Shortly after my stand-up comedy career ended and I began to focus on Writing, I stumbled into a freelance arrangement with the Oakland Disneyland . I hung out behind the batting cage with the rest of the real sportswriters, went and sat in the empty dugout, and once when the Yankees were in town approached then-Yankees broadcaster Frank Messer on the field and blurted out, “Where’s the Scooter?” The Scooter, of course, was Yankee legend and longtime broadcaster Phil Rizzuto. Messer politely replied, “He’s in Bermuda .” To my dismay, the Scooter had stopped making the long road trips.
Joe Morgan was playing his last major league season with the A’s that year. I had heard he was something of a Wine collector, and that he had some kind of little Wine Cellar in his home. So I shyly suggested to my editor that I go to Joe’s house and do the interview there, where I could view the wine cellar while asking him about his hobby. Amazingly, he agreed and set up the interview for me.
Joe lived in a big gated house in the Oakland Toyota
Shortyly afterward, I got to work with Joe again, writing him some jokes to use at a roast of his former Cincinnati Reds teammate, Tony Perez. In return, he graciously comp'd me to the cocktail party that preceded his annual charity golf tournament. The party featured still more heroes of my youth from the wide world of sports, so I got to hobnob with the greats once more--and wonder how a kid from Queens, New York ever got so lucky.
