison, New Jersey to the Triumph Football Spectacular. I have gone every year since '04 and have met many players. Here are some-  Junior Seau, Antonio Gates, Shawne Merriman, Michael Irvin, Barry Sanders, John Elway, Dan Marino, Earl Campbell, Chad Johnson, Peyton Manning and Jerry Rice.  The first 4 players I mentioned, I got autographs and pictures with. Irvin wasn't too happy about the fact I had a Boston College jersey on seeing the Eagles and Flutie were the ones who beat his hurricanes. (I swear, I didn't plan it!) Merriman was chillin' in the lobby playing a Playstation in the hotel we stayed at. Most of the people bailed on him when Peyton came strolling out of the elevator into a waiting limo. Coolest player I ever met? Jay Novacek. Me and a buddy had a 15 minute conversation with this guy and he even let me hold his Superbowl ring. The dude basically invited us up to his Ranch in Wyoming to ride horses. Class act, down to earth guy. Biggest dik?  Dan Marino. He turned a 10 year-old kid away for a picture......and the kid was wearing his jersey!! "No pictures today.......beat it." he said. My buddy and I just looked at each other in amazement. Antonio Gates was a very polite, easy going guy as well. He stayed 2 hours longer than he was contracted to in order to get pictures with every kid in his line. Other notable pekkerheads=  Chad Johnson (there's a surprise), Nolan Ryan, Barry Sanders, Michael Clayton and Terrance Newman.

Brush with fame

There were really no notable athletes who came from my school.  There was a kid named Craig Simpson who played college football at Kansas State and had the pleasure of getting run over by Barry Sanders when they played Oklahoma State.  Relief pitcher for the Devil Rays-Dan Wheeler- played for the school in the next town over. (Toll Gate, R.I)

Brush with fame

Supercharger: Jay Novacek's neices played sports at my high school, though they are considerably younger. There are twin sisters who are sophomores in college right now. One (Joyce) plays basketball at Bucknell and the other (Becky) plays volleyball at, I think, Dayton.

Brush with fame

I met the original "See Dick run". I was was working in a movie theater in the late 80's in Indy and ran into Eric Dickerson with a smoking hot blonde. He was pretty cool and took the time to chat it up and take some pictures. Would have love to have known who the blond was. She was a 13 out of 10. WOW!

Brush with fame

I went to High School with Larry Johnson. Had a couple classes with him. Back then he wasn't too bad a guy. He had an attitude but I never thought he would turn out like he did.
Living in State College all my life I have had lots of run in's with PSU football players. My two favorite are 1 time Paul Posluznuzy and his lady friend followed me around Walmart and bought almost everything I did exactly too a T. Ok maybe it wasn't everything, but we got alot of the same things and I was getting them first. Kind of ironic, I just think it was funny.
Another time Lavar Arrington bought me a soda while I was mowing his grass at his apartment complex. It was like a 100 degrees and I think he actually felt bad for me. I think I was 15 and he was a god so the fact that he seeked me out and bought me a mt. dew gave me something to talk about. Great idea for a blog!

Brush with fame

RoarLions: I saw LaVar Arrington run a track meet in high school. This kid didn't need shoulder pads. I'm convinced that he wasn't born; he was chiseled.

And in case missed it in the little blog explainer box, Posluszny went to my high school. I had a chance to talk to him once. Nice kid.

Brush with fame

Both are physical specimens but I think Paul is the one who actually amazed me the most. The dude was like twice the size I actually thought he was. I don't know why, but he looked to be the biggest 240 I have ever seen.

Brush with fame

One other "brush" that just occurred to me: I met golf legend Gary Player when he came to western Pennsylvania for the grand opening of a golf course he designed. I walked up the fairway next to him, and we chatted like old friends. He was a genuinely nice man.

Brush with fame

A brush with fame...hmm, met OJ Mayo in a rally at USC, he now plays in the NBA. I also rubbed shoulders with Maria Sharapova at a charity event and got her autograph, she is sooo tall and such a nice person.