It's just "Oil Can" being "Oil Can".....

Tonight was day 2 of the All Star week with the "Block Party and Waterfire" in downtown Providence.

When I left The Gulag I feared the worse for the evening as it was raining quite hard. But by the time I got to the city and parked, it stopped raining. It was actually a mixed blessing as the weather probably thinned the attendance considerably. There were a lot of people, but it if was a clear day, it probably would have been crowded to the point of being almost unmanageable.

My teen's boyfriend has been having a ball these last couple of days and I have just as much fun watching him as he's never been to anything like this before.

When we got there, we went around and got some of the freebees, played some of the games they had set up and got autographs from some of the players in tomorrow night's game.

The best part of the night was the last thing we did. We went to the "Legends" tent to get some autographs from some of the former players that were at McCoy last night. First we met up with the Celebrity Home Run Derby Winner himself, Bill Lee. He was signing autographs and selling his book The Little Red Sox Book. I bought a copy as I never got around to picking it up before and had him personalize it. When I asked him to make it out to "The Hey", he briefly glanced a "okayyyy.." look at me. Trust me, you know you have a unique nickname when The Spaceman thinks your nickname is weird. I also got my picture taken with him.

Next I got went to get an autograph from Dennis "Oil Can" Boyd, another colorful former Sox pitcher. Now ol' "Oil Can" was never, well, the reliable sort when it came to personal commitments, like personal appearances and autograph sessions. In fact I've been burned in the past in his playing days in the mid 80s when he blew off an appearance at a car dealership, not to mention the fact he showed up 2 hours late for last night's festivities and didn't even get into uniform. So I personally was amazed that not only was he was there signing autographs, he had been there doing so for the last 3 hours before we got to the tent.

When it was my turn to get an autograph, he took the ball signed his first name and started to write his last name when.....his cell phone rings. He picks up the phone and walks away out of the tent....without finishing writing his own name.

The attendant was wondering what I was waiting for, so I told her that he didn't finish the autograph. She just shakes her head like it didn't surprise her a bit. I asked her if he was coming back and she said with a smirk "Maybe. Maybe not." She was no older than 19, but obviously she was very well coached on what to expect from him. A few moments later he did come back and finish the autograph. He kinda messed it up a little by trying to finish where he started, but it didn't matter to me all that much. My teen's boyfriend got his intact before and that was more important.

Now if that were any other celebrity or player I would think to myself "What a jerk!" or worse and be totally appalled. But knowing the history of Oil Can I just thought more of it as a funny anecdote (like what I'm writing now) than anything. Not to excuse the behavior, but I know that's just how he is wired. Always has been. So when I hear the "Manny being Manny" stories in the paper or on talk radio, I always think to myself "At least Manny isn't being Oil Can".

After that it started to rain a little more heavily so we didn't even think about checking out the concerts or Waterfire and called it a night. But we had a good evening. Hopefully the weather will cooperate as I'm really looking forward to tomorrow night's game.