narratives_reading_listening_fmri/stimuli/story_06.txt

I grew up a uh a huge fan of of the New York Yankees, which when I was very small involved going to games. maybe once a year with  my my father and my little brother watching uh Reggie Jackson and a little bit older watching uh David Winfield and I kind of came into my teens uh Don Mattingly who was you know my absolute favorite player and as I I went to high school in New York and {BR} it was kind of a turning point the first time that I went to a Yankee game by myself, and I started going to Yankee games by myself and it was at one of these games in the fall of nineteen ninety one that I went up to the stadium, bought a ticket {BR} to the bleachers and went and sat in the bleachers and I was watching {BR} um the game and noticed for the first time something that I'd I'd been to the stadium so many times before but I'd never seen uh this kind in right field wearing a Yankee uniform who was a bat boy playing catch with {BR} the right fielder and I'd never noticed the bat boy before and this kid could not play catch for his his life. He's throwing the ball over {BR} Jesse Barfield's head, the right fielder and he was one hopping him and I was like I I'm not a great athlete but I can play catch at least at least as well as this kid can {LG} and I don't understand why he has you know that job and and I couldn't. 

{LG} And so {LG} I went home that night and I tore a page out of the program that listed all the different you know Yankee executives and I wrote a hand written letter to everyone from Steinbrenner on down to Stump Merrill who was the manager at that point, and basically said my name is Matt and I'm {BR} sixteen years old and I'm a huge fan of the Yankees and {BR} you know I don't know if you can apply for this bat boy position but if you can I really would like an application and I'm so excited to hear from you that if I don't hear from you soon I'm gonna follow up with, with a phone call. so {LG} I sent these off and about two weeks went by and after you know two weeks I hadn't heard anything and so I picked up the phone and the s s the Yankee switchboard number was on the same list of executives and the secretary answered the phone "hello New York Yankees" and I said "Hi this is Matt McGough and I {BR} sent a letter in a couple weeks ago about applying for a bat boy position and nobody got back to me" {LG} So she's like, ok, well I'll take your name down and I'll have somebody get back to you and she took took my number down and another week goes by and I don't hear anything. So {LS} I pick up the phone again and I call and this woman answers the phone "hello New York Yankees" and {BR} I say "Hi, this is Matt {LS} you know, I sent some letters in about the bat boy position and I called last week and somebody was supposed to call me back but you know I thought it was kind of rude that that {BR} that they hadn't. {LG} And so she you know she laughed and she asked me "how old are you" And I said sixteen, and she laughed some more and I didn't really understand what she was laughing at, but {BR} you know she took down my name again, she said you know, I'll I'll make sure that somebody gets back to you, so you know a few days later sure enough in the mail, um a letter arrived on on Yankee letterhead, official letterhead, and it invited me to come up to the stadium for an interview with Nick Priori, who's the clubhouse manager. 

{BR} So I put my jacket and and tie on, I don't even think I told any of my friends about this cause it was way way too weird to explain {LG} so {LG} I went and took the four train up to the stadium, and walked into the you know walked around the stadium and this is October, so they weren't playing in the World Series in October back in ninety one, so it was very, very quiet, and {BR} I walked around the Stadium and walked into the Yankee lobby and {LS} there's this security guard there and I {BR} introduce myself and I say I'm here for the bat boy interview {LG} and he picks up {LG} the telephone and he's like you know Nick some kid's here to see you and you know ok I'll and so he says have a seat, so I sit down in in the pinstripe lobby and I'm {BR} you know passing about ten minutes waiting for this guy Nick to come up for  the first job interview of my life, for the first job of my life, and I'm, you know, trying to think of the questions that he might ask me so I'm ready to uh {BR} tell him what my favorite subject is in school and {BR} tell him you know, why I think the Yankees need a big bat behind Mattingly you know, {LG} to win the pennant next year and what you know Mickey Mantle's batting average was in nineteen fifty six and like all these {BR} {LG} different questions and so you know, you know I'm kind of passing the time and these double doors burst open and this guy walks in, obviously Nick {BR} but he doesn't introduce himself he's, you know, could be anywhere from forty to eighty years of age {LG} he has this greased back hair and he's has a stogy between the two teeth left in his mouth and a chew of tobacco possibly also and this wife beater t-shirt and {BR} Yankee shorts and white athletic socks pulled up to his knees and he's shoe polish like uh black sneakers that are obviously like shoe polished and he just looks at me and says "are your parents gonna mind you taking the train home late at night?" {BR} {LG} So I say, you know, I take the train to school every day I think it I think it will be fine and he just kind of looks at me and finally I say, "no, I don't think my parents will mind me taking the train home late at night" and he says "well, come back opening day." 

So {LG} that was October, you know I go home, I think I have the job, {LG} I'm not really sure, and you know six months later Opening day nineteen ninety three {LG} I show up at nine A.M., I put on my jacket and tie, I walk back to the stadium, I go back downstairs, you know, through these tunnels, and come to this, you know, big steel door that says Yankee clubhouse and I walk inside and it's complete {BR} pandemonium and you know there's {BR} uh these ball players that I'd only seen before on T.V. are across rows and rows of stadium seats and like they're there in the flesh in front of me and Don Mattingly is there over {BR} you know on the right, and I had a poster of Don Mattingly above my bed, you know, for my whole life, and he's standing right over there and Jimmy Key, the ace of the pitching staff is over there and {BR} and all these guys and, you know opening day Yankee stadium is not just a sports event, it's a news event, it's the beginning of Spring, and {BR} in New York. And Mayor Dinkins is there with his entourage and like "it's Mayor Dinkins and Don Mattingly" you know, it's {BR}. So uh I'm walking around and kind of lost and I figure, you know I better go find find Nick so I {BR} walk up to Nick, and I say, Nick what do you you know what do you, I'm Matt, we met a couple of months ago, what do {LG} you want me to do? It's my first first day of work so. He says, "stay the F. out of my way" so I kind of like {LG} shrink back and throw my backpack over on the side and just kind of wandering around in a daze and I feel a tap on my shoulder. 

{LS} I turn around and it's Don Mattingly, and he sticks his hand out and he says, "how's it going {BR} I'm Don Mattingly {BR} . Are you going to be working with us this year?" {LG} Which, you know, even at that moment, I'd never really thought about the experience in those terms, and he could have said so many other things that wouldn't have been as cool as that, like he could have said, you know, are you the, who are you, are you the new bat boy, are you gonna be working for us this year? But he said , you know, "I'm Don Mattingly, are you gonna be working with us this year" So {BR} I said, I know who you are, mister Mattingly, I'm Matt, I'm the new bat boy, and he's like "Great to meet you, Matt" {LS} {BR} I have a very big, very big job to ask of you. I've just unpacked all my bats fro from Spring Training and I don't know if it was the altitude of the flight up from Florida, or the humidity down there, or what, but the game starts in about two hours, and I need you to find me a bat stretcher. {BR} So I say ok, so I go {LG} I go and find Nick, {LG}, and I go you know, Nick is is busy, probably half a dozen ball players are like bothering him for double A batteries or, you know, my hat size, my hat's too small, or this or that, and I go up, and I'm like, Nick, I need a bat stretcher for Don Mattingly. And he lets loose with a stream of expletives that {BR} fell on I swear completely virgin ears {LG} like I never {LG} never heard that type of language in the movies before, or anywhere, let alone directed at me. So I kind of like rock back on my heels, and {BR} go and find somebody I can trust, like Nick's assistant Rob, and I ask him, you know, I need a bat stretcher for Don Mattingly, and {BR} Nick told me to go F. myself. And I {LG} I don't know what to do, so {LG} he was like, chill out, you know I saw Danny Tartabull using one in his locker. So Danny Tartabull's the you know, power hitting right fielder, {BR} I go to his locker, and I'm he's getting dressed in his uniform, and I stand off on the side, and he says, you know, how's it going? {BR} And I'm like fine. I'm Matt, I'm the new bat boy and I need a {LG} bat stretcher for Don Mattingly. And I heard you were just using one, so he's like, well I was using one but I left it in the manager's office you should probably go check in there. {LG} So I say, thanks, and he says see you around, and I go into the manager's office and walk in and Buck Showalter the manager is having a press conference with probably {LG} like eight or ten reporters. And I stand off on the side, and I'm kind of, you know. The conversation comes to a standstill basically because there's a sixteen year old kid there in his Easter blazer and jacket {BR} in standing in the manager's office  of the Yankee Stadium two hours before first pitch on opening day looking very lost and very anxious. And {LG} Showalter turns to me, and he's like "can I help you"? And I say, I I'm Matt, I'm the new bat boy. {LG} I'm really sorry to interrupt but {BR} I need a bat stretcher for Don Mattingly. And Danny Tartabull says that he left it in here. So {LG}. Showalter looks down, like beneath his desk, and you know, he's like, well you know, I do you need a right handed one or a left handed one? {LG} {NS} So this is the first moment all day that I actually, you know, this is the first question that I had that I could answer with complete confidence. Cause you couldn't have grown up in New York at that time you know without knowing that Mattingly was the best left-handed hitter in baseball. So I say, I need a left handed bat stretcher. {LG} So he's like, well, I think we maybe have a right handed one around here, but probably not a left handed one. {LG} And like you should try down at the Red Socks clubhouse and see if they have one {LG} . So I say OK, thanks you know, I'm sorry to interrupt. 

I go off, at this point I'm like sprinting down the hallways, like the tunnels beneath the stands the first base stands of the stadium and I run into the Red Sox Clubhouse and find their equipment manager and give him like the whole story I'm Matt I'm {BR} the new bat boy for the Yankees and Danny Tartabull left his right handed bat stretcher in uh in Buck Showalter's office and I need a left handed one and like the game's about to start, and {BR} he's like, calm down. Like, you know, we don't have one but we need one, like here's twenty bucks {LG} go up to the sporting good store on one sixty first street and River avenue and buy two {LG} . Like buy a left handed one for Mattingly, and a right handed one for us and then bring me back the change. {LG} So he gives me the twenty, I put it in my pocket, I run upstairs, you know, at this point it's like an hour before opening day, {BR} the fans are coming down, like fifty thousand fans are coming down from, you know, the subway in the opposite direction that I'm walking, I'm the only person in the world who knows that, you know, if I don't come through on this mission Mattingly is gonna go up there against Roger Clemens and the Red Sox on opening day Yankee Stadium with a toothpick in his hand, basically {LG}. So. I'm like fighting against the crowd, and feeling so much weight on my shoulders, and I make my way, you know, and I'm about to cross the threshold of Stan's sporting goods when it dawns on me, like I've played {BR} a lot of baseball in my life, and I've you know, {BR} been a big fan for a while and like I don't even know what a bat stretcher looks like. {LG} And and it, this moment that I'm like walking into the store, it dawns on me for the first, first time, like is uh is this a joke? Like could this possibly {LG} could this possibly be a joke? And if it, you know, but I had so much fear because like if it is a joke and I like go back and I tell Don Mattingly you know, I'm too smart to fall for your you know, your B. S. bat stretcher story, {LG} and I'm wrong, I'm gonna be back in the bleachers, like before my very first game, you know, and and lose my dream job. So {LG} . You know, I take three laps around the stadium, kind of convincing myself like it's gotta be a joke, you know, like it's gotta be a joke and I you know I walk back, back in, I go down the stairs, I walk into the clubhouse, Mattingly winks at me from across the clubhouse a couple of other ballplayers laugh. {LS} {BR} Mattingly goes three for five that day, Yankees win, it was my first day in pinstripes. {BR} And uh, you know, I didn't learn until later on that I was the first kid in anyone's memory to have gotten the job without having a connection, without you know, somebody knowing somebody or my dad knowing somebody or {NS} or whatever, which was, you know, a lesson {NS} a lesson in itself, and {BR} you know, as intensely naive my pursuit of that job was, you know, I was probably as naively intense in chasing the bat stretcher, but {BR} {LG} you know  the lesson in the story is, you know, when there is {BR} , with a great deal of persistence, and a little bit of common sense, even if the thing you're chasing may not exist, you can sometimes will it into being. Thank you. {NS}