Jake Peavy livin’ it up at KAM’S

Well I just had one of the more interesting nights of my life.

The scene: The DI Sports Bar Crawl is underway at Joe’s Brewery and things are just starting to get exciting on the poles. Then, a phone call was received from a friend of a friend of DI on-air reporter, Jon Stiffler in fact, who said Jake Peavy, Roy Oswalt and Brad Penny — three of the National League’s most dominant pitchers (Peavy, my favorite player/hero being the 2007 NL Cy Young winner) — were at KAM’s fraternizing with the UI student body.

In my best Cosmo Kramer impersonation, I said: “Let’s go.”

You have to understand, I just bought a brand new Jake Peavy jersey two weeks ago — one that I had been wanting for years (tip of the cap to deputy news editor Sky Opila, who found the jersey on eBay for me for just $16.)

Sky, good timing.

So I went up to Jake first, him being my hero and all, said hello and shook his hand. Shook his hand, people!

Just to refresh your memory, Peavy’s 2007:

IP: 223.1
W-L: 19-6
ERA: 2.54
Ks: 240 (!!!)

We chatted for a few minutes, and he explained that he was in town on a hunting trip with Penny and Oswalt. I congratulated him on his Cy Young. He seemed appreciative.

Peavy chatting it up with some Champaign locals

Then I told him I had just bought the aforementioned jersey. I don’t think he believed me and the conversation pretty much ended there. Well, what happened next should come as no surprise.

I ran home, got the jersey and a Sharpie, ran back and presented it to him. He put it on, danced a bit, took a photo with me and signed it: “Jake Peavy, 44, ‘07 NL Cy Young.”

Best moments of my life, in order:

5. Getting accepted to Illinois
4. Getting my vintage Ditka sweater
3. My Bar Mitzvah
2. Bringing my dog, Hayley, home from the pet store
1. Meeting Jake Peavy

And that was that. I have an 8-page paper due tomorrow at 10 a.m. that I haven’t started. And here I am, blogging about Peavy, Oswalt and Penny at 1:30 a.m.

I’m busting.

A better journalist than myself would have really focused on the interview at hand, but I think exceptions can be made for meeting your hero…right?

From DI on-air sports director Alex Symonds:

Tune into WPGU 107.1 FM on Friday from 6-7pm before the Illini hockey coverage for a possible interview with all three. Please tune in to Standing Room Only at the above mentioned time to hear from the MLB all-stars.

Sidenote: It’s unbelievable how starstruck college men can get at the sight of players such as these. It’s like they were middle school girls in the late 1990’s at an *Nsync concert. This is by far one of the best moments of my young life.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 29th, 2007 at 1:29 am and is filed under Jake Peavy, My Hero, KAM'S, '07 NL Cy Young. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.