An MLB-er named Andres Torres: Part Two

You pretty much need to read Part One if you want this to make any sense. Anyway, we left off after the May 31st, 2005 game.

June 2nd, 2005:

Kevin and I had our plan to honor Andres Torres. As the May 31st game was the  first game of the series, we still had another game two games to get back to and chat up Andres. Well I had to work or something on Wednesday, which left Thursday's day game. The plan was to make some of those iron-on T-shirts with Andres Torres Fan Club designs on them. See illustration, (click on the picture to enlarge it.) I ended up burning my arm on the iron, but it was ok. Anyway, we made up two of these shirts for ourselves and another for Andres, which was the same except for the back, where we put our names instead of his career stats. We headed to the park on Thursday hoping to give him the shirts as our way of saying thank you.

Anyway, we had been waiting at the park, in the same spot, for an hour and no sign of Andres. We told a couple of the players as they were heading in to send out Andres if they saw him, because we had some shirts for him. (Note: we are not to be confused with the old, female, crazed Indian's fan that follows the team around and yells at the players, trying to give them t-shirts.) Anyway, gates had opened at 11.30a, and now it was about 12.30p and still no sign of Andres, and we were getting kicked out of the area since we didn't have tickets down there. We still had his t-shirt so we had to think of something fast. I talked to the usher who stands on top of the visitor's dugout (Ron,) and asked him if we could stick around awhile. He told us to stand a few rows above the dugout and hang out there. Then an old usher comes along trying to bust us, and Ron comes through for us and busts him up... it was good stuff.

Finally, about half an hour before game time, we saw Andres come out of the dugout. So we ran up and told him what was going on and tossed him his t-shirt - he goes, 'meet me over there,' and points to the right of the dugout. So we come down there and explain to him how we wanted to make these shirts as our way of saying thank you. He asked if he could sign our shirts, and of course we said sure. By now everyone else is coming down for a piece of Andres, so he had to get out of there.

We headed back to our seats in left field, which weren't that bad. It was a beautiful game really. I had another Rondell White Home Run land a few feet to my left, (on the video you can see someone running toward where the ball is about to land, and then turn back in disgust when someone else catches it.) And our seats were directly behind the bullpen. To your right you can see a little of what its like. I think it was like little kids' day at the park and a lot of Middle Schools were hanging out there, which wasn't really that bad. In any case, it was a great game, and I chatted up an usher and he ended up telling me where the team bus was after the game.

We went over there after the game and encountered a group I previously mentioned; the 'sellers'. The sellers are people that buy $5 skyline tickets, go the park when gates open, get autographs from all the players then (usually taking them from other people,) and then leave and come back to the team bus to get autographs then. Many of them will even arrive early in the morning when the players first get to the park. We call them sellers because they carry around binders of cards and 8x10's which they have the players sign, and then they sell them on eBay. Before the Yankees game, when Alex Rodriguez was signing, most of the sellers had huge posters stacked up in front of them. After A-Rod left they bragged to each other about how many posters they had gotten. "Man, he signed 5 of mine, but then he looked up and I think he recognized me so that was it." I believe this behavior is pretty pathetic, seeing as many of the small children there left disappointed because they couldn't get the autograph of their favorite player. But hey, at least they can buy it on eBay right? See the picture on the left for a quick shot of A-Rod signing at that Yankee game. And yes, I did get his autograph. Didn't compare to Andres' though.

Anyway, back to the team bus. As the players all filed out, none of them would sign, as we learned was fairly typical of the Rangers organization. Then Andres came out. Some of the sellers were shouting his name, asking for autographs, (these guys have at least 9 cards of everyone who has ever been drafted by a team.) Andres walked right up to Kevin and I, gave us a quick pound, and said:

Hey guys. How you guys doin? Thanks for the t-shirt, it helped me have a great game today... So, can I get you guys anything? You need anything?

I pretty much pissed my pants. Stunned, I replied, 'Oh no problem, you're welcome. Anytime man... we're good though. See ya later.' Or something to that extent. Andres then walked on to the team bus.

We were both stunned by the day's events. I believe this to be the greatest baseball story ever told. I know it sounds unbelievable but I give you my word, every bit of it is true. We went home that night pretty much on top of the world. The only other this is... if anyone knows how to get in touch with Andres, (he now plays for the Twins,) tell him we said hey and wanna talk. Thanks.

Thanks again for your readership and feedback. I'll try to keep the good stuff comin'.