Friday, July 6, 2007

Today I found 19 cents . . . 1 dime & 9 pennies.

The first seven cents (all pennies) were found at JR’s Car Wash, the car wash next to my apartment complex. I was off today and I stopped there on the way down to the ballpark. The lone dime of the day was found on the ground by a cash register at a Chevron gas station and the remaining two pennies were found at the Kwick Kar Wash, where I stopped on the way home from the ballpark.

Two good baseball stories that I share this evening, both themed around respect. The first one involves Julio Franco of the NY Mets. Mr. Franco was signing some autographs along the third base line this evening and everyone was calling him to sign. Franco signed about 20 autographs and stopped after signing for one child. He went back over to the kid and told him that of all the autographs that he had signed the kid was the only person to address him as “Mr. Franco” and he appreciated that. The kid was smiling from ear to ear, as were his parents. I was impressed that Mr. Franco took the time to point that out. It’s good information to have, and I look forward to having a kid one day, taking him to see Julio Franco play in about 20 years, and making sure that he asks for the autograph the right way!

The next story involves Mets closer Billy Wagner, who pitched for many years for the Astros. Billy came out this evening and I went over to chat with him, having gotten to know him a bit from his time in Houston. As he was leaving I asked him to sign a picture, which he graciously did. I told him that several years back I had gone to see a Phillies game in Philadelphia (where he was playing at the time) and all the autograph junkies there kept telling me how hard he was to get. This surprised me since Billy was always a great signer. I asked him about it and he told me, and I’m paraphrasing but not by much, that the fans were right. . . . he was hard to get in Philadelphia because the fans were a bunch of jerks and he didn’t like to sign for them.

Totals for the day: 19 cents
Race Totals: $574.54