"Are You Rich Aurilia?"  − 7 May, 2001 - 10 August, 2001

One day on my many trips to the newly constructed Pac Bell Park in San Francisco to see the Giants play the game that summer, I managed to lift my head high enough to see a help wanted sign.  I had been laid off form Leveledge for several months and i was feeling pretty down.  But the sign had sparked my interest, "Work for the San Francisco Giants" it said.  When i got closer and began speaking with the guys behind the table, they told me that they were hiring baseball coaches for the San Francisco Giants Youth Baseball Camps.  I jumped at the chance. 

Within a week I had found myself hooked up with the organization and standing in from of 90 kids aged 5-12.  The number of coaches varied depending on how many kids there was that week, but it usually averaged about 4 coaches.  We all had high school kids as assistants and we were then split into groups.  

The owner, Rob Andrews, played with the San Francisco Giants in the early eighties and he had a good thing going with these camps.  He usually had about 6 to 10 camps going at once in different parts of the Bay area and they went on for 6 to 7 weeks of the summer.  The kids would have a blast. 

During the sessions, I would have about enough kids to fill a team or two.  They would cycle through "stations" where they would learn the fundamentals of the game.   Then we would end up playing a little scrimmage game or something.  It was the first time that I had the opportunity to experience how much a child really looks up to you when you have something to teach them.  It was a great feeling to see them try something new after you had showed them what to do.

During that time Rich Aurilia was playing shortstop for the Giants.  He was hugely popular.  Every week I would inevitably get the question, "are you Rich Aurilia?" from one of my kids.  We both had a goat-te and I would wear a Giants jersey to the park every day.  They usually were not too impressed when I had to tell them I was not him, but it was fun to get the question anyway. 

It was a great summer of baseball and I had the opportunity to work with Rich Murray, Nate Oliver, and Brad Lesley.  Brad was a great guy to know and interesting to hang with.  He had played in the bigs for a couple years, but made it big in the Japan league as the "animal".  He was a 6'5" lefty with a Fu Manchu and a huge personality.  He spoke fluent Japanese and was in a few baseball movies, namely the baseball movies "Mr. Baseball" and "Little Big League".  A man I will always remember.

Coaching baseball was one the highlights of being laid off from Leveledge.  I was a very low paying job, but it was the first time that I was excited to talk about my job with others, and they seemed to be interested in hearing about it. 

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