Stood up by Jim Leyland

From time to time, my golf club will get requests from athletes or coaches or actors or other assorted people of note to play a round of golf when they're passing through San Francisco. And in order to keep the peace with the membership of the club, and to make sure the people dropping in treat the course with some sort of respect, one of us assistant pros will play with them.

Today I was supposed to play golf with former Pirates and current Detroit Tigers manager Jim Leyland and "a couple of his coaches." This had me extremely excited, because that meant that in addition to playing with Leyland, I was possibly going to be playing with other former Pirates coaches and players who are currently on his staff. This included Lloyd McClendon, Gene Lamont, Rafael Belliard, and Andy Van Slyke.

Andy Van Fucking Slyke.

I think every boy born in Pittsburgh between 1978 and 1984 had Van Slyke as one of his heroes. Or if he didn't he was a jerk. But Andy Van was my favorite Pirate from those awesome early 90's teams and without a doubt is my favorite Pirate of all time. I can't even remember why I liked him so much. I vaguely recall him sporting awesome anti-glare, reasonable hitting, and making a handful of diving catches.

Anyway, Leyland and his entire staff stood me up as I waited around the golf course for like 90 minutes when I could have been sleeping. So screw off, Jimbo.

But you, Andy Van Slyke, you hang in there, buddy.