AOS Celebrity Encounter Tuesday: Lorenzo Romar Wants You to Give it Your All

In light of Saint Louis University's recent firing of head men's basketball coach Brad Sodberg, I thought it would be relevant to tell of the time I met former men's basketball coach and current University of Washington head coach, Lorenzo Romar.

On Saturday mornings, while a senior in high school, I checked ID's at a local gym. The job was pretty easy: pick up towels, change the water cooler, sweep the floor, make sure nobody blew out their knee, etc. Most of the time I read or studied biology (Probably the reason I remember that Mitochondria = powerhouse of the cell).

Anyway, from 9-12 the gym was reserved for pick-up basketball games. The demographic of this gym was mostly middle age doctors and business man, some local celebrities that your parents would be excited about meeting, and every now and then a former collegiate player--Troy Robertson, Scott Highmark, even Anthony Bonner showed up, until my buddy gave him a hard foul and jeopardized his ten day contract with the Knicks.

On the particular Saturday in question, Highmark showed up accompanied by Romar. For those of you who don't know, Highmark played basketball at SLU in the mid 90s and with Erwin Clagget, H. Waldman, Donnie Dobbs, led SLU to back to back NCAA tournaments.

Now I didn't know much about Lorenzo Romar, but I knew he had played in the NBA. A quick look at Wikipedia confirms that he did indeed play five years for the Warriors. So the field of participants was an All-Conference USA forward, a former NBA player, and a bunch of doctors who had no cartilege in their knees. Bone on bone.



Romar started the game being very defferential. Doing the little things that made him the perfect teammate. Fighting down low for rebounds, solid entry passes and off-the-ball screens. Soon though, his team started to fall behind and that's when Romar morphed into Teen Wolf. Not Jason Bateman Teen Wolf II either. No, we're talking Michael J. Fox, i'm taking this game over Teen Wolf. I mean he was grabbing rebounds at one end, dribbling down the court, pulling up and sinking the shots in another guy's face. Romar was putting on a clinic and brought his team back within one.



But much like the premise of Teen Wolf, the other players became disenchanted with just winning, they wanted to share in the glory. Next time down the court, the ball made its way into the hands of another player. The guy, I believe he was a dentist, was wearing a brace for every appendage, and decided to take a three, which clanked off the rim. Romar was not pleased with the shot selection and decided to let him know about. Romar goes off on this guy at half court explaining the situation, how he has the hot hand, and basically the shot wasn't needed. The dentist tried to defend himself, but Romar would have none of it, telling him next time down the ball had to go through Romar's hands.

Lorenzo Romar: In it to win it

AOS Celebrity Encounter Tuesday: The Day I Disappointed Az Hakim

I was adequate as a high school football player. I started a few games, caught a couple passes, even ensured that our team would win by 41 instead of 34 with a fourth quarter touchdown once. In the long run, I received my fair share of high fives, pad slaps, and chest bumps. But the glory of my high school days did nothing to save me one afternoon during a game of touch football with current Dolphins wide receiver Az-zahir Hakim.

For several summers during college I worked as a camp counselor with a group of 5-8 year olds. The entire day was spent sitting by the pool and participating in kick ball games which became surprisingly competitive. One afternoon, however, the schedule was changed to include a game of flag football.

Hakim had showed up at the athletic club apparently to participate in a flag football camp as part of a PR appearance on behalf of the Rams. Darius Blevins was also present, but much like his Rams career, he spent the better part of the afternoon on the sidelines, enjoying the game.



The kids were not nearly as exicted about playing football with the Rams as the counselors were. In fact, the kids were down right insubordinate to any activity which did not involve air conditioning or a water. So as they sat in the shade, enthralled more with recent grass clippings then Darrius Blevin stories, the counselors began playing touch football.

With the third overall pick in the draft, Hakim took me. To this day I do not know whether this was based on my perceived athletic prowess or his distrust in the female counselors that remained, we may never know. Now, Hakim had played quarterback in high school, so I was prepared for a west coast offense of short precise passes, but mixed with St. Louis Ram like timing routes. For the most part this was exactly what we got. We were coming out of cuts, turning our heads, and Bam! The ball was there, you'd better be ready.

After a series or two, the defense began playing tight at the line, whereupon Az gave me the sign to go deep. He hiked the ball, with an incredible swim move I gained separation. Noticing the six year old safety doing pirouettes instead of providing adequate over the top coverage, Hakim aired out a perfect spiral. I stretched out my hands all the while thinking about how cool it was to catch a touchdown pass from a former NFC special teams player of the week, when the ball caromed off the whispers of my fingertips. Incomplete.



Shaking my head I scuttled off to pick up the ball and return to the huddle, but before i made it back, Hakim met me half way.

Hakim: What happened there?
Me: I guess I just stopped running.
Hakim (staring into the depths of my soul): That's exactly what you did. Don't let it happen again again.
Me(mumbling, too broken a spirit to speak clearly): Ok.

From that point on Hakim tended to look at his other options. however, I was able to let him down one more time that afternoon. After a fellow counselor hauled in a touchdown pass, we met in the endzone to commence a bob and weave celebratory dance. "Az, get over here!" I beckoned. A succinct, "No," made his opinion and impression clear.

AOS Celebrity Encounter Tuesday: Todd Zeile is my Lex Luther

This is going to be a (hopefully) weekly feature where someone relates a "celebrity encounter." Future subjects should include: Jarret Wright; Carlyle Holiday; Juan Uribe; Mario Lopez (AC Slater was a hell of a wrestler); and more. But today's subject is catcher turned third basemen turned first baseman who played for 11 major league teams: Todd Zeile


There's something about meeting a professional baseball player, and not just a professional baseball player, but a professional baseball player on your favorite team. Being indoctrinated as a St. Louis Cardinals fan, you learn from an early age about the pride of the birds on the bat. Your grandmother tells you about Stan Musial and Red Schoendist. Your dad entertains you with tales of Bob Gibson and Lou Brock. You grow up idolizing Ozzie Smith and Willie McGee.


Eventually though you mature and the novelty of seeing a Cardinal in public wears off so that it is not really that disappointing, or disheartening, to show at Humphrey's on Wednesday and see Steve Kline and Eli Marrero hitting on college-aged girls. But when you are a kid walking down the streets of Chicago and you hear your dad say, "Wow, that looks like Todd Zeile." Well, that's a whole other story:

It was July 4th weekend, 1995. Todd Zeile had just been traded from the Cardinals to the Chicago Cubs. I was a whippersnapper, who looked eerily similar to this guy:

Although I might have had thicker glasses.

Anyway, we had just finished dinner and were walking by Planet Hollywood when my dad spotted Zeile waiting in line to get in. This tells you a little about Todd Zeile--he had to wait to get a table at Planet Hollywood, a mere five years after finishing 6th in Rookie of the Year voting. My dad told me to go up and say hello to him.

Oh boy. My legs were like noodles. My palms--sweating like they had just run three pick-up games in a row. What could I possible say? How would he perceive me? Do I go with the hand shake or the high five? After conquering self doubt and being admonished by my dad, I walked up to Zeile.

Me: I'm sorry to bother you, but you really look like Todd Zeile.
Zeile (looking around): I am
Me: Can I just shake your hand?
Zeile (begrudgingly): Sure, I guess.

Todd Zeile wins again!

It does bear noting, though, that from the moment Zeile shunned me, the rest of the season he hit .210 with 7 HR and 25 RBIs, plus he had a deplorable .260 OBP. In contrast, that same year Tom Urbani gave me a high five after I complimented him on hitting a home run at Shea Stadium. He finished that season 1-2 with a 3.55 ERA, striking out 25 and only walking 9 in 38 innings.

That, Mr. Zeile is what we call karma.