I actually did get to meet my idol a few years ago. It's pretty silly for a grown man to idolize an athlete but my all-time favorite baseball player is Ryne Sandberg. When I was 16 years old back in 1984 I got to go on a weekend trip to Chicago with a few of my buddies to see the Cubs and Cardinals play at Wrigley. There were three Cubs fans and three Cardinals fans in our group. We had only one hotel room and had therefore decided that whichever team won the game on that Saturday, their team's fans would get to sleep in the two beds that night and the other guys would get the floor. Well, the Cardinals were winning 7-1 after the 2nd inning and it was just miserable for us Cubs fans. Slowly but surely the Cubs chipped away at the Cardinals lead until the bottom of the 9th when they were still trailing 9-8. The Cardinals had an absolutely great pitcher (Bruce Sutter) in the ballgame so it was pretty much over for the Cubs. Mr. Sandberg stepped up to the plate and launched a homer to tie it and send the game into extra innings. Oh my god what a feeling! Then in the 10th inning, Sutter was still in the game because the Cards had scored 2 runs in the top of the inning and Ryno came up again and again he launched a homer to tie it up! The Cubs went on to win the game and I had an idol that will probably be with me for the rest of my life.

I got to meet Ryno (if only for a couple of seconds) a couple of years ago when he came to Iowa for a Cubs function and when I saw him I felt like a little kid meeting a rock star or something even though I was in my 30's. I literally felt weak in the knees, I couldn't believe this guy was sitting there signing my baseball! All I could think to say was, "I was there at that game in '84 when you homered off of Sutter. Thank you for the greatest day of my life." He just smiled and said to me, "It was a pretty good one for me too." Man, what a thrill that was for me.