meeting mike scioscia in the dodger dugout

One of the greatest thrills of my life was meeting Mike Scioscia in the Dodger dugout. This happened when I was 10 years old and I have my sister Stacie to thank.

august-1990

At the time Me and my sister were doing our usual, passionatly following the dodgers on a daily basis.
in those days Stacie's favorite player was Mike Scioscia. While I liked Scioscia, my favorite player was Orel Hershiser. Stacie and I belonged to the Blue Crew, which is the ecquivalent of today's Jr. Dodgers. back then it was called the blue crew. after reading that Mike Scioscia sponsered a charity foundation for kids with Muscular Diseases, she decided to write Mike a letter. She had told she was going to, I kind of laughed at her, hell never read it I said. boy was I wrong.

now I dont exactly remember what she wrote, but the letter explained about my muscle disease, some of my struggles through physical therapy growing up, and how he was her favorite player and how much she loved him. well a couple of weeks later we got the call from the dodgers public relations. somehow the letter found its way to Mike, he read it and was touched. He wanted to meet Stacie and myself and our entire family, and we were invited to meet Mike on the field of dodger stadium during batting practice.

Stacie and I were beyond thrilled, and our entire family were given free tickets to the game as well. It was one of the last outings I remember our family doing before our parents split up. we met with the public relations lady at the stadium. the dodgers had an extra inning game the day before and because of that there was no batting practice. the plans had changed as we were told. instead we were going to meet Mike in the dodger dugout! OMG.

the PR lady escorted us through the field level and into the dodger dugout. as we passed down the escalator onto the field level we passed right by Don Drysdale and Rick Monday. OMG! I screamed its Don Drysdale and Rick Monday! Don said hello shook our hands and left.

we entered the dodger dugout and we were told to wait there and that Mike would be out in a few minutes to meet with us for picutres and autographs. As we waited there was a stadium worker on the phone talking about how Fernando Valenzuela (in his last year with the dodgers) had locked his keys in his locker. we took pictures of the dugout, I sat in Tommy Lasorda's seat and touched the lineup card. my god, I still get teary eyed when I think about it. I also touched the dodger stadium grass as we walked onto the field and into the dodger dugout. Mike had a reputation for being one of the nicest guys in baseball and it held up true.

the PR lady had told us to bring whatever we wanted for Mike to sign, hats baseballs, baseball cards, etc, etc. Of coarse Stacie had his rookie card. finally Mike came out to greet us bringing us dodger hats. Of coarse we already were wearing our dodger hats, and Mike joked about it, saying he had gone through the trouble to bring us new dodger hats, but "we already had hats"

Mike was especially impressed by his rookie card my sister had brought. "wooooaa rookie card, very cool!" he said as he signed our hats, cards, and took pictures with us. what a great guy.

15 years later I ended up meeting Mike again this time around Mike was the angels manager. My father even though he wasnt a big baseball fan (he grew up in montreal as a huge montreal canadian fan, the forum was like his dodger stadium) he wrote to the angels and sent them a copy of the orignal pics of our meeting with Mike. Once again we were invited to meet mike again, but on the field of anaheim stadium. what my dad did was nice but unfortunatly my sister couldnt be there as she couldnt get out of work and we were unable to reschedule. It was cool but nothing like that first meeting, and I never felt right about meeting him again without Stacie there, after all without her letter it would have never been possible.

Thank you Stacie for having the courage to write that letter even after I laughed at you. I was wrong and you were right. My sister's passion for the dodgers is without question. her heart bleeds dodger blue through and through more than anyone ive ever known. her daughter Kaila bleeds dodger blue as well, and will without doubt continue our dodger family tradition through the years.

How did Mike and the dodgers do that day? well Mike went 0 for 4 striking out three times and grounding into a double play, but the dodgers won beating the braves 4-3. LETS GO BLUE!!!!