Jennifer is going through the process of taking all of our vacation pictures off the camera. I had to share one of the pictures with you.
I know it’s easy to claim small world and all of us have amazing stories of coincidental meetings. I have to say this one was hard for me to believe.
First, my trip to New York was great. I had never been to Manhattan before. Most of you know what a nut I am for history so having a beer at Fraunces Tavern was just wonderful. I’m also deeply inspired by the stories of my past, the Franz’s and Moeller’s that came to this country, that led to my being an American in the first place so, the Statue of Liberty was a must see for me.
If you didn’t know, we went to NY for two reasons. The main reason was the chance of a lifetime for Jennifer. My wife sang at Carnegie Hall. As you can imagine, being married to a talk-show host, she’s always just “Doug’s wife.” She’s a very talented singer but never was able to develop her own career because she made the choice to marry me. The way my career started, there was no way that we could have stayed together while focusing equally on each career. It was a thrill for me to just sit back and be “Jennifer’s husband” while her patience and perseverance was rewarded.
The other reason we went is to see a game at Yankee Stadium. It was the 14th stadium I’ve ever been to see a game. Since this was the last year, I had to make a pilgrimage to see the park. I’m so glad I did. The tickets were expensive (over $400 for the four of us–section 257) but it was so worth it. To walk my family through the monuments and tell the girls the stories of Ruth, DiMaggio, and Gehrig was a great moment for a father. Although spending money and winning has a lot to do with the large fan base, it was easy to see why any kid falls in love with the Yankees.
Now, the small world shocker.
We were sitting in the second row from the walkway that separates the really expensive lower bowl seats and the expensive lower bowl seats. There was a woman sitting next to me wearing a white sweater. We were both keeping score and we struck up a conversation from time-to-time during the game. A few innings into the game, I noticed she had a D-Backs T-shirt on underneath the sweater. When I asked her about it she said she was from Tucson and a big D-Backs fan. Later she asked me what I did for a living. This became important when we met the guys sitting in front of her.
There was a group of eight guys sitting in front of her family and one of the guys was wearing a Suns hat. We asked the guys where they were from and they started rattling off Phoenix suburbs. She asked the guys if they knew who I was. Before I let her tell them, I asked them who their favorite talk show host in Phoenix was. Most of the guys said Dave Burns (keep in mind my trip occurred before the Burns Post photo shoot). When she told them who I was, the guys couldn’t believe it. I still can’t believe in a stadium that holds well over 50K people, 16 people from Phoenix/Tuscon would all be sitting next to each other, let alone attending the same game.
Jennifer had all of us pose for a picture. Four of the guys were off getting beer. Tenaya is the woman I met. She’s above the bald head. I’m in the back right holding my daughters.
As we left, we were walking out of the stadium (we were actually in the tunnel that every stadium has 30 of that leads under the seats to the concession stands but I don’t know what you call that tunnel) and this man thanked his daughter for the tickets.
He was so proud that he turned to Jennifer and said, “My daughter took me to my first game at Yankee Stadium for father’s day.” She asked the guy where he was from. He said, “Glendale, Arizona. That’s where the Cardinals play and they have the Fiesta Bowl.”
Greg Schulte, Voice of the Dbacks [8:05m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
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