Our family travels and vacations have come with planned and unexpected encounters, but were always an adventure. On this trip, we encountered a person with celebrity status who, though broken, blessed our family.
I was attending the International Bridge Conference, held each year during the month of June in Pittsburgh, which was a big deal for me. I was the principal author of a paper describing the bridge scour evaluation program that Bergmann and two other consultants ran for the New York State Thruway Authority. We made this event into a family mini-vacation, that included an evening baseball game at the old, Three Rivers Stadium on June 11,1991. It was to be a night of disappointments and blessings. At that time Tim was 9, and baseball was the love of his life. We were all pumped to attend the game between the visiting Los Angeles Dodgers and the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Unfortunately, we left Three Rivers Stadium early that night, wet and disappointed. After a 2.5 hour rain delay the game was cancelled. As we trudged through the parking lot, all I could think about was whether I would be able to get back the $50 I'd spent on game tickets. I also hoped that we could get back to the Gateway Hilton Hotel, where we and the Dodgers were staying, in time for Tim to get autographs from some of the Dodgers. Realizing this possibility, he was easily able to forget about the rainout. We arrived ahead of the Dodgers, and there were already about a half dozen boys waiting around the front lobby near the main doors. The hotel management were not pleased to see these children loitering in their four star hotel and said that when the players arrived, we'd have to go outside to attempt to get autographs.
In 1991, both the Dodgers and Pirates were contenders, and the Dodgers had several big names including Orel Hershiser, Eric Karros, and Darryl Strawberry. In November of 1990, Darryl Strawberry, who had been a New York Met, signed with the Dodgers as a free agent. He was kind of a big deal. Darryl Strawberry was voted to the NL All Star team that year, and later in his career signed with the New York Yankees and was a member of their 1996, 1998 and 1999 World Series Championship teams.
We waited a little longer, then saw several limos arrive with the bulk of the players. What happened next was fast paced. Tim and Corinne went outdoors, but the players passed them by. Darryl Strawberry, a lean 6' 6" tall, towered over everyone. He stopped in front of three boys in the lobby and quietly signed their cards and papers. Tim, who was rarely quiet or patient, raced back inside and positioned himself next to Darryl who autographed his paper too. Tim was filled with awe. I wondered if Darryl Strawberry knew how happy he made those boys. Leading up to that game he had been slumping, and was hampered by injuries. I didn't know too much about Darryl Strawberry at the time, except that he had recently come to faith in Jesus. That night I saw him as a person who was willing to take the time, when nobody from the media was watching, to bring a group of boys some joy by showing an interest in them.
Darryl Strawberry's baseball and personal life has been filled with both success and brokenness. You can read about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darryl_Strawberry . He suffered under an abusive father, was suspended three times by Major League Baseball for substance abuse, suffered two bouts of cancer, and several times was in trouble with the law. Yet, one can see through the brokenness that Darryl Strawberry is a person loved, saved and restored by Jesus, who taught us "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners." (Mark 2:17).
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