Saturday March 5, 2011 will go down as the greatest day of my 19-year-old life. Today was incredible!
So for you who don’t know, I am currently writing for Tennessee Sports Magazine. For the April edition I am writing a feature story on Rick Honeycutt, the Dodgers pitching coach. So today I interviewed Honeycutt, Don Mattingly, Clayton Kershaw, Jonathan Broxton and Hiroki Kuroda via his translator.
When I first walked into the clubhouse, I felt the adrenaline rush kick in and once I stepped foot in the locker room, I was overwhelmed. I looked around the room and there were players everywhere. I was told to approach whoever I wanted to talk to so I decided to go for Broxton. From what I was told he isn’t very talkative but he spoke to me after I told him it was for a southern magazine. After Broxton, I spoke with Kuroda. It was the first time I interviewed a foreign player with a translator. The whole time I was asking questions, I wasn’t sure who to look at.
I had about 20 minutes left until they began practice and that’s when I was introduced to “Honey.” When he was told that I was from Tennessee he gave me a huge hug in the middle of the locker room. Definitely not what I expected! We talked until he had to leave for practice.
When I returned to Camelback for the game, I ran into Charlie Steiner, one of the long time voices of the Dodgers and he remembered me from the Winter Meetings in Nashville. The feeling of being on the other side of the rope was incredible! I was walking alongside some of my favorite players and I just couldn’t believe it!
Kershaw had a great outing and I interviewed him after the 5th inning when the starters were lifted. I walked back over to the field from the clubhouse and met Steve Sax (my mom’s favorite!). Everything just fell into place after that. I interviewed Mattingly and talked to Honeycutt some more. Most of the people in the organization that I had met before were so proud of me and seemed as excited as me.
Right before I walked out of the clubhouse, Honeycutt stopped Tommy Lasorda in the hallway and introduced me to him. Lasorda decided since I was from Nashville, he would tell me a story about building the convent on Pennington near Opryland Hotel.
Today was such a great experience and I have been on cloud nine ever since. I always knew I would make it into the Dodgers’ clubhouse but I just didn’t expect it to be this soon! My dream became a reality today and I can’t wait to see what is next!
