So I think it will be hard to top Mike's story about meeting Edgar Sosa at a football tailgate and his girlfriend asking Edgar if he reads this "blog", and Edgar saying, basically, yes, sometimes. But I have a fun "meeting a UofL player" story about one of my favorite players of all time.
Before going to law school and getting married, and before and during the Boom years of 2002-2004, I used to play a lot of poker at the boat. Every so often there would be a guy who would play in or around the same games who I thought looked familiar, but he wore his hat really low and never really talked to anyone. Finally, a few weeks after playing with him, for the first time but not saying anything, he was seated two to my right. After awhile, I got up the courage, and here's how the conversation went:
CF922: Hey man, are you from Louisville?
Player1: Ya.
CF922: Did you go to Christ the King grade school?
Player1: Naw, my uncle coached there though.
CF922: Did you go to Ballard High School?
Player1: Yes.
CF922: Did you go to UofL?
Player1: Yes.
(pause)
CF922: Have you ever lived in Minnesota?
Player1: (finally smiling) Ya man, it was cold up there.
After a little while longer, I confessed that I was a huge fan of his, and that my favorite game he played was, of course, against UK in the 94-95 season game at Freedom Hall. We talked a little bit about playing for UofL, what he was doing now (playing in Mexico) and some poker stuff. We'd see each other again at the boat a handful of times over the next few months, and one time while we were both at the snack bar waiting for food, he told me I was a good poker player.
And that's how I became Poker Friends with my favorite Cardinal player of all time, DeJuan Wheat.
via grfx.cstv.com
