Quote:
Originally Posted by jboosted92
wow....im sure a great story....
this generation (last 20 years) have no idea how good he was....
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The story goes like this:
Wayne was in town to see Boise play as they were looking to sign his son. Friend of mine points out Gretzky and he's just hanging out by the speed pitch contest thing. I approached and asked for a photo. He very graciously said yes and had his assistant take it. I thanked him, looked at the photo and it was great. I immediately called my wife, freaking out that I'd met one of my all-time idols - at a minor league baseball game! I hung up, went to look at the picture again and it was gone. This was before I had a smartphone and you had to manually save any photos and I had not done that. I was crushed.
A couple minutes later, I saw Wayne walking through the tunnel to the seats. I apologized and asked for another pic. He says "sorry, just one" then gave me a big grin and we took another. I thanked him, went off to my seat, and looked at the pic. It was all shadow, completely worthless.
I went to my seat and now I'm just kicking myself. I look over and Wayne is sitting maybe 2 boxes over from me. I asked the lady behind me if I should try one more and she says "why not? Worst he can do is say no". So I tried one last time. I apologized again, profusely and we took one more. That's the one you see in this thread.
Through it all, Wayne was very kind, even funny. He even took off his sunglasses for the photo, a nice touch. He was largely left alone. The Indians sent an usher down to ask if he wanted people kept away and he said no. He signed any and all autographs, watched the game, and drank a beer or two.
And then the Indians scored 6 in the bottom of the 9th to win 6-5.
For a kid who grew up in Hockeytown, idolizing Gretzky, that night could not have been any better.