a loaf of bread, a container of milk, a stick of butter, and a rehabbing pitcher

i was reminded recently about an experience i had thirty years ago or so when i was living in orange county. a grocery run to albertson's one day resulted in a quick interaction with big league pitcher steve ontiveros. he was with the angels at that time, working back from injury, and we wound up in the checkout line at the same time.

to be honest, i don't recall exactly why i recognized him. i think it had something to do with me following mlb transactions very closely at that time as i was manually updating rosters in my ea sports tony larussa baseball pc game. it helped that he was wearing an oakland a's sweatshirt at the time. a head nod and a "good luck" later, i was on my way.

he doesn't have any cards that i know of showing him as an angel, so i've added this 1996 upper deck collector's choice card of his

to my "meaningful and just because" collection. him being an athletic on the card in my collection actually makes more sense, if you think about it. bonus point if anyone remembers what influenced the title of this post!