WESTCHEDDAR

For every spring of my elementary school years, the four Isenberg men (me, my dad, my uncle Steve, and my cousin Chris) would leave the women at home in New York and head south to Florida for baseball Spring Training.  I was the youngest of the group, and also the most stylish.  We would spend a week traveling the peninsula, starting in St. Petersburg with the Mets and finishing in Ft. Lauderdale with the Yankees, going to as many baseball games and batting practices as we could, schmoozing with players, managers, and owners, getting autographs, collecting foul balls, and buying packs of baseball cards anywhere they were sold.  It was the absolute best time of my childhood, surrounded by my elder male relatives who knew they could get me to piss in my pants laughing by simply yelling “PENIS” out the window of our rental car.  Check out the pics…

Peep the checkered Vans matching the Jams, and the Rickey Henderson shirt matching the batting stance.

We were down with Paul O’Neill when he was a rookie with the Cincinnati Reds.

My cousin Chris was nice at finding our favorite players for autographs after the game.  This picture was taken right after we cornered Don Mattingly.  We got Mike Pagliarulo and Willie Randolph too.

“Hey George, you should trade for this kid Paul O’Neill.  Trust us on this one.”

Harold Baines.  What.

Top 5 other memorable moments from the Spring Training years:

1.  Swimming with Mark McGwire in the hotel pool and getting his autograph while he was drying off, pause.  My Dad and I went west to Arizona that year to check out the A’s and the Giants and stayed at the same hotel as the players, which led to us spotting Jose Canseco’s Jaguar in the parking lot and sharing the line at the breakfast buffet with Reggie Jackson.

2. My cousin sneaking into the veteran’s lounge at Vero Beach and getting Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale’s autograph.  Meanwhile, I hung around batting practice and got Chris Gwynn’s autograph (Tony Gwynn’s younger brother who played for the Dodgers).  I thought I was the man because it was the first signature I got on my own and he was an up and coming player.  Then my cousin appeared out of nowhere with two hall of fame pitchers on one ball.  He totally gipped me.

3. Trying to find Hensley “Bam-Bam” Meulens at a Double A Yankees practice.  He was supposed to be the next dude, turned out to be a dud.  I don’t think we ever found him, but we did give a few Bam-Bam look-a-likes the opportunity to sign their first autograph.

4. Catcher Gino Petralli farting on my cousin in the dugout during his one-game stint as a Texas Rangers batboy.  That story still cracks me up.  Afterwards, Petralli got mad shook once he found out my cousin got the batboy job through manager Bobby Valentine.  Ha!

5. Finding Craig Biggio’s broken bat at a Houston Astros practice field.

BONUS MOMENT****  Getting Ted Williams autograph on a program after a Red Sox game.  He was riding around outside the parking lot in a golf cart.  Our Dads were probably more excited than we were, still it was pretty thrilling.