Mike and The Boys

So last week D1 and her boyfriend Adam wandered over to Books and Books, the best bookstore in Florida, and Adam saw a sign about an upcoming signing: Mike Greenberg of the ESPN show Mike and Mike. Adam, though in training to become a dermatologist, really would prefer to be a sports journalist, and got excited about the appearance. D1 told me, and I told Dr. Barry, whose boy Scott IS going to become a sports journalist, though I joke with him that he'll fall in love with pre med studies in college and join his Dad's business. He won't. A plan was made -- Scott and little (not really --he's 6' 1") brother Josh would take the bus from Pembroke Pines, meet up with Barry and Adam at JMH, and drive to the Gables, where we would all meet, have dinner, and go see Mike the writer and radio guy. We ate at Swine, the gourmet barbecue place Barry picked because his wife would NEVER eat there if she were along, and then walked over to Books times two. The talk was to begin at 8. Not so fast! They were folding chairs and taking down curtains, and the snooty gay guy working there said, dismissively, that they moved the talk to 7, since Mike had flown in from NY and was tired, and so sent out the change on Twitter. We hadn't seen the Tweet, or whatever it's called, and so had missed the event by 5 minutes. I asked if we could at least Mike...was he still at the store, but the gay guy said, again dismissively "He's having dinner somewhere." He was about to cluck his tongue, but didn't. But, conspiratorially, a black guy helping him, who surveyed the scene and felt bad, winked at me and pointed to the cafe. I knew his meaning -- Mike WAS there, about to eat in the back of the store. Now, if I just missed the talk, I would have shrugged and left, but these were my two nephews on another family, and they had taken the BUS for this! Plus, Adam doesn't get to go out much on school nights... So, I took the lead and marched our crew through the store, and sure enough saw Mike G walking from the bathroom. I asked if the boys could meet him, and, though he makes $2M a year for ESPN, replied sure -- but go buy a book for a signing. I bought two, handed one to Scott and one to Adam, and we returned to the cafe where Mike was starting his salad. After he surveyed us and realized we weren't TOO creepy, he invited us to sit, and we chatted for the better part of an hour. He was as advertised -- a nerdy Jewish guy from NYC who went to Northwestern and has hit it big in a real fun industry. He told us his favorite interviewee was Bill Cosby, and how he deals with the notoriously taciturn Bill Belichick. And then I turned the conversation to the NY Jets -- Barry, Scott, and Mike's favorite team. Barry explained that the reverence for Don Shula was a big reason he never took to the Fins, despite moving to S Fla nearly 40 years ago. Barry is STILL angry about the '83 AFC Champ game, where the Fins beat the Jets 14-0 and the Jets QB Richard Todd, the poor man's Joe Namath, threw 5 picks. Mike leaned in, and told us that several of that Jets team told him they thought Todd threw the game on purpose. Barry's grin widened. Of course! That explains it! His beloved Jets did NOT lose fair and square! And so our chat continued -- exciting stuff for guys like us who care too much about football. We kept offering to leave Mike alone to dine, but he seemed to like having us around -- no one else was there. I guess only SOME bestselling writers have groupies --like Anne Rice, for example, or the Harry Potter lady. Mike finished his dinner, and we offered him a ride to Doral -- he was staying the weekend to play golf -- but he had a car and driver. He wished Scott good luck getting into Northwestern, and left. Adam and Barry lingered, chatting about academic medicine politics, and I asked a European lady at the Books and Books wine bar to take a photo of us. Even without the shot, it was a most memorable night.