Childhood Heroes

For as long as I can remember, Ozzie Smith has been one of my all-time biggest heroes. When I was a child, my favorite day of baseball season was Opening Day, when Ozzie would do his trademark backflip when he took the field. I'm still bitter about the day in middle school that my mother did not let me skip class to meet Ozzie at the sports store he was signing autographs at during school hours. And I still have the piece of paper I did finally get his autograph on at a game the next year. For most of my pre-adolescent and adolescent years, I had a poster of Ozzie hanging above my bed. I collected every card I could find of him, especially one special purchase of his Padres rookie card. And I still have them all. And of course I read his auto-biography! And this is one childhood hero that has not diminished in my mind. One of the coolest things about living in St. Louis now is that the theatre I've been working at is in the same complex as Ozzie's restaurant. And he's there sometimes. I've seen him a couple of times, and I totally got excited the day he said hi to me. Well, today I got to let him into the theatre to look around. And I felt like a giddy little girl again when he looked at me, smiled and said hi. And can I say that he is just the most adorable man ever?

So here's to childhood heroes that remain on their pedestals!