Paul

I was at a Starbucks in South Elgin today, minding my own business... reading The Incomplete Book of Baseball Superstitions, Rituals, and Oddities by Mike Blake, when a guy just picked (yes, the verb "pick" as in "picked a fight." I think it's the appropriate verb.) a conversation with me. I was kinda sleepwalking through the conversation explaining why I think the Cubs will win the division and why the White Sox are tough to read when the guy started naming names.

Told me he went to St. Francis College. Told me about Gordie Gillespie. Told me about how he saw Don Peters and Sean Lawrence pitch (names sounded familiar; instantly a 1991 Score Don Peters draft pick card popped in my head). Then he said he was drafted by the Braves in the 36th round. Name was Paul. Later on, I looked up every Saint Francis draft pick and there were no pitchers named Paul ever drafted by any team let alone the Braves. Oh well.

Players who WERE drafted out of Saint Francis included Steve Parris, who was a childhood friend of a broadcasting school classmate of mine. Also Kevin Rhomberg, who hit .383 over his 41 game MLB career. Never heard of him in my life until I came across his story in the book I was reading today (same book I mentioned in the opening paragraph... but it was earlier in the day at the Volvo dealership waiting for my car's maintenance work to be completed). He was obsessed with his superstitions. If somebody touched him, he had to touch them back. It got to be that people knew about this and would touch him and run away, such as Rod Carew, who was much faster than Rhomberg. Also, the book mentions Brook Jacoby touching Rhomberg with a ball and then throwing it out of the stadium, which caused Rhomberg to run after the ball so he could touch it back. Apparently this kind of behavior doesn't cut it in the major leagues.

So I guess Paul was full of it. I'm gonna start wearing headphones when I read.