Here are a few pictures that I took before the All-Star Game. Enjoy.
On a side note - I met Ryan Franklin tonight. I went out with a few friends tonight to go play some putt-putt golf and hit some balls in the batting cage down in Fenton. While we were going to start on the front 9...we thought we saw a guy who looked just like Ryan Franklin...I thought his goatee was a bit shorter looking than Franklin's...Then an employee saw us looking and told us, "yep, that's him." He was with his wife and 3 kids playing on some go karts and in the batting cages. It was funny, cause it's not like he ever really needs to take an at-bat....but he was bunting about 75% of the balls in the cage. Then as we walked over to the cages, we walked about 2 feet away from him. We didn't say anything to him, cause honestly, we were sure he probably got bothered enough and he just wanted to spend time with his family. Well, a little while later we saw him and his family leave. Shortly there after, we left...I had noticed an Escalade in the parking lot just sitting there with it's lights on...I mentioned to my buddy that I thought it was him and his family.
So we left and after a tough decision between Sonic and BWW's, Jeremy made the decision and we went to BWW's to grab some wings. After getting our order placed, the waiter came back to our table and told us that we were eating with a celebrity. We saw that Franklin and his family came in and sat down about 4 tables away from us. That's when about a dozen people or so came over from the bar area to shake his hand, congratulate him and get autographs. We were kind of getting ticked at them for bothering the guy...I mean, crap, he just wanted to enjoy some time w/ his family. So eventually people left him alone. On our way out though, we decided, we'd at least tell him congrats and not really bother him, but still let him know we knew who he was...So we told him congrats on the All-Star Game and he just nodded his head and said thanks as he had a mouth full of food. I wanted to slip a picture of him w/ my phone, but figured it wasn't the right time to do something like that. It was pretty awesome to see him out with his family and interacting with his wife and kids...you just don't get to see that side of Athletes. My respect has grown for him even more as a family man off the field.
1 comments:
You should have asked him if he wanted a beer?
You could have gotten a big tip.
Or you could have told him we work at the same place and have a lot in common.
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