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Close Encounters of the Famous Kind

by Beav on February 28, 2009

In my recent trip a couple weeks ago I had a layover in Chicago. I found myself walking side by side with Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen. He has some real cool alligator boots on. We probably walked “together” about 100 yards pretty much just the two of us side by side. I’m pretty sure it was just as meaningful for him as it was for me. The only thing I learned is he wears cool boots and he doesn’t care much for the Superbowl because most of the rest of the universe was home watching the big game while Ozzie and I had our moment.

This has inspired me to share a few other of my “close encounters with the famous” and since I’m sure all of these were as meaningful to these people as they were to me, my language will express that.

  • I went to Disneyland with Olympic Track Star Edwin Moses, we waited for the Disney train together.
  • When I was living in the Bay Area I flew home to San Francisco airport with Barry Bonds and his family and we waiting for our luggage together. He was one of the largest dude’s I’ve ever seen. This was around ’03. Now I know why :)
  • Salma Hayak and I flew to Mexico together.
  • I had coffee at the coffee bean with that dude that played the creepy & twisted police officer in pulp fiction – yeah that one. I kept my distance.
  • I went to a Laker game with Tiger Woods. Normally sports games don’t count, but he sat in the seat directly in front of me. I could have given him a head massage, but I wouldn’t have been allowed to finish the game. Brian Barela had the hookup on those tickets and I remember my friend Jeff Crichton almost peeing in his pants next to me. It was about 10 years ago.
  • I “walked” Chelsea Clinton to class when working at Stanford.
  • I had dinner with big time philosopher Alvin Plantinga (Notre dame) along with about 20 of our closest friends.
  • ESPN’s Chris Berman and I “hung out” in line for a bathroom in the Atlanta airport. He’s a big man – way taller than I thought.
  • I ate lunch with Christine and former Bronco Coach Mike Shanahan and his wife in the Pittsburgh airport foodcourt.
  • MLB All-Star Chase Utley told me “Nice hit dude.” Of course this was like 15 years ago when I was a couple years removed from high school, when I hit a 390 ft bomb in the Long Beach Poly Alumni baseball game – farthest I ever hit a ball (of course it was in an alumni game).
  • Former LB Poly great Tony Gwynn told me “you gotta good swing” as he was doing some coaching with our team on one of his trips back to his roots. I can also say I caught a line drive off of a Hall of Famer.
  • NFL player and former Bruin great Donnie Edwards once tried to intimidate me to give him a slice of my pizza when I was in college. I was scared to death. Scary lookin’ dude, but nice guy on all accounts. He was just “messing around” but I was frozen in fear.
  • I went through airport security with Paul MaGuire (sp?) in the Buffalo airport. Paul is a NFL and college football announcer and played football back in the day with the Bills.

I’m probably missing a few, but those were some memorable close encounters. That doesn’t count all the sports personalities I went to school with and other random celebs at Stanford I saw and have “shared experiences with” (i.e. Ben Savage, Kerri Strug, the O’Bannons…) and even notable Christian leaders I’ve actually met in person (Bill Bright and yes, James Dobson).

I’m sure the above moments fall on their list of life’s memorable moments too :)

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  • brandonearly

    This is pretty cool…however I feel that Milton and Snoop needed to be in the write up and I was surprised that I did not see my name under Christan Leaders you’ve actually met.

  • Jeff Gray

    Quite a list. I used a urinal next to Jesse Jackson the other day at the Lakers game. Some other guy, just after zipping up, tried to shake his hand. Jesse wanted no part of it.

  • Beav

    I was going to add “I went to the prom with Snoop Dogg” but I was concerned it was going to be perceived in a different way than I meant it :)

    Classic moment there Jeff – I would think ol’ Jesse would have a bodyguard who’d drop the guy.

  • Beav

    I might add too – my criteria for a “close encounter” was being within a 5 foot buffer zone :) Seeing someone at a sporting event with binoculars doesn’t count – but that’s always cool too.

  • brianbarela23

    dude Tiger was so close to us. i wish there were cell phones with cameras back then to capture the moment.

    i’ll say guarding Earl Watson, future NBA guard during a game was my best close encounter–because I actually pissed him off and he yelled at me. Felt good because I was actually affecting him, which I think is a sub-theme of your post.

    there is that sensation that even though we can get close to celebrities physically, there seems to be some enormous social/cultural distance. it was awesome to bridge that gap, even if it was in my classic flesh-filled basketball persona :)

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