Note: The first annual Nomar Bowl took place on June 26 at the Town Line Ten Pin in Malden, MA. It was a charity event to benefit the Nomar5 Fund, Boston Housing Authority Youth Centers Program and the Massachusetts Sports Partnership. In the words of Nomar5.com "during this star-studded extravaganza, celebrities from the entertainment, athletic and corporate communities joined forces to fill 42 lanes of a Boston alley for an unprecedented evening of bowling!"
When I first heard about Nomar Bowl many weeks ago, I was very excited and made sure to keep the 26 open. I wasn't sure if the event was open to the public and pretty much forgot about it until Friday the 23 when Nomar was on WEEI talking about his charity event. He said it started at 5:30, but people would start arriving at about 4:30 and he would love for the public to come and watch the festivities outside. I immediately called my friend Lisa and made plans to go down to Malden to see Nomar and various other celebs get ready to bowl.
At 3 o'clock Monday afternoon, Lisa and I arrived at the Town Line Ten Pin armed with a chair, umbrella, Nomar Summer Sipper, dry erase board, cameras, and various Nomar memorabilia and signs. There were already a couple people lined up but we were able to set up camp right at the front, across from the entrance to the bowling alley.
The next hour wasn't too fun. We soon realized we couldn't get into the bowling alley with out passes and were left sitting out in the hot sun with nothing to do.
At about 4, KISS 108 set up outside and was tossing stuff into the crowd. There were much more people by this time, but they were mostly there to try to score the N'Sync backstage passes KISS was giving out. (Later, when they were giving away the tickets, they went up to different sections of fans, asked a question and who ever got the question correct would go on to the next round. When they got to my section, the question was "Where was Nomar Garciaparra born?" I screamed "Whittier, Ca! Whittier, Ca!" and they pointed to me. It was so funny! I made it to round 2 of winning N'Sync tickets and I don't even care about them! I was standing up there with about 15 shaking crying N'Sync girls and I was just like "Can I meet Nomar? Can you give me a pass so I can watch him bowl?" Well, I didn't win the tickets and they didn't give me a pass, but anyway, back to Nomar Bowl!)
Nomar was the first celeb to arrive, just before 5. He got out of his limo and ran down the line of fans touching everyone's hands. Then he got a microphone and started talking but we couldn't hear him because everyone was screaming too loud. Then he started throwing Nomar beanie babies to the crowd. Lisa caught one. She is convinced it was because she had a sign that said "It's My Birthday!" (it really wasn't her birthday). Then Nomar started talking to Billy Costas of KISS 108, I don't really remember what he was saying. Something about tugging on his pants? I don't know. All I know is that he looked goooooooooooooood!
The next people to arrive was Mia Hamm, Brandi Chastain and others from the Women's US Soccer Team. They ran down the line slapping peoples' hands, too. I didn't really care about them, I was just watching Nomar talk to reporters. Unfortunately, Nomar went into the bowling alley soon after and we were left outside.
After that, Trot Nixon and Jason Varitek came with their families. They did the hand thing with the crowd, too. (Let me tell you one thing before I go on: Jason Varitek is H-O-T HOT! Too bad he's married and has a kid!) After that Darren Lewis came with his son. He looked pretty good, too. Later, Brian Daubach came (another hottie in person! And he's single!), Scott Hatteberg (he's hot, too! we've got hot, unavailable catchers on our team!), Jim Rice, Ray Bourque, Sergei Samsonov, Doug Flutie and some other people I didn't know. After they all went in, KISS 108 packed up and went inside.
We were left outside, behind a fence, trying to look in through the doors. Every time someone would walk out the door and into the parking lot I would run over and ask for their pass. Everyone said they were going back in.
Soon it began to rain. We were getting kind of restless. It was about 6:30 and we were thinking of calling home. But, first we decided to walk around the building. At the back of the building we saw two doors. One of them had a baby carriage outside it. After trying the first door, we tried the second. It opened!!!
We opened the door but then quickly closed it. "We need a plan!!" I said to
Lisa. While we were thinking, two men came out the door with slices of pizza
and went to a tv truck. They didn't pay any attention to us and Lisa put on
a Dunkin' Donuts shirt that had been thrown to her earlier to try to blend in
as a worker. I put on my unbuttoned Red Sox jersey so it would look like a
pass was underneath. Then we walked in the door.
We came across a area filled with pool tables and video games to the side of
the bowling alley. There were only about 3 other people in that section and
we tried to blend in by pretending to play video games. We soon realized
that there were only little kids bowling at our end. If we wanted to see
Nomar or any one else, we'd have to go closer.
We were very nervous and crossed our arms so no one could see that we didn't
have passes and slowly edged toward the middle of the bowling alley. We
stopped right behind where Trot Nixon, Scott Hatteberg and Mike Stanley were
bowling and watched them for a while. Then, to my delight, Nomar came over
to talk to them. I was video taping the whole scene when I felt a tap on my
shoulder, I jumped and turned around to see a staff member behind me. He
said "Excuse me," I moved and he walked on by. Lisa and I breathed a sigh of
relief!
The first round of bowling was winding down and Baltazaar was telling
everyone to make their way over to lane 24 where the auction would take
place. We went over to that lane and Nomar was bowling. He was doing well
and had a high score, but unfortunately all his teammates had scores under
100.
When all the teams had finished their games, Nomar began the auction. A
signed Sammy Sosa bat and signed Nomar, Pedro and Ray Bourque jerseys were on
the block. Nomar and Joey Mac were engaged in a hilarious bidding war for
the Bourque jersey. When Joey said $25,000, he ran up to Nomar and tried to
cover his mouth, but Nomar said $27,000. Joey, still wrapped around Nomar,
made it $30,000 and Nomar asked Ray if he could sign another jersey so they
could both have one for $30,000 each. Ray agreed and at the end of the
auction, about $100,000 had been made for charity.
Next, Nomar announced the 8 teams with the highest scores that would go on to
round 2. His team didn't win and he sat down to sign autographs. Lisa and I
were a little intimidated by the staff and police surrounding Nomar, but we
felt meet Nomar was worth the threat of getting kicked out for not having
passes. When it was my turn, I asked Lisa to video tape me talking to Nomar
and I agreed to take a picture of her with him. I can't believe I didn't
think to have her take of pic of me and him. I guess I was too excited to be
with him that I wasn't thinking clearly. Now I regret it because Lisa has a
great pic of her and Nomar. On the video, you can't even hear what I said to
Nomar, but atleast I got to talk to him and he signed my shirt. He signed
Lisa's Red Sox visor and she was so excited she forgot to grab my video
camera. Nomar picked it up and said "Don't forget this, you'll be needing
it."
After the excitement of meeting Nomar, we had the courage to go up to every
celebrity we saw to ask for a picture (too bad I hadn't done that with
Nomar!) We first went to where Scott Hatteberg was standing. A woman was
talking to him, but a security guard told us to "save him" from her. We
tapped him on the shoulder and asked for a picture. He was really nice and
put his arms around us (we were so psyched!) You can see the outcome on my
picture page of Nomar Bowl. I told him and all the other players we met
Thank you and have a great year!
Next we went up to Brian Daubach and got a pic with him. Next, we found Ray
Bourque and got a pic with him. (He, uh, put his hands a little lower than
the other guys.) I wished him luck in his quest for the Cup.
I had to call my mom to tell her we were meeting all these famous people so
we went into the bathroom where it was quieter. As I was talking to my mom,
I saw Mia Hamm walk in. We asked her to take a picture and she was like,
"Not in the bathroom!!!" So, we went outside the bathroom and got a
picture with her.
Lisa is a huge Doug Flutie fan. She said "I respect him and I love his
Flutie Flakes." She wanted to get a pic with him, but I didn't really care
so I took it. Lisa was a little afraid to go up to Flutie as he was jumping
up and down shouting and cheering on his team. He was pretty intense, but
she finally got his attention and we got the pic. Darren Lewis was right in
that area, and I got Lisa to take a pic of me with him.
Then we set off in search for Trot Nixon. My friends and I had all become
big Trot fans. Originally because he has a cool name, but now he's developed
into a great player. He didn't look as great as we thought he would, but we
were still very happy to meet him. I told him I was so happy that he was
playing well this year and that he deserved it for all his hard work.
We saw Sergei Samsonov and ran over to get a pic with him. He's such a cutie
- I mean LOOK at that pic! We saw Joey Mac and got a picture with him.
Either he's always a psycho or he was drunk - either way he was funny. Our
last celeb pic was with Jason Varitek, who all my friends now think he's hot
after seeing my Nomar Bowl video. Hey - I knew he was hot all along!
I don't remember anything about who won the event except I remember Jason
Varitek took home an autographed Nomar jersey as one of his prizes for
placing. I thought that was funny.
I talked to Nomar's Uncle Victor and told him what a success Nomar Bowl was.
When Nomar was leaving, I said "Bye! Have a good game tomorrow!" and he
said, "Thank you. Thank you so much for coming!" And I was like, "No,
Nomar, thank YOU!"
Well, I hope you enjoyed my detailed account of Nomar Bowl! All in all it
was a tremendous night! We got lots of cool free stuff including official
Nomar Bowl t-shirts and Adidas backpacks filled with goodies. To think that
we were getting ready to leave at 6:30 but then found a way in, met so many
people and got home at 10:30 is incredible! I mean, some people were
standing outside the ENTIRE time! If only they had gone around back . . .
Incredible! It was such a fantastic night! I can't wait until next year and
maybe we'll get passes and go in LEGALLY!