The best two days ever.
So, the last two days at the CWS have definitely been ones for the memory bank.
Yesterday during the Georgia-Arizona game in the afternoon, my mom and I, getting a bit sleepy due to lack of exciting moments being produced by the teams, decided to go outside the stadium after hearing that ESPN SportsCenter anchor Kenny Mayne was outside filming promos for last night's show. (ESPN has an entire set out front of Rosentblatt this week, broadcasting highlights live back to the big show several times a night).
We get out front to find Kenny up on stage with Tony Gwynn who is apparently guest announcing/ commentating with Mayne for the afternoon. And there are about 4 people there. What the heck, Omaha?! It's frickin' Kenny Mayne and Tony Gwynn! Two Hall of Famers! (Kenny, of course, belongs to the Hall of Fame of Awesomeness.) Tony finishes his set and strolls down the steps to sign a couple autographs. Of course, being the bandwagon fans that we have all come to know and love from Omaha, no one had any sort of writing utensil for Tony to use. Thus, my mom's medium black PaperMate retractable ball point became the weapon of choice for signing balls and tickets. It must have been used 7 or 8 times. The whole time, Gwynn is givng people crap about not coming prepared to the ballpark and my mom is standing there, basking in the glow of the thought that she had allowed these schmucks to attain the signature of the greatest living San Diego Padre (the Famous Chicken doesn't count as a Padre even though he's their mascot. Otherwise, Tony would be #2.)
After the initial "Oh, my gosh, that guy (him?!) has 3,000 hits!" shock, I recovered in time to realize that the whole point of this break from the game was to see Kenny, SportsCenter host extraordinaire. So, Mom and I belly up to the guard rail that is keeping the screaming mob from rushing the stage and carrying him away into the hot afternoon. Actually, by then, the "crowd" was down to us and 2 other guys who were only there to try and flip off the camera.
"Uh, excuse me buddy, we're trying to get some soundbytes for the news and I wonder if you would want to come over here so we can interview you. By the way, I'm Trey Jones from Channel 6 here in Omaha."
HOLY CRAP! IT'S TREY JONES!
("Uh, who? Trey Jones? Never heard of him," you say. Well, join the club. I hadn't either. But seriously, who turns down the news?)
I think it was the green shirt with the flipped up collar that caught his eye. Or maybe he was getting desparate since NO ONE else was around...whatever the reason, I got interviewed. Jones, playing his "I'm on TV, I need to be suave and clever newsguy" card, finishes the questions and then asks if my "sister over there would like to go on camera?" And then he winked. Dude, it's my mom, stop trying to hit on her! She may look young, but I don't think I've ever heard a lamer line in my life. Of course Mom plays along..."Oh no, not me, I'm only here to get a hug from Kenny." (Like she has ever seen a minute of SportsCenter in her life). Well of course, once Trey hears that, he about has an seizure.
Timeout: People, Omaha may be the slowest news town in the world. Here we are at the College World Series and this newsman is getting excited because my mom said she wants to give another TV newsman a hug. I just wanted to make sure everyone realized how important of a moment this is in television history...
About this time, as we are slowly becoming celebrities around the set for being "those two people who are skipping the game to see Kenny Mayne (and get a hug)" his promos finally come to an end. But where are Ben and Mom, you ask? Well, we got tired of waiting and went over to talk to Cocky-Doodle-Lou, the South Carolina gamecock and his owner, over by the statue, which is away from the SportsCenter set. So, here we are about to miss Kenny Mayne because we're watching a chicken standing on a dog kennel filled with straw kick around his water bowl while his master waves around a mesh hat in front of the bird's face to get him to look at my camera. Oh and don't forget the huge stuffed bird that GETS ITS OWN TICKET TO THE GAMES because they can't take the live one inside. Wow. South Carolina = strange, foreign land.
We look over, and here's Trey frantically waving us back to the set! We sprint back over just in time to see Kenny grab a Powerade from a nearby cooler. And drink it. Riveting. Thanks for the help, Trey. Finally, after exchanging his suitcoat for a Pittsfield Boutons baseball jersey, and wiping off all the makeup, he heads over to our man Trey for his long-awaited interview. Then (the horror!) instead of walking towards the exit like a good newscaster should (!) Mayne goes over and starts signing autographs for people that have been waiting way less time for him than we have. It was ridiculous. So, after finally satisfying Kenny's Army (the small throng of "loyal SportsCenter watchers who just love the show," ...yeah right suck-ups!) he was about to head out when the police officer we had made friends with while waiting told Kenny that there were two people he needed to meet that had been waiting a long time.
So Kenny Mayne comes over and talks to my mom and me for like 5 minutes. And of course the hug made it on camera.
And I should backtrack a bit...The night before, I saw Alison and Grace at the game. (Remember the ice cream incident?) Well, Alison was talking about how she was so mad that she had to miss Kenny Mayne because SportsCenter wasn't coming in until the next night and Kenny Mayne is her third favorite anchor behind Stewart Scott and Dan Patrick. So, imagine how shocked/upset/jealous/mad at herself she was when I called her after getting the up close and personal with Mr. Mayne. Because all she had wanted was a picture with the guy! And instead she got to spend the afternoon with 12 seven and eight-year olds at YMCA camp who don't appreciate her because she doesn't let them take restroom breaks. Folks, that's what you get when you have a job that won't let you come in for 3.5 hours and then leave to watch baseball -- NO FUN! Thank you Douglas County for being you.
Channel 6 news at 10 that night confirmed what the rest of my friends already know. That I am awesome. How many of you got to meet Kenny Mayne? ZERO. That's what I thought. No, really, it made me look and feel stupid. There is never a time when it is OK to watch yourself on television. Home movies even are a stretch. It was painful. But I guess being on the news is cool.
Fast forward to Wednesday...
After Texas crushes Georgia's dreams with a little bit of comeback magic and a little bit of Huston Street, Tessa, John and I walked out of the 'Blatt to get some Jesus water from the kind people over at 9th Inning Ministries. Hallelujah, that really saved the day. Cause it was darn hot. On the way, oh look who it is! Kenny Mayne signing autographs. Weird. And there was like, a crowd around him! (Bandwagoners!) So, of course John gets a picture and an autograph.
And then I hatch a sweet plan...
Ben: "Hey Kenny, do you think you would leave a message on my friend Alison's voice mail? She's a huge fan of yours."
Kenny: "Uh, sure let's do it."
Ben: [into phone] "Alison, hold on a sec, someone here wants to talk to you." (hands phone to Kenny)
Kenny: "Hi Alison, it's Kenny. Where are you? You should be here because we're all having lots of fun. It's too bad that you couldn't make it. I'll talk to you later. It's Kenny. Bye." (hangs up)
Awesome.
We continued on our journey to the water. Bingo. They're passing it out again. YES! Hydration. With a couple hours to kill, we wandered over to the Pontiac exhibit and the Coca-Cola/ NCAA fanfest thing and spent sometime in the new GTO and talking about how bad we would kill those little punks at knockout on the basketball court. Jeff Brantley was signing autographs, but after seeing how tall he was, John was turned off. He wasn't impressed. Then it was back to 13th street to pick up a sweet neutral-uniform Todd Helton poster and check out the cheap catcher's gear at the Mizuno stand. And the one-man-band was playing. Violin, harmonica and these cymbal/drum things with his feet. Now THAT'S talent. Free Sonic Cherry Limeades and Steak Bites were next, as was the Cricket couch. (No dice on getting them to sell it to me, though.) Oh, and the kid from Big Daddy was there for some reason.
At the limeade stand they had those scratch card things where you can win free food. Is it not some sort of record that John proceeded to scratch the following winners??...Free combo meal...free combo meal...free drink...free drink...free drink...free drink...free drink...free drink...free drink...free drink...free drink...free drink...free drink...free drink...free drink...free drink...free drink. IN A ROW. That's 2 combos and 15 free drinks. IN A ROW. And it's not like prizes are guaranteed. Chris and I scratched like 10 cards on Saturday and didn't win a damn thing! It was the most amazing run I have ever witnessed.
And then we went back to the game. And Cal-State Fullerton lost. And I gave away my beads to this little kid because it seemed like the nice thing to do. Boy to I regret that. Why did he deserve them anymore than me?! Anyway, we didn't stick around long after the game because of course they are filming the footage for the night SportsCenter starting at 9pm. Alison, who has joined us at the stadium in anticipation of seeing Kenny sometime during the evening, is excited, to say the least. We get out there and I, knowing exactly where to stand for when he comes off stage, lead us to the perfect spot. Not more than 2 minutes later, Mayne stands up at the desk and takes off the microphone after finishing his work. He starts taking his suit coat off (to the crowd's chants of "Take it off! Take it off!") and then comes down the steps right to where we are. Two autographed tickets and one photograph later, Alison Peterson is the happiest girl on the planet.
But we weren't stopping there.
After letting the crowd clear out some more, there Alison and I were, right back at the rail, waiting to talk to him again. "Hey Kenny, remember leaving a message on a girl's phone this afternoon?" "Yeah, sure." "Well, here she is." "Oh, it's you. Hi. Glad you could finally make it." By this time, Alison has internally elevated Kenny past Dan Patrick on the list of all-time best SportsCenter anchors. What would happen next would serve as the catapult that shot Mayne to the top of the list.
We waited out some annoying South Carolina fans who sang a slightly modified version of "If you're happy and you know it" involving the Gamecocks and then told some stupid off-color jokes (Yeah, guys, as if South Carolina doesn't already get enough jokes about it's mascot. Like Kenny Mayne wants to stand here and listen to you talk.). Then some weird dude whisks Kenny to a secluded area of the barricade zone around the SportsCenter set for a personal consultation of some sort. Buddy, what are you doing?! Alison and I stroll on over and politely ask if he would mind parting with his press pass and media credentials which were on a lanyard in his hand. JACKPOT. Instantly, all the other remaining fans are stricken with intense pains from the extreme jealousy they are now feeling for not having come up with such a brilliant idea on their own. He takes his Sharpie, pens the passes with "Do not let them in" and "VOID" and hands them over. He even joked that his picture looked like it was from his high school yearbook.
Kenny Mayne, you are awesome. One more group shot and then we let him go on his way. The press pass is currently in Alison's possession. It will be changing hands, Stanley Cup-style, throughout the year. Watch for it during its national tour. Coming to a city near you!!
