My Surreal Moments (10/30/02)

Hey everyone, Ray here.

Just checking in to say hello and share a couple of surreal experiences I had the last couple of days. First was on sunday when I got to attend the seventh game of the World Series. The energy and excitement would of been enough of a thrill for me, but in the sixth inning something topped it all.
I went to the game with Brad Garrett, Jon Manfrolotti (Gianni) and Kevin James. We had great seats behind home plate and were signing autographs off and on thru-out the whole game. The fans were very into the show. Anyway, in the sixth Brad went to the mens room in the Diamond Club and came back to the seats and said something I had to laugh at when I first heard it, because of it's absurdity. He looked at me with a straight face and said "Ray, Willie Mays wants to meet you."

Now for those of you maybe too young to know who or what Willie Mays means to baseball, just think this, he's the Babe Ruth of our time.
Some of you may not even fully get that comparision if your not a baseball fan. Let me try again. He's like the Beatles of early rock, he's the Laurence Olivier of acting, he's the Frank Sinatra of singers, he's the man of baseball, the "say hey" kid.

Lets put it simply, he's arguably the best player to ever live.

And he wants to meet me.

I almost choked on my Cracker Jack.

We went into the restaurant and we sat and talked and laughed with Willie Mays for about a half hour, after which he signed some hats and balls which he had a guy go buy for us.

I still can't believe it. I figure the fact that I'm writing it down to tell you must mean it really did happen, plus I'm holding two baseballs with his signature on them. Which brings me to my next question, How do you get on E-bay? (of course kidding)

The second great thing happened the next night when myself and the writers from the show went to see Paul McCartney in concert at the Staple Center in Los Angeles.

Now it's not the same story, I didn't get to meet Paul McCartney. I mean come on, he's the Willie Mays of rock and roll. No I didn't meet him, but I did see and hear him. Again this may appeal to the older web fans, but we all know who the Beatles were. And we all know that it was long ago when they were magical and that you'll never hear them together again. Two of them aren't even with us anymore. TO those out there who grew up with the Beatles and know the impact they had first hand, imagine if you could see them together for one night, somehow.

Well there he was , Paul McCartney, sounding as great as he did 40 years ago. I swear when he played some of those great Beatle songs, you could close your eyes and almost go back in time. At one point he did a tribute to John Lennon and George Harrison to a continuous standing ovation.

The whole night was nostalgic and wonderful, and bittersweet, and euphoric, all in one.

Not to mention the tickets were free.

Seriously, I'm not a concert going guy, but if you were and are a Beatles fan, go see him if you can.

Anyway, that was two pretty amazing days, and now myself and Phil and the writers are back in the smelly office trying to write comedy. That's what I love about the show, you can't sit back and revel in the success or the excitement of it for more than a second because the next 40 pages of comedy has to be written. It's the hardest yet most rewarding thing there is for me, next to my children.

Okay, this whole entry was a little heavy, and maybe not funny enough, but can't I just share once in a while.

Talk to you soon, thanks for watching.

Ray