Softball game 2001: The Unofficial Johnny Wharton Fan Club is born
			Who was there: Carol, Farr A, Becky, Willi, Magoo
	If you’ve ever hung out with us, you might have noticed we at times refer to Nick Lidstrom “as a cowboy.” That originated during this trip. This was also the first time ANYONE of the others had EVER met me. I was just Willi’s weird Internet friend till this point. So on the day before classes started for the fall semester, Carol and Willi drove over to my dorm to pick me up, and then we picked Amy and Becky up at their dorm. So, off we went. I don’t remember much from the trip till we got near Willi’s house, where she had to pick up her camera I think it was. First, she showed us “Steve Yzerman’s” house muuhahahaaaa. ;) Then…. as we were coming up to a stop light, which I believe was red but I can’t be sure, this was basically the conversation we were having... “Do you remember a few yrs ago when there was an article in the paper about the Halloween party the Wings had? Nick Lidstrom went as a COWBOY!!!! Ooooh! I would have LOVED to seen that!” Upon hearing this, Willi practically killed us by almost running the light. And this was just the beginning of the trip…once we got to Comerica Park, we saw some players signing stuff, so Willi and I go tearing off to meet Manny Legace, and by doing so we lost the rest of the group lol. I think we infuriated quite a few people too…stepping over them, practically knocking over their drinks. So we met Manny, and then saw Stevie coming out and jogging over right field. It is my dream in life to meet this man, you have no idea. So of course we raced over there – and it had just rained, so I was surprised one of us didn’t slip and go flying. Anyway, we get into a huge throng of people trying to get up to him, but some people obviously don’t know how it’s done. You’ve got to take the initiative!!!! Walk on other people if you have to! This is how me, Willi, and another man ended up standing on the same chair…and uhh….yeah, kind of breaking it. Sorry Mr. Illitch!! J I heard a cracking sound and was like oopsie! But it was ALMOST worth it…we got to within I swear 4 feet of the man. I could almost touch his head, and then he started moving down the line of people, in the opposite direction of where we were. (Check out this picture if you don’t believe me) And would the Little Caesar’s man take our hats over to Stevie? Noo, of course not! I threatened never to eat Little Caesar’s pizza again but this apparently didn’t persuade him. Anyway, we didn’t meet Stevie. We finally found the rest of our people…during the game, Ken Kal did the chicken dance along with us, it was great. Oh, I forgot to mention! This was also the day the unofficial Johnny Wharton fan club was born! John Wharton, the trainer of the Wings, graduated from CMU so we love the man. We had a sign for him, he saw it, and came over to sign stuff for us. He was really cool. Hmm. Ahh, after the game, we all met Darren McCarty. It was a very wonderful experience…he talked to all of us and asked us about college and everything. He even saw our sign for Johnny! J And no, he’s also never signed a real giraffe. Hehe, that’s for you Willi! I love Mac; he’s by far the coolest Wing I’ve met. He doesn’t just stand there and sign your stuff while only saying “Hi,” he’ll actually carry on a real conversation with you. It’s awesome. Hmm…I believe the conclusion to this story is on the way back, all of us fell asleep on each other in the back seat, Carol slept in the passenger seat, and Willi was left alone to sing along to the radio. Ooooh! We took pics with our Johnny sign and mailed them to him…about a week or so later, we got them back, signed! It was a beautiful thing.