Brush with Greatness

When I used to stay up and watch late-night TV during the week, I always loved Letterman. One of my favorite segments was the “Brush with Greatness” bit he would do with the audience. Basically, people would talk about a brief encounter they had with someone famous, then they would add some embellishment to the story provided to them by Dave and his writers.

I now have a brush with greatness that needs no embellishment. I used to be really good friends with the guy representing Andy Pettite in the Mitchell Investigation mess.

Jay Reisinger was a fraternity brother of mine back in the late 1980s. I am a year older than him. He has carved out a pretty damn good career for himself representing athletes. I knew he had done some of it, but had no idea he was representing Pettite until I downloaded the deposition for some light reading the other day.

And there he was – Zinger. Peahead. Whatever else we called him back in the Phi Delt house at Allegheny College 20 years ago. So take a good look at him in the picture there looking all lawerly. I’ll just remember:

  • Jay and a bunch of other guys head banging to “Appetite for Destruction” late night on the dance floor after a party
  • His ever present dip
  • Making fun of Jay and his girlfriend during my senior year. She had graduated and would mail him love letters. We would find them and read them outloud until he threatened to beat the crap out of us
  • His awesome picture and fake name for our fraternity composite during his sophomore year, all designed to just make fun of a guy who was a senior that year.

There are probably others, but I can’t remember specifics now. Zinger is a good dude and I’m glad to see him doing well. It just sucks that he’s representing a Yankee.

Author: brian

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