Perfect Pitch

While it is definitely Kevin’s arena when it comes to sports, I’m going to briefly step up to the plate – just for a minute – because I met Len Barker.

It was 26 years ago today that he pitched a perfect game against the Toronto Blue Jays. As you can imagine, the guys at the office (and some of the girls too) were in awe. My co-worker coaches his son’s baseball team. He ran out to his car, grabbed every baseball he had, cleaned up the scuff marks as best he could, and started handing them out to everyone – and then a line began to form. Len was attending a brief meeting at our office – afterwards, he signed every baseball we had. Talk about being a good sport!

What I found to be truly cool is that each person Len Barker signed a baseball for thanked him profusely – and Len thanked each one of them in return – sincerely! I believe Len was pretty shocked to see so many interested individuals. You could just sense how surprised and flattered he was to still be held in such high regard - even after 26 years! That’s just cool.

Now, I’m not what you would call an “autograph” kind of girl. I just don’t really get it. And yes, that includes musicians! Although I did meet and have my picture taken with local musician Michael Stanley years and years ago. More notably and recently, (April 15, 2006, to be exact) I met and had my photo taken with the Goo Goo Dolls – one of the coolest experiences ever! So that being said, all I did was shake Len’s hand. We all did. Nice guy. As he left, he turned to me again and said, ‘it was nice meeting you.’ Then, it just sort of hit me…maybe I should have asked for his autograph.

These days, Len owns his own construction company fittingly named Perfect Pitch! Check it out.