I Met My Hero!!!!! Kind of long...sorry.

[Mickey76]

Yesterday I met my hero from when I was a boy, former NEw York Yankees first baseman DON MATTINGLY. He was signing autographs at the Danbury Fair Mall in Connecticut, which is about 45 minutes from where I live. It's been a long time coming and the story goes like this:

When I was 6 in 1982, I went to my first baseball game. The Yankees played the Twins and we had seats about 10 rows behind home plate. My father decided to make his way by the dugout to see if he could get an autograph or two. That year, Mattingly had played a few games and was no where near as popular as he is today. The program for that game had a cartoon on the cover with the four Yankees rookie prospects, him being one of them. MY father was able to get his autograph and gave it to me. From that point on he was my favorite player and my attitude for the day was determined by how good or bad he played that day.

Two years later, in her annual spring cleaning, my mother misplaced the autograph and it was lost forever. I can't begin to tell you how heartbroken I was, but nearly as much as my mom was at the sight of my face when she told me.

Over the years, I collected a couple of Mattingly autographs from dealers, but I never had a chance to meet him. It wasn't even about the autograph anymore, but rather, a chance to tell him how much he meant to my childhood and early teen years. I know some of you are saying it's wrong to idolize someone other than your parents, so be it. It could have been worse. I could have picked a lot worse baseball players to idolize, as far as their character is concerned.

Fast Forward to 2003: I add my e-mail address to DonMattingly.com so that I can get the latest news on if and when he'll be in my area. Two weeks later I get an e-mail about his appearance in Danbury. I figure tickets might have to be bought, but I don't think about it too much. My girlfriend and I were going to go to the mall to meet a friend two weeks before the appearance, so I figured I'd just go to the place where he was appearing (at a sports memorabilia store) and ask them what the deal was. They tell me that I need to buy a a baseball for him to sign and a display case in order to meet him. Actually, you have to buy a ticket, but he'd only be signing items that the store was selling. Each ticket was $80. My best friend is a Mattingly/Yankees fan, so I had to get one for him. So, the guy marks me down for two tickets. Then I hear him saying that they are almost sold out to another employee. I knew my dad would want to go, too. $255 later, I got 3 of the last 4 tickets available.

Yesterday: Mattingly was scheduled to appear from 12-2. We get on line at 10:15. I brought my camera with me, despite being told he would not be able to take pictures because of the time constraint and the amount of people coming. I told my girlfriend to just take some pics of me getting the autograph, even if we couldn't get a posed photo, just so that I could show a pic to my friends and family that I finally met him. I had waited for this moment most of my life and it was finally here. What would I say to him? Would he even look up to say Hi or anything? Was I getting my hopes up too high for any interaction?

Don Mattingly was what I had always imagined him to be in person and then some. He said hello, asked ho I was doing, asked me if I ever played ball ( I did), and I told him that I was now a teaher. He said that was pretty cool and I thanked him for all that he ever did for me (inspiring me to play hard and never give up). I was able to say this through some tears (cut me some slack, the man is my hero...I wasn't hysterical). And do you know what the best part was? He posed for a picture with me! He thanked me for coming and I thanked him again and I did not touch the ground for another 30 minutes or so.

My father was choked up after seeing the interaction between Don and I, as was my best friend. My girlfriend was able to get a pic of Don and my best friend, too, so we both can't wait to get the pics developed. I'm thinking of making the pic a poster. Can you blame me?

One of the greatest days in my life...



Mickey76

 

[Patio]

Beautiful story!! I am so happy that you were able to meet your hero and he was exactly like your dreams said he would be.

 

[Battleship Bob]

Great story Mickey76!!!

I've never met the man but I've always had a round-about connection with him (aside from both of us being Hoosiers)..........

I played high school ball in the early 70's here in Indiana. Our team (LaPorte High School) had one of the best coaches in the country back then and just about every year we would make it to the State Finals.

My Senior year ('73) we made it again. Final game against Lafayette Jefferson I actually hit a triple and made it into the record book for most triples (1) ever hit in a championship game.

That is until Donny Baseball played in the championship in '78 with Evansville Memorial. He cranks out 2 triples in that game and I (and several others) fall into second place in the record books.

As far as I know he still holds that record and I still tell people that it took no less a ball player than Don Mattingly to break "my record."



Bob

 

[lisajl]

What a great story!!

I am so happy you got to meet him and get your photo taken with him.

It's also great that your dad was there with you.

You are a lucky man!

 

[KristaTX]

Congratulations! That is so special. I am very happy for you.

Krista

 

[doxdogy]

What a wonderful experience for you. I am glad to hear that you were able to meet him and it was better than your expectations.

 

[luvmydogs]

That's such a nice story, Mickey76, and I thank you for sharing one of the "greatest days in your life" with us! I love happy stories like this!

 

[chell]

Cool story! Thanks for posting! Congrats too.

 

[KingsFanInRI]

Very cool. I always liked Donnie Baseball, even though he was a Yankee