Ken Caminiti - nearly beat my a$$ in a bar-room in New Orleans when he was on injured assignment with the Zephyrs (Astro's AAA team at the time). Perhaps one of the craziest experiences I've ever had. If anyone's interested I'll tell the whole story. What a maniac.
I would love to hear it
I will tell it, I promise. But I'm off to dinner now, then gotta catch the Saints game. I'll be back in here tomorrow.
Ok, here goes the Caminiti story...
I believe it was summer of 1999, and KC was with the Astros. He was playing a few games with the New Orleans Zephyrs during an injury rehab stint. He was apparently downtown (the Quarter) and met some guys from the Tulane baseball team, and they brought him to the bar where I worked during college and law school ( ... plug....Bruno's, an Uptown Drinking Place Since 1934). I wasn't working at the time, just drinking and shooting some pool.
It's late afternoon/early evening when he first came in. He was rubbing elbows with some of the old-time regulars, drinking an ice water out of a pint glass. He was reassuring all the old men that his "problems" were behind him, and he's getting back to playing baseball.
I was playing pool, he put his quarters up on the table, and we played a couple games. Back then, I shot a lot of pool, and of course I was setting him up for a couple money games perhaps. Why not? One of the Tulane players (the son of the owner of the bar) told him straight-out not to play me for money. So that was nice: no money games, and now the guy thinks I was trying to hustle him.
Anyway, we quit playing, and I went to join some friends at the corner of the bar. At this point, all the old regulars left, and Caminiti's 16oz pint glass is filled with Kettle One instead of water. Things went bad from there.
I'm with a group of about five guys, some standing, some sitting, well out of earshot from Caminiti. As KC got more wasted, the more meatheady, physical he started acting with the Tulane guys. He's very imposing in person: eyes close together, steely look, never smiled, very intense and very jacked up (though not as tall as I though he was). So, the consensus among me and my friends was that he was a live wire about to snap at any moment.
Usually finding the humor in things, we kept exchanging one-liners that, if uttered to KC, would elicit an immediate beat down. You know, things like: "you throw like a girl", "are you the first generation upright in your family" ... etc... Now, we made sure he never heard a word of it. However, he saw us laughing and occasionally glance his way. So, he charged. Like a steamed, wounded bull, he came at the group and headed for me in particular. I thought I was dead.
Thank God the Tulane players grabbed him and held him back. He yelled furiously and threatened to kill us all, then he suddenly calmed down and apologized. "I'm sorry for losing my temper, I have a problem, I'm working on it. I thought you guys were making fun of me." Now, we were indeed talking about him, but not making fun directly. He went back to the group, and ten minutes later the whole thing happened again. This time all that we were saying to eachother was holy sh**, did that really happen, and perhaps some nervous laughs. He was held back again, but afterwards this time, he decided to leave.
He left through a side door (where you had to be "buzzed in"). As KC was walking out, my roommate came in through the same door to come behind the bar to start his shift. He had no idea what had just happened. Somebody said something funny to break the tension, and everyone laughs. Caminiti heard the laughing, reversed course and is standing at the side door, staring in through the door's window and banging. My roommate, says, "hey look, it's Ken Caminiti and buzzes him in" before I could say "NOOOOOOO!!!!" He charges again takes a monster haymaker swing which I literally heard whiz by my head. Tulane baseball players to the rescue again.
This time KC apologizes profusely and offers to buy a round for the house (who are all pretty much stunned at this point). He stands right next to me and asks what I want, and I say "Let's do a shot, meat." He actually laughed, and we drank. About an hour later he was asking me where he could find intoxicants stronger than alcohol. I didn't have any direct connection for exactly what he was looking for, so I told him to just come with us to this seedy bar, and he would have no problems there.
We drank with him til about 3:30 am when he found what he was looking for and was off in a cab. My friends and I replayed the night over again to one another to make sure we weren't dreaming what had just transpired. The next morning (afternoon really), my roommates and I groggily woke up, turned on the TV and saw Caminiti doing a pregame interview in Houston for his first game back after his rehab stint.
He had flown back to Houston, taken BP and done all this pregame rituals and was ready to play 3rd base in a major league ball game, and we were just waking up and still in our boxers. We watched with mouths agape. Pro athletes are one of a kind, no doubt.
I found out the next day that much earlier the night in question KC had given $4-500 to some sleaze bag to bring him back some goodies, and the guy never came back. So that added to KC's anger. Of course we all suspected and it was later confirmed that he was a heavy steroid user, and he was likely roid-raging as well.
Whatever the case, it was bizarre. The day he died, [dang] near everyone that was in the bar that night called me, and asked if I had heard that my buddy passed away. Strange but true.
Topic: biggest celebrity you've met (Read 33423 times)