this seaver is not related to tom

several months ago, i picked up one of the non-dodger cards on my "bonus" nefarious 9 list. it's this 1988 topps growing pains card

the text on the card tells you all you need to know about it. that is the late alan thicke who portrayed the seaver family patriarch on the tv show "growing pains".

i wanted the card in my collection because i had a memorable (to me) encounter with thicke - one that i alluded to in the comments on a post about my interaction with nasa legend gene kranz.

so my story goes like this. i was in college when wayne gretzky began his tenure with the los angeles kings. i had been a hockey fan all of my life thanks to my canadian parents, but very few people that i knew also followed hockey. i did have one hockey aware friend who was also attending college in southern california at the time, and we were talking that day about going to a sports bar to watch the kings' opening night game. i said what the heck, let's go to the game. so, we got in my car and drove to inglewood.

we parked in a residential neighborhood and flagged down a very nice gentleman who was selling tickets on a street corner. we gave him all the cash we had, which for poor college students wasn't too much, and went into the fabulous forum. our seats were pretty good - in the lower section of the forum on one of the blue lines. we pretty quickly noticed that the cast of "growing pains" was sitting in the row in front of us. my friend and i were on the aisle of our row, and at one point thicke got up to head to the concourse. i called out to him just as i would call out to gene kranz in a few years' time. thicke didn't immediately respond, but then turned to me and said "yeeeeeeeeeeeeeessssssssss?" at that point i didn't know what to say so we both sort of agreed to go about our own business.

here's my ticket stub from that game

thicke's friend gretzky scored the first kings' goal and the place went crazy. he assisted on three others, and the kings beat the red wings 8-2. it was a really memorable experience and i am glad that my friend and i did the spontaneous thing. i did get a parking ticket for leaving my car where i did, but the $35 fine was worth it. and then, nine days later, i was in dodger stadium with my dad to witness kirk gibson's walk-off home run in game 1 of the world series. not a bad stretch for a sports fan like me!

here's the back of the card, by the way

"meet alan thicke", huh? i kinda sorta did. now if there were only some "l.a. law" cards out there, i could share my most awkward celebrity/actor encounter.