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Steve Trachsel was the first player on the Cubs
that I met. This occurred during my first visit
to a Cubs Convention and happened in January of
1996. I had an idea in my mind on how it would
be when I actually talked to a player that they
would sign something and then rush you out of
his way. I had never met Trachsel, nor had I followed
the Cubs carefully enough to know he had a
miserable 1995 (see bottom photo). On the first night of the Cubs Convention, there was an event called "The Autograph hunt". After collecting a couple. I decided to go where I knew there was a couple of players. Somehow I got into one of the lines (none of the names meant anything to me at the time so I didn't really care). It happened that I was in Brooks Kieschnick's line. I realized that there was only about 10 minutes left before the end and I knew I wouldn't make it. I looked to the left and saw this really short line and asked somebody who was there. They said "Trachsel". I thought, "What the heck!" I crossed over and decided to make a memorable comment. When I got up to him, I said, "I hope you don't get writer's cramp after tonight!". He practically fell on the floor laughing and I got a very warm greeting. I wasn't until later how much of sarcastic comment that was. Needless to say this was a player I intended to pay closer attention to. On the last day of the convention I was killing some time and saw that he had a photo shoot with Ozzie Timmons. I thought again, "what the heck". Before I even got up to the platform I got this: "Hey! How you doing!??" It was a neat moment to be in. Now I thought, "here is a player to root for" and root for him I did. He had a spectacular 1996. I saw him a few other times in later years and was still receptive and friendly. The last fan function I attended was at Harry Carrays in 1998. I was talking to him and his fiancee approached and started to tugging away at him and he stayed there to talk even still. Let us hope that he has a better year where he is going! |
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