DARCH's Home of Jay Buhner (Darch)

Just a silly little Story
about Darch & Bone & Baseball
and how it all began...

In may 1995, Darch visited one of his best friends Otto Pijpker, who lives in Redmond (near Seattle) Washington. Otto amazed himself that week: he got $40-court-side tickets for play-off-game #5 of the Seattle SuperSonics-Los Angeles Lakers series. Yeah, you can feel it coming, ay? The Sonics lost the best-of-trhee series 3-1. So, NO fifth game in Seattle, and NO play-off NBA-basketball for Darch... Thank you very much, George Karl!
Darch was disappointed and it showed. "Well", Otto tried to cheer up his friend, "maybe we can go to the Kingdome and watch some baseball. The Mariners are in town..." Mariners? Never heard of. Baseball? Nah, tnx very much.

However, five days later Darch reached San Francisco.
"Whatta ya guys wanna do?", the housekeeper of his motel wanted to know. "Golden Gate Park, Fisherman's Wharf, baseball? The A's are in town, ya know!"
A's? As in Oakland A's? Hmm, Darch thougt: what the hell, let's give it a shot.
And that's how it all started: the motelkeeper took Darch to Mister Ticket, Darch donated eighty dollars for two first class-tickets and was sitting, only six hours later, at front row at the Oakland Colosseum, just behind... the Seattle Mariners-dug out!
It was as if lightning struck... Ever had that feeling? Violins, raibows, coins spitting jackpots... Darch fell in love. Again. With Baseball, with the Oakland Athletics and with Jay Buhner's attitude and personality. The A's beat the Mariners that night (7-5, thanks to a three run-homer by Ricky Henderson), but Darch found himself a new hero...

One-and-a-half year later (september 1996) they met. Bone (accompanied by his buddies Ken Griffey Jr and Paul Sorrento) and Darch walked into each other at the All Star Sports Cafe at New York's Time Square. Coincidence or faith: Darch that night wore his Jay Buhner-#19-uniform, the one he just bought a few days earlier at the Kingdome in Seattle. And Darch (thirty years old at the time) asked Buhner to sign his uniform - see the pic below. Jay just smiled and said: "It's my pleasure, Sir..."
The next day, Bone and Darch met again, at Yankee Stadium, 162th Street, the Bronx, New York. Darch sitting at row eightteen, Bone swinging his bat at a pitch from New York's David Wells. "Why did you trade Jay Buhner???", the Yankee-fan next to Darch yelled, quoting a legendary Seinfeld-episode, as Bone hit the ball for a two-run homer. Darch just stood up and showed New York his freshly signed #19-Buhner-uniform. It was the first and (so far) last time he wore it...