May 16: Me, Nick and Robert Patrick

My buddy, Nick, and I went downtown to Comerica Park to watch the finale of a 3-game set between the Tigers and my beloved Boston Red Sox. And, our seats were fantastic - 25 rows back behind home plate; in the Tigers' family section nonetheless. Anyway, we're having a dog and a beer, chatting up some baseball, when this kind of rough, motorcycle looking dude in jeans carrying his black leather jacket passes through our row and into the seats behind us. He's probably there a few minutes when this couple comes down, and apparently have the one open seat next to me on the aisle and the one directly behind it. Well, this cycle dude was very cool and offered up his seat, so the couple could sit together, then takes his place in the seat to my left. The whole time, I'm thinking "Who is this dude? He looks really familiar", as my celebrity antenna starts getting a vibe. I finally figured it out about the same time he had flipped open his cell phone to make a call and announced to the person on the other end of the line "Hey, this is Robert Patrick". You know, the T-1000 from Terminator 2, who terrorized Edward Furlong and Arnold the entire film. However, this is more what Mr. Patrick looked like at the ballgame. And, the guy was extremely cool and friendly. We literally chatted baseball with him the entire nine innings of ball. He's a huge Dodgers fan, saying he's lived in LA for over 30 years. But, he's currently in Detroit "doing some work" as he put it. We discovered later that he's shooting a sequel to the S.W.A.T. movie. Here's a list of his other films. Ironically, the guy also went to high school in Farmington, MI. The best thing about the whole experience is that, although Nick and I knew who he was, we never mentioned it. We figured the guy just wanted to blend in and hang out, and we were cool with that. And, I do have to mention, that not only was the guy cool with us, he was extremely cordial with the Comerica vendors; tipping every time he bought something which, for the record, amounted to two dogs, a bag of peanuts and 2 bottles of Diet Pepsi. Crazy, huh? Well, the weirdness didn't end at the ballpark. Afterwards, Nick and I met my old college roommate, Doug, for a beer at Champps in Troy. Doug is the Assistant Trainer for the Tigers. We're catching up at the bar and Gerald Laird, the Tigers' Catcher, walks in with his daughter. About 30 minutes later, the bartender comes over and tells us that "the baseball player" wants to buy us a round of beers. So, in one day, I sit next to Robert Patrick, watch my Sox and have a beer courtesy of Gerald Laird. I half expected to see a UFO on the drive home.