Love him or hate him you have to realize the impact the George Steinbrenner had on baseball and other sports. He created a business model that some teams have tried and failed at recreating.

Hopefully even those who aren’t Yankees fans understand what he’s done for Baseball.

Pittsburgh 2006

Do you ever end up in a spot for a brief period of time that just seemed surreal. That’s what happened in Pittsburgh. There was a lot of luck involved here when it came to meeting celebrities. Usually they are only around on Sunday for the celebrity softball game on Sunday but low and behold they were there on Monday too and much more accessible. I got to briefly talk to Dean Cain and meet the very very lovely Alyssa Milano (for the first time) but nothing could compare with meeting Rob Reiner.

I met him the night before during the celebrity game and he happened to be hanging out on Monday during batting practice. I aksed him about his Rock and Roll upbringing, this guy hung out with Janis Joplin back in the day and was a big part of the San Fransisco music scene, you can only imagine what he saw. I realized after being in all of talking with him I totally forgot to bring up the Spinal Tap movie he was a part of.

This was the first year I brought my laptop with me which made sending audio back to the radio station much easier. The previous year in Detroit I used my parents dialup to send audio files. I fell asleep while trying to send email that year.

If you don’t know the name I’d suggest you watch the movie American Splendor. Harvey was a comic book writer but had quite the view on life. He also had some very interesting moment on The Late Show With David Letterman during Dave’s NBC years. Harvey passed away over the weekend at the age of 70. No matter what you read in the obits about him you will get to know him better by watching American Splendor.

Detroit 2005

Having grown up near Detroit I was really excited that my first All-Star Game I would attend would be in Detroit. It was a life long dream that came true. The Home Run Derby the day before the All-Star Game was quite the event. While Comerican Park is known as a pitchers park, Bobby Abreu set a record for most home runs hit in a single round which was well over 20. The ball from the home run that broke the record ended up going off of the guy’s face next to me in the stands. Neither one of us ended up with the ball and he had to get some ice for his face.

Detroit always get a bad rep for well being Detroit. Some parts are run down and out right dangerous. Thanks to the route of the media bus we get to see some of the run down part up close as we went through some rough look neighborhoods. Sadly I know that because of this whatever reporters took those buses probably didn’t write the best things about the city. For me I saw something different, for the first time since I can remember, downtown Detroit came to life. Some much life around the ballpark and surrounding areas. Casinos were busy until the wee hours of the night and  restaurants were packed. I know some of that life was from the fact that the All-Star game was in town, but I have to say the city did a great job that year.

This year for the first time since 2004 I’m not traveling to the city hosting the All-Star Game. Seems a bit odd to be at home instead of the host city. The Sunday’s before the All-Star game usually involved watching the Futures Game and trying to get some Celebrity audio before their softball game.  I’ve been lucky to attend four out of the last five All-Star Games, talked to a lot of ball players and met a lot of celebrities. I can honestly say my approach was probably different than most reporters because I was always trying to get some good audio for the morning show or this blog. 

This week I will share some random All-Star Memories.