Wow! My husband's elementary school gym teacher, Mr. Granderson had a huge retirement party today. His son is the centerfielder for the Detroit Tigers baseball team. It's been so much fun watching his career take off and watching him shine. He was in the World Series last year. This year he was a pre-game commentator with Frank Thomas and Cal Ripken! When I saw him on the show I cried. It literally couldn't have happened to a nicer person. My husband has always talked about Mr. Granderson. They still know each other because my husband's family owns a sporting good store and the Grandersons are long-time customers. The banquet hall was packed. There were people from as far away as Delaware, North Carolina, Mississippi and Alabama. We were at a table next to a group of his college mates from Mississippi and whenever a speaker would say something funny, they would start the dog-barking thing. There was a table with his softball team-they were pretty funny too. With all the athletes behaving badly, it was great to see so many that are definitely not part of the problem. It was weird, though. I saw professinal baseball players at an autograph signing when I was a kid so I was certain that I would be able to spot him right away. I've never seen so many tall people in all my life. I had about three possibilities and I was wrong. In fact, I expected Curtis to be much taller than he actually is. He looks much taller on t.v. and he can certainly cover ground--Detroit has a huge outfield. When Curtis went to speak about his father, he broke down about 3-4 times and ended up not being able to finish. He just said how much he was still learning from his father and finished with an, "I love you, dad". Somebody from the crowed joked, "This will be on Sports Center tonight, Curtis!"  Like I said, it couldn't have happened to a nicer person.