Editor's note: Harold Reynolds, a former Seattle Mariners second baseman, is a television analyst who covered Game 3 of the World Series Friday night.
During the game, Seattle author and former Seattle Post-Intelligencer sportswriter Dan Raley recounted a touching encounter that most people don’t know about Reynolds. Raley let us share the story below.
Listening to Harold Reynolds analyze the World Series tonight got me thinking about the last time I ran into him. It was unforgettable.
It was 16 years ago in New York. I was covering a Mariners road trip for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer that started in Kansas City and ended at Yankee Stadium. Somewhere in the middle of this cross-country trek, I got as sick as I've ever been. I'm guessing I had a real bad case of the flu. It might have been a combination of things because I was so sore in my joints and miserable otherwise I couldn't sit or lay down in my hotel room.
I took hourly showers. I went to see a Manhattan doctor who said I would likely be stuck in the city the rest of the week while this illness played itself out. In other words, he couldn't do a thing for me.
I tried to cover the Mariners-Yankees games from the stands instead of the tiny press box, just to distract myself from my unbearable situation. Mariners manager Lou Piniella even took me into the players' training room before one of the games, otherwise off limits to media guys, but the team docs didn't have a solution either.
No one seemed to have a magic pill for me. Or so I thought.
Stumbling through my hotel lobby, I ran smack into Harold, who knew me, though not real well. He was overly concerned just the same.
He had double-parked outside and come inside to hit on an extremely attractive concierge. Taking one look at me, he told his friend that he would be back later and pick up where he left off -- what a humanitarian -- and insisted that I follow him to his car.
We drove several blocks. I really didn't care where we were headed because I was so disinterested in life at that moment. He took me to the NYU Medical Center emergency room. I didn't protest. He said those people would know exactly what to do to restore my health. He was so right.
They checked everything. They gave me some high-powered drugs that proved to be a miracle cure. I was able to get on a jet and go home a day and a half later.
Thank you, Harold Reynolds. If not for you, I might be living on the streets of Gotham right now, wondering how I got there.
Dan Raley is the author of four books, including one about the Seattle Rainiers baseball team. His latest, "How Seattle Became a Big-League Sports Town: From George Wilson to Russell Wilson," is available on his website.
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