It's now Wednesday and we meet at the field at around 8:15A and meet up with Cindy, Virginia, Maryann and Susan at the team parking lot to await Garth's arrival. Someone had mentioned Chris Ledoux appearing at the County Line Saloon about 45 mins. from where we were staying and Maryann and Virginia were going to get tickets, so Maryann asked if any of us wanted to go; naturally we said absolutely! Sue couldn't go because of Summer and it being a saloon but they would find stuff to occupy their time. Cindy told us Garth would not be able to make the show because it was Friday, the first away game. :-(
Today was another inter-squad game(more photos and video...yippeee!!) Before 1:00P we left the game and went to gate A...hi Carmen, nice meeting you!) I called Ann again and Cheryl, with no luck :-( Garth emerged after a while and said he couldn't stay long, had to get the girls on a flight and himself as well to Nashville on business. Turns out Lynn Shultz had passed away and Garth was also putting finishing touches on the song he's recorded for the movie "Frequency". I didn't ask for anything to be signed, just wanted to tell him again that we love Chris Gaines and he thanked us for it. He told Cindy to tell Chris to come down Saturday and they'd get together and play ball. At the show, we discovered Chris had broken his right foot falling off a loading dock, but that didn't stop a great show! I decided I wanted to eat at KFC after we left the stadium, so we stopped at a gas station to ask directions to one. There were 2 guys in front and I called out from the car if they could tell us where one was and the one guy starts to tell us. I'm looking at this guy and I say, "hey, you're a ballplayer"! He says, "yes ma'am" and I got out of the car and apologized to Jon Nunnally for not recognizing him out of uniform. He laughed, said it was o.k. and then personalized autographs to Sandy and I. (thanks Val for the photo!) The next time we saw him at the 10' fence, I said, "excuse me, can you tell us where a KFC is" and he really laughed and chatted with us for a while, asking where we were from and how long we were staying; he's got a brother in NJ and said to tell him hi.
Thursday was an off day for team photos for the yearbook, so Annette called at 8:00A to arrange to spend Friday and Saturday with us. What a hoot it was meeting a smarta*$ life myself! While waiting for Annette *clearing my throat*, we went to the beach and shopped. Annette arrived and we all went to dinner. I knew immediately that we'd have a blast together!(only wished we met alot sooner)
Friday it was off to Jupiter for the 1st away game( really nice stadium). When we arrived, we stood for some time at the concrete walkway that leads down to the field and there was Garth right in front of us...yeah man, he's looking good as usual and clowning around with another player! They even posed arm in arm for us. No need to labor on the game, everyone knows how it went. The best part was standing at the railing on the left field bleachers watching Garth exercise...oooooh baby, those pelvic extensions almost caused a melt down! We had fun with the guys in the stand whose heads were spinning from the camera clicks and comments. And of course, there was no way Garth could face our direction doing those scissor type leg exercises while lying on his back!:-))) About midway through the game, Sandy and I went down to the side of the dugout and got some photos of Garth in there. (It was, as usual rather dark in there.)
I called Maryann from the stadium to say we'd be late getting to the saloon; don't think she was surprised at all. So, after the game it's back to the Mets stadium to wait for Garth's return. A while later, the team returned and Garth went into the clubhouse. Before long he emerged from one of the batting fields and came to the gate.(it appeared that he might not sign due to his disappointment in striking out) but he did. When he got to me he signed a ball for Kim from Houston and I asked him if he would be playing an active role as Chris in "The Lamb". He said he wasn't sure people wanted to see the movie about Chris Gaines(not see it...we said we do and alot of people do too!!!) He said Chris should be someone younger and he'd have to lose too much weight. I said, "Garth, you just have to play Chris, you've done the music, you ARE Chris". He said, "we'll see". :-(
