Dreams Really Do Come True

On Friday at work, things were a bit crazy due to quarter-end and year-end deals.  Things have been busy as well trying to get all our affairs in order to buy our house next month.  I ran down to the D.R. Horton model home hoping to deliver a check for our deposit, but no one was in the office.  I then decided to run up to Cabela's because they were giving Adobe employees a 25% discount on one item.  Em and I have been talking about buying a home-defense shotgun, so I wanted to check out the guns.  The Cabela's gun counter has its patrons take numbers to get help - DMV-style.  I was number 41 and they were at number 30 when I got in line.  They called out number 31 and a guy said, "I have number 31."  I recognized him immediately.  Without hesitating more than a few seconds, I walked up to him and said, "Are you Ken Griffey, Jr.?"  He coolly responded, "Yes" and shook my hand.  I asked if I could take a picture with him and he complied  I asked him if he was in the area hunting and he said, "Just passing through."  The clerk had called his number so we went down towards the rifle scopes which is what he was looking for.  I asked a random guy to take a picture and a couple of people looked at us awkwardly, most likely thinking that we were old friends (ha, I wish).  The first picture was blurry and I was embarrassed to take another, so I said it was fine, but the guy who took it insisted on taking another and the second turned out better.  I am glad he insisted or I would forever lament having a blurry picture of me with my childhood idol.  I told Ken that I had two hundred of his baseball cards and he just laughed.  As I walked away I simply said, "Thanks, Ken."  He was very gracious.

After Ken bought his scope ($2000), the same clerk who helped him called my number.  I asked him if he knew who he had just sold a scope to, and he said no.  I told him that he had just sold a scope to one of the best baseball players of all time (and added the proviso that if not for injuries he would have been the best) and that he should go home and look up Ken Griffey Jr. on Youtube.  I think it made his day to know that, and he said that he got the chills when I described Ken and his career.

To put this experience in context, I have to explain how much this guy meant to me from the age of 10-18.  Ken Griffey, Jr. played for the Seattle Mariners from 1989 to 1999, for the Cincinnati Reds from 2000-2008, for the Chicago White Sox from 2008-2009, and then he finished his career back in Seattle, finally retiring in 2010.  I was already a fan before the 1995 American League series against the Yankees, but it was after that series that he became my favorite player.  His nickname was "The Kid," and he finished his career with 630 home runs - sixth on the all-time career list behind Alex Rodriguez, Willie Mays, Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, and Barry Bonds.  He played the game with panache and a joy that was fun to watch.  He was on pace to break Hank Aaron's record for home runs (755), but from 2000-2006 he had a lot of injuries that affected his bat speed and ultimately hampered his career.  He won 10 straight Gold Glove awards and 2 MVP awards in the 1990's.

I started collecting Ken Griffey's baseball cards and basically became obsessed with increasing the size of my collection.  In 1993, I received a baseball with his autograph on it for Christmas.  I still have it.  As I added more of his cards to my collection, I organized and reorganized my collection dozens of times.  During middle and high school I also used to draw a lot and began doing pencil sketches of him.

I can't think of any other person to run into that would be more impacting.  What were the chances that he would happen to be in Lehi, UT at Cabela's just at the time I was in the store?  What were the chances that Cabela's would happen to give Adobe employees a discount on the weekend that Ken was passing through Utah?  I still can't believe I met my favorite baseball player.  I guess working for Adobe has unlimited perks.