All-Star Dave Stewart

Last night we got in toooooo late to post about the 10th annual "Smokey" Joe Williams Scholarship Banquet but I wanted to let you all know what a fantastic time I had!!! How can I even put all the things I learned and felt here. :-( I don't even know where to begin so I'll just start out by listing a few things I recall that made an impact on me yesterday. And these are things other than what you may already know about the man, like the fact that he won the World Series THREE times.

1. I felt privileged to have had a chance to meet up with Mark and Stew for lunch and that after calling him Mr. Stewart about 4 times, he said I had to call him either Dave or Stew. I liked Stew. That's pretty cool.
2. He is so down to earth, easy to be with and talk with, funny as all get out and just really neat to hang with and get to know. I felt like we had known him for ages instead of a couple of days (well, really just one day for me).
3. He and Mark had me in stitches the entire time I was with them and they made me feel so special. I mean, really....two wonderfully dashing men teasing me constantly about ditching them for a Spurs game....what girl wouldn't feel all warm and fuzzy? lol
4. He has a GREAT sense of humor and his speech was engaging, inspiring, fascinating and just filled with fantastic stories and if you weren't there, I'm sorry for you. If you were there, remember these: players staring up at the moon (same moon as the one at home or not?) and his teammate carrying a 24-inch TV with him during winter-ball so that he can watch "American shows" while in the Spanish-speaking country in which they were playing.
5. He has met the Queen of England.
6. He likes the Three Stooges a lot (Curly was MY favorite) and he's a big prankster. These two things combined actually got him an invitation to sit in the box with the Queen. Again, long story so I wish you were there to hear it at the banquet.
7. When asked what was his proudest moment, he told us a story not about his baseball accomplishments but rather, he shared his experiences of the Bay area earthquake in '89 or '90 and what he did to try and help. This man is just too awesome!
8. He was intrigued by the fact that Mark keeps bees and he had some really great questions about what he now calls Beeology. And then he shared his new knowledge with other people! He was hilarious. He calls Mark the Beemeister. :)
9. He's a caring man to his family and checked on them often. It was nice to see how family-oriented he is.
10. He was so engaging that he made our daughter, Melissa, laugh out loud many times --- I know she had a great time b/c you don't hear that carefree, natural, sweet sound often enough. AND a woman who has shown little interest in the speakers in the past actually had very nice things to say about Stew. Wow. Two hard sells and he nailed them both. We told him we were pretty impressed.

This photo was snapped while San Antonio's KABB sports reporter, Hector Ledesma, interviewed Stew for a news story. I was happy to see them there because for some unfathomable reason, SA media rarely visits our banquet despite speakers like Fergie Jenkins, Monte Irvin, Buck O'Neal and the list goes on...who wouldn't want to hear from these men (even if you weren't a huge baseball fan, these are sports icons!)? Anyway, thank you KABB for sending someone to cover the banquet.

Thanks, honey, for finding yet another wonderful person for us to meet! Let's go to Claremont and make him miss a Lakers game! :)

"Smokey" Joe Williams Scholarship Banquet 2009

Tomorrow night is the big night for baseball fans in Seguin. Mark picked up Mr. Stewart from the airport today and he will be our keynote speaker at tomorrow's banquet. One of the nicest things we enjoy about the banquet is that we get to host the players and really get to know them and their stories. And it's not just baseball stories that they share...their lives, in general, are pretty amazing and it's always a treat to have a few days with them. Hope you can join us tomorrow evening!

And since Mark was entertaining Mr. Stewart, I was sent off the the Spurs/Trailblazers game this evening with a friend. Though I missed Mark, it was also fun to have a girls' night out with my friend! I had a blast Andrea! Especially after I taught you how to properly cheer on the boys and high five for maximum impact. Good job! :) By the way, we had another marvelous game even without two of my favorite players - Tim and Manu. And Tony Parker had 39 points!!! He was amazing after a 37 point game against the Dallas Mavericks last night. I have to give it to him b/c he sure showed up this week. Let's hope the boys keep it up for the Cavaliers, who are in town Friday night. Also, our very own Seguin Sterling Silver Dancers were on hand this evening and I shot a small video bit so I'll see if I can load that up sometime if it is any good. The Coyote danced with them and they looked like they had a blast!

Me & My Dandies

How can one gal be so lucky? Well, who knows but I sure am glad I am that gal. Yesterday was a blur with work as well as the banquet so I didn't even have time to post. Sorry about that.

I can't tell you what a great time we had listening to the stories Fergie and Mr. Marichal had for us. What a privilege to get to spend time one-on-one with each gentleman to get to hear their stories...and do they have a lot of fabulous stories, not just about baseball but also about life and the adventures they have had. Like the time Fergie was fishing in Alaska and came way too close to a bear, who was swimming towards their boat because he noticed the splashing of the fish on Fergie's line. Or how about when Mr. Marichal first learned how to pitch over-handed here in the states (he started out with a sidearm pitch). He told us he didn't even know if he could do it because he'd just never done that before and when he tried, the only way he could see doing the over-hand is to also kick his leg up *really* high. Mark just reminded me he said this is when his "high leg kicking" began. If only you could hear him tell it; it'd be much better. But I loved learning about him. You can visit the National Baseball Hall of Fame for more information about Juan Marichal and Fergie Jenkins.

This year's banquet ranks up there as one of my top three favorites (this is the 9th one we've had). The other two favorites are the years Monte Irvin and Buck O'Neal joined us. However, now that I think about it, we've just had so many great guests, it's really hard to not put them on the list as well.

Fergie Jenkins & Bill Greason

This is a photo of Fergie & Reverand Greason at the 2005 Banquet. They were fantastic and really enjoyed meeting the people of Seguin. They also liked what the City was doing to honor Joe Williams.

The players who have joined us have not only been great athletes but also great people. Past speakers have included local news celebrities, Monte Irvin, Buck O'Neal, Reggie Rivers (Broncos) and many others. One of the nice things about having this kind of event in a small town like Seguin is that you have a chance to get up close to the players and really talk with them. If we had the same players in San Antonio (35 minutes away and 1.5 million in population compared to our approximate 26,000), more than likely fans would not be able to get too close.

Another thing I love about helping Mark when he works on the Banquet is that we play host to these fascinating men and we get to know them as friends. We try to schedule press conferences, meet & greet opportunities particularly so they can talk with young athletes, dinners out and other activities which allow us to show them some good ol' Seguin hospitality. Mark and I are already working on an itinerary for Fergie and our keynote speaker Juan Marichal. So far, we're thinking of a Spurs game and also a tour of our steel mill, and of course an interview on the local radio station.

You can read more about Smokey Joe on the National Baseball Hall of Fame website and also on Mark's blog. Mark has been researching Joe Williams and his family for the past nine years. His research has become his passion and has taken us from Chicago to Washington, DC, to New York City and back to the court house here in town. It's been a fascinating adventure. There's not many people still living who knew Joe Williams so Mark's trying to find and interview as many as possible. There are no immediate family members left that he has found but he has been in touch with a second cousin of Joe Williams. We'll see where that takes us.

Smokey Joe Williams Scholarship Banquet

In case you are in town or will be in town, think about checking out the banquet with us! It should be a lot of fun that evening and it's for a good cause. The money raised goes towards a scholarship for Seguin High School athletes; one for a male and one for a female athlete.

I'll write more about this later. We're off to SA for a Spurs-Clippers game. Go Spurs go!!