Monday, May 04, 2009

Koyie Hill @ AU Sports, Skokie IL

This post could also be called, "Reason #23984 Why I Should Be a Cubs Fan." (More details on that in the hopefully near future.)

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Mordecai, Joe and I first encountered Skokie's AU Sports on Dempster before it moved to Village Crossing. I think I was a little bewildered by the disorderly state of the Dempster location but looked forward to the new, near-Chili's location. Aside from Meijer and AU, I have no place to purchase, in person, pricey hobby packs of 2008 Stadium Club with a chance to pull a rookie autograph I already have or what I would consider the haunted Nick Adenhart autograph. Mordecai and I dropped by AU's new location last weekend for its "pre-grand opening." Joe went a few days later, and while the store was closed, he noticed a sign at the door saying that the Cubs' backup catcher Koyie Hill would be doing a signing at AU the following weekend.

We weren't particularly committed to going until the very last minute. The three of us are White Sox fans anyway, and I think our combined knowledge of Koyie Hill was rather minimal. I was kind of curious though, and at this point my love for baseball is so enormous that I'll take any active player's signature and a photo with him. So, along with cards, Mordecai and I got a photograph of Koyie and Joe got a baseball for Koyie to sign. He arrived in a white SUV with his daughter, which was quite endearing, and was very pleasant to everyone. I don't like speaking to strangers unless I have to, so naturally, Mordecai did all the talking. He asked for it to be signed to "Kei and Mordecai." My theory is that as a result, Koyie thought I was absolutely foreign. He also wrote "Go Cubs Go!" which I didn't see on other people's signed things, to the extent that I could see them. On all kinds of levels, I probably am absoultely foreign. Anyway.

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Joe said that Koyie reminded him of Dustin Pedroia. I saw a picture of Pedroia without his helmet recently, and I started to see what Joe was saying. But I think it went more like this: the baseball gods made Koyie Hill and they were like, "Not bad. We'll keep this template." And then they made Dustin Pedroia but something didn't go exactly right, at least visually, along the line. But it was good enough, so they moved on. I don't know if Pedroia has nice teeth, but Koyie had some nice pearly whites.

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Here is Joe with Koyie. Joe admitted to being star-struck.

I don't think I'll ever be a Cubs fan, but I think I'll always be somewhat sympathetic. I have too many connections and I can't seem to evade them (again, more on this later). Andy has Geovany Soto, and I probably won't ever have an opportunity to meet Geovany Soto, and Geovany Soto's shoulder is "sore." Perhaps it will get sore-er. So, I will forever root for Koyie to be the Cubs' starting catcher. Go, Koyie, Go!

5 comments:

Jenni said...

Dustin Pedroia only wishes he looked that good.

Wow! You met a baseball player! I am impressed.

Phoebe Maltz Bovy said...

Those shoes are fantastic! Are they the GAP flats from a couple years ago, or am I imagining?

kei said...

Yes, they're Pierre Hardy for the Gap! I posted pictures of them about a year ago, questioning all the toe cleavage. As a result of this post, if you do a Google image search of "toe cleavage," I'm on bottom row of the first page of results.

Joe said...

since fantasy brought me back into baseball last year
id say im more of a twins fan
even royals with big things happening this year

all above white sox

even during the championship run i could only be mildly bothered
as my overnight work schedule prevented me from caring much about any sport

that day i learned the 'ie' in his name is silent
also he has a pretty nice auto although the flash ate the one on the ball

Joe said...

by the way
as im sitting here admiring the ball in its nice $2.50 acrylic coffin

im still starstruck

i had never touched a real baseball before in my life either
i think we should get a baseball for our fantasy league and get all the managers to sign it