Ah memories. Back in a previous life I was a sportscaster in the fine state of Wyoming, the Equality State. One wintery night in Green River, WY I had an experience that has defined me as a man, made me who I am today, for I was a member of the greatest team ever, the Utah Jazz.
After covering my team's game one evening I stopped by the local McDonalds for a tasty dinner. Let me set the stage so this tale can dance in your mind's eye--It's cold, like 10 degrees cold, so I am in a parka and my usual Jazz beanie. I'm driving my sweet azz, high performance Green 2000 Honda Civic with two car seats in the back. I pull to the window and order my chow. The fine gentleman taking my order, let's call him Roy, tells me to pull to the first window, which I do. On road trips for my radio station I used one credit card, a Utah Jazz credit card, to get reimbursed later. So, I give Roy my Jazz card, wearing my Jazz beanie. Roy takes the card, reads it, looks at me, sees the Beanie, and says "Utah Jazz, do you play for the Utah Jazz?" Shyly, I replied, "well, yeah." He then looks at my card and says Josh Beer . . .interrupting I say, "oh, you don't recognize me?" Then Roy says, "oh yeah I do." We chit chat for a moment, wondering why I'm in town. I told him I was injured and in Wyoming to watch some basketball in Green River (that part was true!) Then Roy does the best thing possible, he turns back inside the McDonald's and yells, "Hey everyone there's a famous guy at the Drive-thru!" About 13-15 employees joined Roy at the window hoping to catch a glimpse of the superstar who was driving a Honda Civic with non-custom rims. Roy then asked if I would mind signing a few autographs for free food. I insisted that I pay for my food, which I did with my team-issued Jazz credit card. I proceeded to sign a handful of autographs "To: Summer, Best Wishes! Josh Berndt #24" and so forth. The crowning moment came when Roy's co-worker, let's call him Jeb, says, after getting the prized autograph, "I'm gonna give this to my dad, it'll be the best Christmas present ever!" And I'm sure it was. Here's to you Roy and Jeb, hope you didn't try and sell my autograph on ebay, punks. Merry Christmas to my legions in Green River. That was the best quarter-pounder with cheese ever!
4 comments:
josh....once again i am crying. I can totally see you playing right into this. I wish we had the follow up story where the kids dad told him he was an idoit because there was no such Jazz player....ah...good times.
The story is still great after all these years. But the best time was the first. Josh came back to the hotel where I was waiting up and our sons were asleep. He could not get through the first sentance for 15 minutes. He couldn't start the story without laughing which seemed painful as he is trying no to wake the boys. Ahh good times. I love this guy!
I still think this is one of the greatest stories of all time. From Dave Salazar to back-up PG for the Utah Jazz, you never, ever cease to amaze me.
Holy crap that is funny. I rike the Raul Ropez picture.
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