The College World Series started today and, if you must know, I'm hoping Southern Miss wins. I knew their coach, Corky Palmer, who is retiring, when he was a junior college coach in Mississippi.
It was 15 years ago, but I was a pup reporter and rode with him and his team to the Junior College World Series in Grand Junction, Colo. (Yes, they drove a bus from Mississippi to Colorado.)
One thing on the trip has been a story I've shared many times. A few former major leaguers have laughed at this, too.
The school's athletic director handled all the off-the-field expenses and arrangements. The AD dispersed the meal money, made the hotel reservations, dealt with the bus company, etc.
In professional baseball, this person is known as a traveling secretary. It's a tough job and those who do it have my every respect -- see this story, which asks if it's the toughest job in sports.
I mentioned to the AD that "you're kind of like the traveling secretary for this trip." Well, this AD thought I was saying their job was like a secretary's.
During the week we were out there, the AD would call the higher-ups at my paper about anything I did that the AD didn't like. The AD also complained to everyone around the team, including Palmer, about anything I did, too. I didn't find out until we got back what I had done to offend the AD, who never asked me about my comparison.
While we were in Grand Junction, my sports editor said I should talk to Corky because they had been complaining about me. We did. (The sports editor didn't tell me why the school may have been offended.)
I asked Corky why he seemed agitated with me and apologized if I had offended him in any way -- but not the AD. He told me not to worry about it. We were eating together at the time and he asked if I wanted a beer. I don't drink, so I turned it down. I laughed when he replied: "You went to college, didn't you?"
Good guy. So is his assistant, Scott Berry. I'll pull for USM this week ... unless I find out that AD is now working for the school, of course.
It was 15 years ago, but I was a pup reporter and rode with him and his team to the Junior College World Series in Grand Junction, Colo. (Yes, they drove a bus from Mississippi to Colorado.)
One thing on the trip has been a story I've shared many times. A few former major leaguers have laughed at this, too.
The school's athletic director handled all the off-the-field expenses and arrangements. The AD dispersed the meal money, made the hotel reservations, dealt with the bus company, etc.
In professional baseball, this person is known as a traveling secretary. It's a tough job and those who do it have my every respect -- see this story, which asks if it's the toughest job in sports.
I mentioned to the AD that "you're kind of like the traveling secretary for this trip." Well, this AD thought I was saying their job was like a secretary's.
During the week we were out there, the AD would call the higher-ups at my paper about anything I did that the AD didn't like. The AD also complained to everyone around the team, including Palmer, about anything I did, too. I didn't find out until we got back what I had done to offend the AD, who never asked me about my comparison.
While we were in Grand Junction, my sports editor said I should talk to Corky because they had been complaining about me. We did. (The sports editor didn't tell me why the school may have been offended.)
I asked Corky why he seemed agitated with me and apologized if I had offended him in any way -- but not the AD. He told me not to worry about it. We were eating together at the time and he asked if I wanted a beer. I don't drink, so I turned it down. I laughed when he replied: "You went to college, didn't you?"
Good guy. So is his assistant, Scott Berry. I'll pull for USM this week ... unless I find out that AD is now working for the school, of course.
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