Meeting Marco Scutaro

Last night I took a group of teens and pre-teens to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk as part of my “day job.” My husband and I have a pretty good routine for this annual summer trip. Pack some food and a cooler so the kids don’t have to pay for food, find a spot in the covered area on the picnic tables by the Garlic Fry booth, camp out there all night and watch the kids as they walk by on their way to the next ride. Typically, we play on the iPad or phones, and answer ridiculous questions that the kids will ask when they check-in. Are there really vampires here like in Lost Boys? (Lost Boys was filmed partially at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk). Of course, I tell them, Yes, there are vampires here, that’s why you need to stay in groups, don’t get lost, and make sure you check in.

Marco Scutaro-Not a vampire. Credit: Melissa Felkins

But this isn’t about vampires, or teenagers. Last night, I decided to walk around and play with our new “fancy” camera. While walking around, I heard a guy tell his kids he just met Marco Scutaro and he’d take them to see him. Naturally, I followed him and his kids with my camera ready. Once we got around the Tsunami, the guy I was following stopped and started looked around. I stopped, turned to my left, and right there in front of me was Marco, his wife, and kids. I actually did a double take as he walked by and looked at his wife, who smiled and kind of nodded in that way that said, yes, that’s who you think it is.

I kind of watched him for a moment, unsure if I wanted to disturb his family time. Then a couple of teenage girls went over and asked for a picture with him. He obliged, so I felt like I had my in. My only problem was that no one was with me to take the picture. I left my husband sitting with our stuff and since I was stalking Marco’s stalker, I didn’t have time to stop and have him come along. Never mind that someone still needed to watch our stuff.  I asked for a picture, and then looked around like, crap, who is going to take the picture.

Here is the cool part. His wife says, I’ll take it. I handed her the camera and gave her instruction on how to use it. After some fumbling of the photo not taking, it finally worked. I thanked him, congratulated him on the 2012 World Series, told him I was a fan, and began to walk away. She stopped me though and said, “one more!” Apparently my eyes and had closed, she noticed and offered to take another. We took another photo, I thanked him again, shook his hand and told him how excited I was to be getting his rain globe at the Social Media night next week. He smiled again, like he actually appreciated I knew something about him.

Nothing amazing about the meeting. We didn’t become fast buddies or even have a chance to have much of a conversation. However, I wanted to write about meeting him (and perhaps brag a bit), and just comment on not only how nice he was, but how nice his wife was. I’d imagine people always stopping your husband for pictures could get old quickly. But not only did she seem okay with it, she offered to take the picture, AND then make sure we had a decent one at that.

So the Scutaro family gets an A+ from me on friendliness. What a cool experience on a night that could have just been about answering vampire questions.