Brushes with Greatness and a Long Weekend

Shyster's day job often takes him to Cleveland, which is the location of his law firm's Mother Ship. When there, he stays at the same Marriott hotel in which visiting ballplayers stay when in town to play the Indians. One past summer trip allowed me to witness David Weathers and his wife wrangle toddlers in the lobby while Adam Dunn was trying to race by in order to make what, based on his purposeful walk and the copious amounts of smelly aftershave, was a post-game date. Another time I sat in the restaurant and witnessed Joe Mays destroy a three egg omelet while talking on his cell phone, reading a newspaper, and twirling a pen like it was a drumstick, though I couldn't see why he had the pen. As far as brushes with greatness go they are pretty pathetic, but it is interesting to see ballplayers doing the normal mundane stuff we all do.

The Kansas City Royals were filing in as I was leaving for dinner last night. A female coworker who knows that I'm a baseball freak was with me, and asked me to tell her who some of the guys were. I identified Alex Gordon and Tony Pena, Jr. pretty easily, and I thought I saw Gil Meche, but I could have been wrong. I had a hard time with most of the rest of them, mostly because I'm simply not used to seeing these guys without hats and uniforms on, but also because, let's face it, they're the Royals.

The point of that anecdote wasn't to impress anyone about the circles in which I travel (hey -- what happens in Jimmy Gobble's room STAYS in Jimmy Gobble's room). Rather, it was to explain that the lighter posting of the past couple of days is due to my road trip, and that this will probably be it until Monday (weekends are usually reserved for Mrs. Shyster, Shyster Daughter and Shyster, Jr).

Enjoy the resumption of a full baseball schedule tonight, and have a nice weekend.