When Stars Align

We've made it to 2014, but 2013 will be pretty hard to top for John. The Pirates making the play-offs and meeting Mario Lemieux would have been enough, but alas there was much more!

It was a typical day in November for John, working at the nearby AT&T as he so often does, when he got an unexpected customer. BEN ROETHLISBERGER!!! The store was empty, which is why he thinks Big Ben decided to drop in. Ben had some odd request, and John and his co-workers did their best to help him. But as the store started to gain more customers, Ben decided to duck out. He and his co-workers were all shocked Ben stopped in and tried to play it cool the whole time. Unfortunately though, they decided to play it so cool that they didn't get a picture! But this is what I imagine it would have looked like:

John said Ben was so nice and seemed like a real normal guy. Needless to say, a pretty good day at work for him.

A few months later we got to attend Pirates Fest. As a season ticket holder, John and I were able to attend an earlier portion of the event (before the rest of the public could attend). Through a series of lucky coincidences, we got to meet and get autographs from a few key/favorite players!

We entered the expo and John hesitated a brief second before jumping in the autograph line. We wound our way through turnstile after turnstile before we finally came to a halt at the "hour from this point" sign. We check the autograph schedule and discovered the closing pitcher Jason Grille (my fav) would be signing in exactly one hour! We were definitely going to be cutting it close, and Grille had to show up right on time for us to meet him.

We made friends with the woman in front of us in line (John had actually helped her at AT&T and she lives down the street from him--crazy coincidence!). This turned out to be a benefit to us as we neared the front of the line. She knew we were really wanting to see Grille and as our turn came (she and her son were at the table), we could see movement behind the curtain. She asked the security guy if Grille was coming out, and he said yes. So she asked if she and her son could stay there until he did. He said yes, which was a great benefit to us because we got to meet him, too! And not only that, but the previous player (Sterling Marte) stayed at the table a little longer, so we got his autograph too!

Sterling Marte

John and Jason Grille

John went to a Pearl Jam concert in October and Grille was brought on stage. So John brought up the show to Grille, and I think he made a pretty good impression. They're like best friends now.

So it was quite a year for John and his new professional athlete friends! Let's see what 2014 has got for us.