Cast and Crew: Kurt

I have been friends with Kurt for over 20 years, and we have also been co-workers for 14, and company softball double play combo for nine (I played short, Kurt 2nd; we even pulled off a triple play together). I first met Kurt on a company softball team, as my bosses knew him from a previous company. Several years later when I was out of work, Kurt was instrumental in gaining employment for me at his architecture firm, and he later became a principal of that firm.

Kurt and I have talked so much baseball and swapped so many stories that I'm sure we could write a book between us. He bought into my season ticket plan for years at Candlestick, and when Pac Bell Park first opened, Kurt was in charge of securing season tickets for our company. The company seats were in the exact same mirror image location down the 3rd base line as mine are on the 1st base line. I've sat there numerous times as well.

Kurt is a 19th century baseball buff, card and memorabilia collector and has such a keen "nose for baseball" that baseball often finds him. Two stories are in order here. Last year during Spring Training Kurt was flying home from China on a business trip (he designs homes on golf course communities there) when a flight attendant asked if he were a baseball fan. "Uhhhh, yes I am." Well, Joe Torre is sitting in first class. Okay, this is an impossibility. Joe Torre is NOT sitting in first class on a flight from China during spring training and flight attendants on international flights just don't ask passengers at random if they're baseball fans. Except he was. The Dodgers had been in China promoting baseball for the upcoming 2008 Olympics in Beijing and played a couple of games there. Of course, Kurt was the only person in the world that could have met Joe Torre on a flight from China. "Good luck this year, Joe" was Kurt's closing statement, until later when he realized that he, as a Giants fan, just wished the Dodger manager good luck!

Kurt's brother runs a charity that puts Kurt in occasional contact with all-time hall of fame greats. And of course, this year when I had tickets for Lincecum (who took a no-hitter into the 7th) and two days later, Cain, I didn't have tickets for the game in between when Johnathan Sanchez tossed his no-hitter, it was Kurt's daughter to whom I sold the tickets, and when she couldn't go, Kurt did.

Another story epitomizes my relationship with Kurt. I was laid off earlier this year, and when I called my former company for something, all the phone lines were disconnected. What I didn't know was that a brief power outage in their neighborhood caused the phone company to give their disconnected message, so freaked out a bit, I called Kurt on his cell phone. "Oh, hey, Steve, you'll never guess where I am! I'm in the beer line at the Metrodome at a Twins day game." Of course he is, he's Kurt. Every summer he takes a ballpark tour with some of his family.

After all these years of talking baseball, it just occurred to me that I can't remember ever going to a game with Kurt. What are the odds of that? Even though that's the case, I'm still adding Kurt to my cast and crew. Dang, Kurt, could we catch a game together sometime?

Cast and Crew: Dan's Family

There's a very colorful family that has season tickets in the row behind us at the Giants games. We've known them for ten years now, and they are great people to have sitting close by at a game. Dan and his wife, Monique, with their two kids Jeremiah and Madison. When we first met them, Madison and Jeremiah were just on the threshold of their teens. Now they're grown up and out of the house, living their own lives.

They are very receptive of our small children when they're with us at the game. They joke all the time and are all outgoing. Dan has a tradition of wadding up a hot dog wrapper or paper bag and tossing it across the aisle and down a few rows, trying to make it into somebody's cup hanging in the cup holder for two points. And although Dan is a few years older than me, with his glove and the aisle seat he's twice the ball hound I am. Any fly ball down the line and he's off to the third row waiting for the hop. He's a salesman and he never misses finding a strange group of people to buy their tickets if they can't go. Half the fun when they're not there is trying to figure out the story of how they got the tickets.

Monique is hilarious and will talk about anything whatsoever. She wears her opinion on her sleeve, but even if it's offensive in some way, it's guaranteed to be funny. Jeremiah is very vocal and into the game. Then when his parents aren't there, it's really a scream. He follows the Giants fiercely and posts their follies on Facebook. Recently he took the road trip to see them in Seattle. Madison has been away at school the past few years, so we haven't seen her as much, but the school stories about her friends are always entertaining.

Dan's family. Funny. Sarcastic. Giants fans.

Cast And Crew: Coliseum Security Guards

A very important group of people in the history of the A's bleachers were the security guards. They were there every game, year in and year out. We all got to know them and they always talked to us. They were a special part of the bleachers because of the kind of people they were. Community as a part of life was as important to them as their jobs were. This simply made their jobs much better.

Most of the security guards were blue collar black guys from urban Oakland. They were all extremely mean looking, large guys that pumped iron. Biceps bulged in their shirt sleeves. You didn't want to mess with any of them. Their uniforms weren't your typical rent-a-cop looking security guard type of uniforms that you see at Disneyland or a corporate business park. They were olive drab in color, which made them all the more mean looking. But most of these guys were pussycats in many ways. They listened to soul, R&B, Barry White and old Motown and loved their wives. One of the bleacher guards was white, and he was stationed in right field. He didn't seem to be one of the cool ones, and had kind of the same image as the white cop on the TV show Sanford and Son.

They weren't busybodies, so standing around doing nothing while nothing wrong was happening was perfectly fine with them, and us. They talked baseball, cars and many other things. When fights broke out, we certainly saw them body slam their fair share of rowdies. They were fairly lenient with pot smokers, but occasionally ran some of them in to the security rooms somewhere within the concrete superstructure known as the Coliseum. But it was almost like the more pot somebody had, the less trouble they got into, because some of the guards simply took the evidence home for themselves. A couple of them were themselves often stoned on the job, and a couple of bleacher bums smoked dope with them on a regular basis.

The main guards as we knew them were: Sarge, whose real name was Bob; we just called him Sarge because he was the sergeant of all the guards. Champ, a shortening of his last name. Larry, and Gipson. One year I had all of them autograph a baseball for me. They were shocked at the proposition, but loved signing anyway. They were employed not by the A's, but by the Coliseum, so they did football, basketball, concerts and wrestling too. Wrestling events were the worst for them because of all the food and other things thrown. We loved the guards and talking with them, and made for a much more pleasant experience.

Cast and Crew: Centerfield Bums

Just as there was an identifiable group of left field bleacher bums, there was one in center field as well. They sat just on the left field side of the "tunnel" in straight away center field. This tunnel was the gap between bleacher sections that provided the hitter's backdrop and the path for bringing things on and off the field through the center field gate.

Anyway, we could hear the centerfield bums yell, not always being able to make out what they yelled, and they had everyday regulars, just like we did. Before I got to know any of them, I knew them by nicknames given to them mostly by John and Mac. How these nicknames originated were sometimes beyond me and even beyond John and Mac too. Nicknames like Walsh, Grip and Mom. Mom was easy to understand because this lady always brought lots of kids to the game. I later found out that she ran a daycare out of her home, sometimes with special needs kids, and would bring them all to every day game. Walsh, whose name was really Dave, was the main heckler and the leader of group heckles. He always wore an old, faded felt A's hat from the early 70's, and was a hippie Berkeley attorney. Grip was a high school kid from Oakland. I later found out that Walsh had a brother there (the family name was White) who called himself Egg. So he was Egg White, and had an annual brain teaser trivia quiz. Another woman was Pegirae. There were a number of others who were there all the time that I never got to know. They had their special heclkings and group cheers, many of which we adopted.

Later on in the late 80's/early 90's another centerfield group arose, just on the right field side of the tunnel. They were early 20 something's who worshipped A's center fielder, Dave Henderson. They called themselves "Hendu's Bad Boy Club" and hung signs from the front row railing. They got to know Henderson personally and went out drinking with him, etc. I never got to know any of them. They were young and rowdy but had no sophistication beyond yelling "ooh, ooh, ooh" with their arms pumping like apes, as was the pop culture fad of the time. They also had the lowered Japanese pickup trucks with the loud subwoofers and the "bad boy" icon stickers (crew cut, scowl and protracted Popeye forearm.)

Cast and Crew: Clara

Moving the cast and crew scene to Candlestick, a little old Filippino lady in her 70's named Clara with season tickets sat directly behind me for 13 years. She was very small, frail, even more frail of a voice, moderately thick accent. But she knew her baseball and was very vocal at the game. She had coke bottle glasses, couldn't read the scoreboard, but she could see every pitch to within a millimeter of the black of the plate. "Dat ball was looooow! Dey are cheating the Giants!" She could only be heard for a few rows, but she loved to yell. She attended at least 70 games per year and never complained about the cold weather.

She was a widow and her husband set her up well. She lived in a good neighborhood and always took the bus with a friend. Her nephew set her up with tickets, and with her husband gone, she always had a very interesting character sit next to her. No matter how badly the Giants played, she managed to scalp her extra ticket (we were 7 and 8 rows behind home plate, respectively). What cop would harass an elderly Filippino lady scalping tickets outside the park? It happened on occasion, but they mostly left her alone.

Clara was a sweet lady and with the new ballpark, I miss her.

Cast and Crew: Other Characters

Many other characters inhabited the left field bleachers at the Oakland Coliseum. Among them are a couple named Alan & Halle. Alan was as much a real life hippie as there is. (See him here in a bleacher picture) He made his own tie-dye t-shirts, and for other people too. Halle was a folk singer who put out an album and performed in local clubs. They were funny and fun to talk with. Wendy and Doc were a lesbian couple. Wendy was a huge baseball fan, and when weather permitted, she wore a bright blue Cubs jacket and/or hat. She was a social worker, and Doc was a doctor who, if I remember correctly, worked in medical clinics. Wendy had a great sense of humor. Dennis and Priscilla were a married couple. Dennis was a particle physicist at a big lab, and I forget what Priscilla did. Jay was a carpenter turned contractor who always had time to come to the game. He was a ball hound and always wore an Orioles hat. He was a friend of Young Mike.

Marvin and Evelyn were David's parents. They attended quite a few games and always had opinions on players and strategy. Others included a guy named Kevin and a friend. They always heckled Phil Bradley. Early on in the early 80's, a girl named Desiree was there. We had a nickname for her: the bleacher queen. Occasionally she would wear a halter top, shorts and high heels, attracting attention. Also Rick and Myrna.

Cast and Crew: Drunk Buddy Ed

Drunk Buddy Ed was one of the most animated characters, not just in the bleachers, but probably in all of human history. He was the only person I ever heard who had a louder voice than me (now there's a Giants peanut vendor that's easy #1). He was perpetually bombed out of his gourd, but at the same time had the highest tolerance for alcohol and drugs ever. He had a friend named Terry, who usually accompanied him, who drove a Budweiser truck. Ed was the perfect combination of lovable drunk and obnoxious drunk.

Ed usually made his entrance, a half inning late, by running down the aisle with a giant beer, the beer sloshing from side to side, yelling "aaaaaaAAAAAAAAA's!" in his patented way. He got to the front row and yelled the same thing several more times. He always started "Let's go A's" chants, and when it was rally time, he yelled, "Raaaallllly time. Ding-a-ling-a-ling-a-ling!", stomping his foot on each "-ling." He was so hilariously drunk that multitudes joined him in cheering. Before each game, he drank a six pack in the parking lot, and smoked several Peruvian hash balls, then had four or five giant beers during the game. You could tell he was really blitzed when he dropped the "s" from "aaaaaaAAAAAA's." He also heckled the other team's players mercilessly, usually with old, corny yells.

Back in '85 he was safely in the next section over. But in '86, I had to invite him over once. To the dismay of all my other friends because he was so obnoxious, he made our section his new home. I was in the dog house from then on.

Drunk Buddy Ed: Bleacher bum

Cast and Crew: Margaret

Margaret was an interesting, if a bit eccentric, woman who joined the crew in '85. One night, John and Mac were reading the A's magazine, and came across an article about an A's fan. A woman who was sitting about 8 rows behind us matched the photo. We decided to investigate. It was her.

She was originally from the South and moved to Berkeley and became a hippie in '68, the year the A's moved here from Kansas City. So she was a bleacher bum from the beginning. She did all kinds of computer work at UC, along with a bunch of other hippies, and I remember her having email back in the mid 80's. She also saw Catfish Hunter's perfect game along with only a few other fans. She had a huge memorabilia collection, and was a very literate person.

It didn't take very long for her to move down to the front row to become a part of the gang. She had many stories from the Finley era, and for years was the only woman to play in the A's fantasy camp each year.

Margaret: Bleacher bum

Cast and Crew: David

David was this redheaded high school kid who sat about ten rows behind us in the A's bleachers. He heard our cheering and heckling, and some of us talked to him a few times. He found that our group would be a good circle of people with which to interact, given his love for baseball. So he moved down to join us regularly. This was in about '87.

A couple years later he went off to college (to study sports broadcasting, I think), and was there only June to August. After school, he was back for full seasons. He became an outspoken - by the minute - critic of manager Tony LaRussa. He later went to work for the A's doing stats for TV broadcasts, later becoming their play-by-play internet broadcaster, and finally and currently doing TV production for the A's. He was a character in his own right.

David: Bleacher bum

[Update 07-10-09: his name is David Feldman, and he was the official scorekeeper for the Giants' Johnathan Sanchez's no-hitter tonight]

Cast and Crew: Nora

Nora is Mrs. Scott's best friend, and has been attending games with us since PacBell Park opened, and with Mrs. Scott since the early 90's. She buys into our season tickets with us, and is frequently at a game with us along with Mike. She is known for always having a beer, and good taste in beer at that. She used to work for the Giants and still knows many concessionaires and other employees there.

Cast and Crew - All The Links

Here's a list of links to every member of my baseball life cast and crew. I will continue to add links as I add new people. I'll be placing this in the margin for easy access in case you want the bio on a character. See a further explanation of Cast and Crew here. To see all the Cast and Crew posts together on one page, click here.

Alan and Halle ; Bert ; Centerfield Bums ; Clara ; Coliseum Security Guards ; Dan's Family ; David ; Drunk Buddy Ed ; John ; Ken ; Kevin ; Kurt ; Louie ; Mac ; Margaret ; Mike ; Mrs. Scott ; New York Mike ; Nora ; Other characters ; Patty ; Young Mike ; Young New York Mike ;

Cast and Crew: Too Many Mike's

Aside from my good friend, Mike, there were other Mike's in the bleachers. One was a guy from New York, scruffy and wore an old faded Yankee hat. So we referred to him as "New York Mike." When asked one time where he got his hat, he replied, "in a gutter at the corner of 125th and Lexington." This Mike was there maybe '84-85.

Another Mike came along in '86. He was young - a high school junior, I believe. He had longish hair, and he was quite the athlete. He scaled the benches and steps far better than any of us already established batting practice ball hounds. So he kinda took over the shagging bragging rights. We called him, "Young Mike."

Then another came along in '87. He, too, was young, with a good glove, and was further competition for the ball hounds. He wore a new Yankee hat. So we called him, "Young New York Mike." Got all that?

Mike, New York Mike, Young Mike and Young New York Mike: Bleacher bums

Cast and Crew: Kevin

Kevin came into the scene in maybe '86. He also attended both A's and Giants games with us. I even did a down-and-back road trip to Anaheim for a night game with him. At first, he was a bit annoying to some of us. He seemed kind of insecure and clingy, and talked far too much. But after time, and several years in college, he really grew socially, and in the end I was glad I stuck it out with him.

He was a college student. I think I remember him in jr. college when we met him, and then went to a four year school, SF State if I remember correctly. He wanted to pursue a career in sports journalism and his idol was Gary Radnich, a Bay Area sportscaster. Kevin was a lot of fun, enjoyed a good laugh and always liked to talk baseball.

Kevin: Bleacher bum.

Cast and Crew: Louie (and Patty)

Louie was another great character in my baseball past. He was one of a handful of people that attended both A's and Giants games with me. I first met Louie because he was sitting with John and Mac just after I got to know them. Patty was his friend who attended occasionally with him, also at both A's and Giants games. I could never tell if they were just friends or had some kind of extra relationship going. Nevertheless, Patty was always more than welcome. I knew Louie from the mid 80's to the early 90's. He usually wore a faded Mets hat, and never shied away from making fun of John and Mac, especially John.

Louie had a wonderful sense of humor. It was often dry and subtle, but he made the dryness quite wet sometimes. He had a unique job. He did room service at the St. Francis hotel in downtown San Francisco, and later on he became room service manager. The same hotel where 10 of the 11 visiting National League teams stayed, the Dodgers being the exception. He had a million stories of delivering something to a room, only to find out that it was a ballplayer. He didn't know who it was until they opened the door. Once he delivered a six pack to a room, and Braves pitcher Terry Forster opened the door. "Hey, aren't you pitching tonight?" asked Louie. "Hey, I gotta get ready!" was the response. He knew many of the players by sight because he was such a fan.

Louie was particularly good at turning a conversation funny, making each subsequent statement slightly more goofy, until we had some kind of dry humor slapstick. An example would be one of the number of occasions we would be seriously talking about potential trades that the A's and Giants might make. We then proposed trades between the teams, like Jose Canseco for Will Clark and a player to be named later. Then one of us would propose an A's/Giants trade of obscure bullpen personnel as something funny. Then it would degrade into "how about Roger Craig for Tony LaRussa?" Then maybe, "JumboTron for Diamond Vision" then "Candlestick for the Coliseum", then "Sarge [head security guard in the A's bleachers] for Bernice [head usherette at the 'Stick]" then certain grounds crew members, then bullpen catchers for baseball cards, parking lot attendants and beer vendors, even weirdo fans. We would laugh for innings.

Louie: Bleacher bum.

Cast and Crew: John and Mac

John and Mac were two characters from the A's left field bleachers. I first encountered them in about '84. I got to know them because they always sat in the same section as me - the second aisle from the left field corner, on the center field side of the aisle, in the front row. I call them characters, because they were. You could call them the Cheech and Chong of the bleachers. Or the Abbot and Costello or the Bill and Ted or Kramden and Norton. They were friends with one of those odd, comedic love/hate type of friendships.

They both wore longish hair, just past shoulder length. John, who formerly served in the navy, always wore unfaded bell-bottom Levi's, even though out of style by the mid 80's and sported the obligatory faded left forearm naval tattoo. Mac always wore Levi's chords. They both had one of those combs with the large handles sticking out of their back pockets so in fashion in the 70's. Mac was soft spoken. John was outspoken, but with a voice that didn't allow him to yell very loud. They drank only Budweiser. John smoked only Marlboro reds and always called them "cowboy killers." Mac drove a forklift at a warehouse and eventually moved up into management, while John worked at a cookie factory.

John was the funnier character. Some people use profanity, and some use it every other word. John used an expletive two out of every three words. This heavy use lessened the weight of each expletive to the point that one could comfortably dismiss it and view John as completely harmless. But he did it in a way that was completely hilarious.  If the ump made a questionable call on a pitch, John might be heard saying something like, "That's a bunch of g.d., m.f. b.s. That $%*# ball was $%&! five #&%$ feet f*!$% outside!" John was also a major autograph hound, and ball hound and bat hound and was constantly asking players for anything and everything. "How 'bout a ball?" was one of his favorite sayings, followed by "how 'bout a bat?" I think he even asked Rickey Henderson for an autographed base on a few occasions. Nobody had much heard about Sharpies back in the 80's. If Terrill Owens is their marketing spokesman, then John was the venture capitalist.

John and Mac: bleacher bums.

Cast and Crew: The Future Mrs. Scott

I met my wife for the first time late in the '83 season. We dated for a couple of years and didn't marry until 2000, which is another story in itself. We went to games from '83 to early '85 when we broke up. She said that baseball was #1 in my life, followed by school, then her. I think she's right about that. She didn't care much for baseball then (but she does now!), but she still went to quite a few Giants and A's games with me. One double header, she brought a book to read. That was then, and I'll write about now later. But she did go, so she was part of cast and crew.

Cast And Crew: 25 Years With Mike

One of my best friends, named Mike, I met while we were juniors in high school. Mike moved into the area and we became friends. This was 1981. In 1982, our senior year, we discovered each other's love for baseball, and specifically the Giants. I loved the A's, too, but Mike was born in San Fran and lived on the Peninsula most of his life, so he hated the A's even more than the Dodgers. That didn't keep him from going to numerous A's games. He simply rooted for the visiting team.

We've been to who knows how many games together between the A's and Giants. We've even traveled to a few other ballparks together; five total. He buys tickets from us every year, sometimes up to half of them, and we sit together for at least ten per year. We have 25 years of crazy, zany and hilarious memories together. I'll be writing about many of those.

Here's to Mike, a true friend indeed.

My Baseball Life: Cast and Crew

I'm going to talk about the other people with whom I have shared my baseball life. There are several categories, the largest being the people who sat in the bleachers at the Oakland Coliseum for A's games. There are also people from Giants games at Candlestick (several are co-members of the first group), and from Giants games at the new PacBell/SBC/AT&T/Viagra Park, and a few others who don't fit into any of these categories. These groups include friends, fans around me, ushers, security guards, vendors and concessionaires, grounds crew, team employees, maybe some others. I won't tackle all of these in one entry, but I'll start with the 1981 season, my first year of going to the games on my own.

Although much of the '81 season I spent going to games with friends largely from a church group I hung out with, three stood out as repeat attenders in my presence; two guys named Ken, and one named Bert. One Ken did some yelling at the opposing players and I credit him for much of my bleacher bumming spark, while the other Ken was completely mellow, did anything you wanted, and old enough to buy beer for the rest of us. Bert should have ended up being a comedian if he didn't already.

In 1981, I went to 11 A's games and 3 Giants games. I didn't go to any games with any of the guys in this first group past 1982. I think all 3 Giants games were with the mellow Ken or Bert.
Other people in the near future were far more interesting and stories get really funny. Stay tuned...