San Diego Madres Luncheon

Luncheon meetings are summarized below (starting with most recent month). Feel free to scroll down the page to view or select one of the following months to jump directly to the article you would like to read.

Our Padre guest was none other than the Cookie Monster, AKA Heath Bell! The first order of business was for Heath to down some chocolate chip cookies, as a judge, with a nice cold glass of milk. Heath was very complimentary as he chose cookie #13, Darlene Graham’s batch, as his favorite!

Heath was born in San Diego; his dad was a Marine at Camp Pendleton. He was raised in Orange County. He has the baseball gene in him, as his grandfather played for the Pirates. Heath is the youngest of four children; he has two older sisters and an older brother. He and his wife, Nicole, have three children, Jasmine, Jordan, and Reece. He attended Rancho Santiago Community College, also known as Santa Ana Community College. He was picked up by the Mets organization at open trials. Traded by the Mets, Heath is glad to be home with San Diego, since he grew up going to both Padres and Angels games.

One very impressive thing about Heath is that he wants to sign autographs for the kids. He remembers what a thrill it was for him, as a child, to get a ballplayer to sign something for him! He has wanted to pitch since he was five years old. In the off-season, Heath, Nicole, and children make their home in Florida, where he plays with his children, takes them to school, coaches’ soccer, and annoys his wife. When asked what his favorite things are he said, “I love my kids, I love my wife, I love cookies, and I love baseball!”

The June luncheon was extra-special for the Madres. We were regaled with tales of “our guys” by Jane Mitchell, one of the founding members of Channel 4. Jane grew up a Navy brat in Coronado, playing a little baseball in her youth. Center field was her favorite position; it took the ball longer to get to her!

She became interested in journalism in the eighth grade and graduated in that field from UCSD. Jane’s career has taken her to Texas, but she prefers living here in our perfect San Diego weather! Some of her first “One-on-One” shows were done with Ken Caminiti and Mr. Padre, Tony Gwynn. Her goal is to make our players “real people” for the fans, as she researches and prepares for many hours for each interesting half-hour show. Jane has also profiled Ted Williams, Trevor Hoffman, and Khalil Greene, with many more Padres yet to be interviewed.

At our May luncheon we brought out the red, white & blue in honor of Memorial Day. Susie Butcher started us off with a quote from Ernie Harwell, former Detroit Tigers broadcaster: “Baseball-it’s just a game-as simple as a ball and a bat. Yet, as complex as the American spirit it symbolizes. It’s a sport, a business and sometimes even a religion.”

Our player guest for May was relief pitcher Cla Meredith. This right handed, side-arm thrower, came to us via trade; Cla, and Josh Bard, for Doug Marabelli, we got the best of that trade! He has seemed to thrive here in San Diego; much better than in Boston.

Cla comes from Richmond, VA where he attended Virginia Commonwealth University. He let us know he has 3 sisters, several nieces and nephews and a very close knit family. He didn’t start pitching until he was a senior in High School. When he got to college, he knew being a right handed pitcher throwing 88MPH wasn’t going to get him anywhere. That is when he decided to work on pitching side-arm. He was already throwing side-arm when he played at second base or short stop.

When asked what were some of the things the veterans made the rookies do, he talked about having to dress up last year. He wasn’t thrilled about it but as he put it “hey it’s the big leagues, who gives a crap if you have dress up”. He also talked about carrying the candy bag last year, including the Barbie bag which Alan Embree provided. Cla only carried the Barbie bag for 4 games, the Padres lost 3 of the 4 games so he made the decision to get rid of it. They started winning again, so no one was upset with him. He was reluctant to give it up. The bag seems to be a good luck charm. Whoever is responsible for the candy bag seems to do well.

Cla’s life seems revolve around downtown right now; he works there and lives there; he doesn’t even own a car. If he needs to get somewhere outside of down town he grabs a cab or hooks up with a follow teammate to catch a ride. He was asked why he throws his first couple of warm up pitches, when enters the game, from in front of the mound. He explained that this habit started in college. He would be coming in from playing short or second so he would throw his first couple of warm up pitches from in front of the mound to get stretched out before going up on the mound. He is just continuing the habit; it makes him feel more comfortable. Asked about his routine in the bull-pen during the game; he said he doesn’t have any specific routine once in the bullpen and the game is underway. During the early part of the game he might check out what is going on in the park or even day dream on occasion. As the game moves along, depending on what is happening in the game, he starts to get ready for the call to warm up. He actually admits to getting nervous, he says that is a good thing, if you don’t get nervous, it’s time to get a new job.

Our first guest for the May luncheon was National League Umpire Doug Harvey. He umpired baseball from 1962 to 1992. He not only umpired baseball, he also referees both football and basketball.

He talked about the strike zone. He said it is so confused today. When he learned it, it was based on where the ball crossed the “front edge” of the plate, not where the batter was standing in the box or anywhere else. Asked what were his guidelines regarding ejecting someone from a game; he said a player could say anything, use any language; but put the word “you, you’re or you are” in front of the sentence and you were “out of there!” And he could read lips, so he could “see” what you said even if he didn’t hear it.

In 1997 Doug was diagnosed with oral cancer. He told the doctors he would beat it. He relayed to us how he promised god, if he made it he would talk to 100,000 young people and tell them of the dangers of tobacco. After beating it, he got together with Joe Garagiola to start a campaign against tobacco. To date, he has spoken to 2.5 million!

Our April luncheon was started off with Susie Butcher reading 2 quotes from Jackie Robinson; “The way I figured it I was even with baseball and baseball is even with me. The game had done much for me and I have done much for it” & “There’s not an American in this country free until every one of us is free”.

With a rousing “Good Afternoon, Mr. Cameron” we welcomed our player guest Mike Cameron. Mike told us about his family; he and wife JaBrek have a daughter and 2 sons. He explained that he was having some sinus trouble, made worse by the plates now in his face due to the facial fractures he sustained in 2005 in that outfield collision at Petco. He still also has numbness around his mouth and nose when it’s cold.

He went on to answer questions; when asked if he played other sports in school he told us he played football, basketball and track but it was baseball he stood out in and really took to. Asked if he had any superstitions, he said he wears the same t-shirt under his jersey every game. When questioned as to what he would be doing if he wasn’t playing baseball, he said he’d be an architect. It was asked how the adjustment to Bud Black was going; he said Bud has been really great. He told us Bud has been so supportive during his slump, he relay a story of how Bud had called Mike into his office and asked what “he” could do for Mike, to help him.

He talked about how great this team works together and gets along. This brought up a motivational book for children he helped co-write, “It Takes a Team”. He has read it to school classes in the past and would like to promote it again. All profits from the book went to his Cam4Kids Foundation. Before he left he picked the winner for the “First Pitch” drawing and signed autographs.
Keep up the great work Mike!

Warren Miller, the new director of media relations was our first guest at the April luncheon. Warren came to us from the Seattle Mariners. He has also worked for the Houston Astor’s as well as several Universities before that.

When he got hired by the Padres there was no time to get settled in, it was time for Spring Training to start. He went straight to Peoria to join the team. He told us the first one he met when he arrived at the club house in Peoria was Trevor Hoffman, he was very impressed. One of biggest stories during Spring Training was Cooper Brannan, who he feels is a really good guy as well as a good story.

Giving us some of his background he told us how while growing up his dad was a Pittsburgh Pirates fan. His mom didn’t get up with him in the morning, but his dad did. His dad would make him breakfast and they would sit and talk baseball.

When he applied for this job there were openings with 5 different clubs, but this was the one he really wanted. He really liked the team, the organization and Petco park.
When asked about handling media for Ichiro, he quipped “I’m from Kentucky and can barley speak English, I sure wasn’t going to be interpreting for him”.

The Madres certainly are! We showed it by wearing our favorite jersey to the February Luncheon. Susie started the meeting with a quote the seemed to fit with all the changes during the off season; “Change has a considerable psychological impact on the human mind. To the fearful, it is threatening because it means that things may get worse. To the hopeful it is encouraging because things may get better. To the confident it is inspiring because the challenge exists to make things better.”

We also enjoyed a visit by Jerry Coleman. Jerry entertained us with his usual wit and charm. When asked what he thought about this year’s team “I don’t know, I don’t know who’s on the team” was his reply. And his comment on the pitching staff was “looks good if the old guys make it to the season”. When talking about Tim’s leaving; he felt Tim was getting more comfortable in the booth but feels Tim will be happier on the field. He also added, since Tim left “I will get to work more”! He discussed about what he feels is one of the biggest problems in the game today, steroids. He is very happy to see stronger penalties being imposed. He feels the homerun record is “the” record for hitting in baseball and if/when Barry Bonds breaks the homerun record it should have an “*” attached to it. He said two of the best hitters he has ever seen are Ted William & Tony Gwynn. The only thing Ted had over Tony was that he was a power hitter. He, like everyone was thrilled at Tony’s election into the MLB Hall of Fame.