WHAT I DID LAST WEEKEND, BY FRED ROENIGK

Sooo … how was your weekend. Whatcha do?

Usually the answer is a simple choice of nothing, not much, or I worked my ass off.

But this week I had a somewhat different experience.

I was asked if I would like to take time off from my extremely busy schedule to travel out of state and spend some time with an aging but vibrant World War II veteran who was related to a friend.  Help him to celebrate his birthday.  Maybe take in a ball game and meet some of his friends.

Being the kind of guy I am I could not say no.  I wouldn’t feel right.  Who knows it might put me in the running for Cape Coral man of the year.  Or maybe not.

Everything I said was completely true, but not exactly complete.  Actually, I received a weekend itinerary and jetBlue ticket from my daughter, Alyssa, for a flight to Newark.  Thursday evening after a great dinner, I found myself along with Alyssa, her best friend Lindsay, Lindsay’s father Larry and grandfather the veteran watching a baseball game and talking about the Yankees. Actually I was listening, because he seems to think he knows a lot about baseball.  He does …

Holy crap, I’m sitting in the living room of Yogi Friggin Berra.  The man with more rings and more wins than anyone in the history of baseball.  Checking out the award plaques, trays and bowls that don’t fit in the Museum or that Carmen might need for dying Easter eggs.  What a great moment.  And thanks to Lindsay, Larry and Yogi, I felt at home.

Friday we visited our Uncle Dave who is undergoing chemotherapy for bone cancer.  Later in the day we hit an estate sale and attended a cookout with more friends.

Saturday it was off to the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center for a tour, more time with Yogi, and a trip to the new Yankee Stadium for Yogi Berra Museum Day on his 87^th birthday.

Now for the suite.  Great view behind home plate, lots of food, beautiful day and a great game. The only down side was Carmen was unable to be there, as she is rehabbing from a recent stroke. I had intended to help her finish a bottle of wine.

As for his friends,  I met Dwight Gooden, Mickey Rivers, Gator Guidrey, Jennifer Steinbrenner, Mrs. Sabbattia and who the hell knows who else.

Thanks to Alyssa, Lindsay, Larry and Yogi for a wonderful weekend.  If you have any other interesting codgers in need of a visit, let me know.

Wishing Yogi many more years as THE GREATEST LIVING YANKEE.

There are so many things I like about covering the Olympics. (The food in the media center is not one of them.) But mainly, for someone who loves to tell stories, there is no better event to do that than at the Olympics. Man, these athletes have stories. The more obscure the sport and the athletes, the better the stories. And the Paralympic athletes? Forget it. Every one of their stories is made for TV. We profiled a few of them HERE today.

The past few days has reminded me why I love writing about sports.

But sometimes, we find stories that don’t have a place in the magazine or online. The short piece I wrote below (after chatting with Cassidy yesterday) is one of those. It didn’t fit into our coverage, but I felt like writing about her anyway. (It’s also good practice for my daily AR.com Olympics blog, which I’ll write in London, just like I did in Beijing and Vancouver.)

Cassidy is one athlete who truly understands why writers love covering the Games.

— — — — — — — —

If Cassidy Krug had her way, she’d be writing these words. 

    Each night before bed, the 26-year-old member of USA Diving writes in her journal with the same discipline she uses to attack morning workouts. “I make myself write 750 words every night,” she says. “Some nights, it’s stories, some nights it’s poems or lists. Some nights I just write about my day. But every night, I write.”     

    Krug, who graduated from Stanford in 2007 with a degree in English, says she hopes to have a career in writing after she retires from competitive diving. She’s just not sure what that means. “I’d really love to write a novel,” she says, “but that seems like such a big goal.” Sort of like competing in the Olympics? “Yeah, I guess so,” she says. “But bigger. That might be for down the road.” 

    For now, she’s focused on making the Olympic team after narrowly missing out on the 2008 Games. “I’m not going to mix words. It was disappointing not making the team,” she says. “To work that hard and fall that short. But I also learned a lot through that experience that I’m bringing into this year.”

    Tonight, after a very long day at her first media summit, Krug says she will write about her experience in Dallas, about all the writers she met throughout the day. “I’ll write about what a crazy day it was,” she says. “I’ll write about all of you. I’ve never done anything like this, but it’s great prep for the Olympics. Being comfortable with the media will be so important at the Games.” Especially because one day, she might be one of us.

My dad is a baseball fan. And a history buff. And, as we all discussed at dinner on Thursday, he had the privilege of watching Roberto Clemente play–in person! There probably isn’t a current baseball player he’d give two hoots to meet. But Yogi Berra? That’s a different story. Besides, my mom got her sports make-a-wish last January at the Steelers-Packers Super Bowl in Dallas. Why shouldn’t dad get his?

Dad's first trip to the new Yankee Stadium, the Disneyland of baseball stadiums.

So this past weekend, my dad and I flew to Montclair, NJ, to attend Yogi Berra Museum Day at Yankee Stadium and hang out with Lindsay and her family. Thursday night after dinner, we went over to her grandparents’ house and watched the end of the Yankees game with her dad and grandpa. When the talk turned to how well C.C. Sabathia is pitching this year–and how on earth he landed such a smokin’ wife–I heard my dad ask GY, “You caught for a lot of great pitchers. Who do you think was the greatest?” After GY started ticking off a list of the best … “Whitey was great. They were all great. There were so many …” I stopped eavesdropping and let Dad have his moment.

Saturday, we visited the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center at Montclair State. [Side note: If you're ever in the area, it's a MUST. And if you have $10 to spare, the museum is a non-profit and teaches kids not only about the history of the Yankees, but about how to be a good teammate and a good person. Text YOGI to 80088 to donate 10 bucks.] Then we went to the stadium early to visit the Yankee museum inside Gate 6 and check out Monument Park in the outfield. We watched the first four innings (and ate way too much carmel popcorn) from seats in a suite (Thank you, Berras!) and then joined the party to sing, “Happy Birthday,” and eat cake with Grandpa Yogi. Dad met Doc Gooden, Mickey Rivers and Gator Guidrey. Oh, and Amber Sabathia, C.C.’s hot wife.

After all the signing and the cake eating.

That night, I posted some photos to Facebook so he could share the experience with everyone back home. (Mom was simultaneously enjoying a relaxing dad-free Mother’s Day weekend at the beach.) As I posted the photos, I realized of all the photos we took over the three days–Dad with me, Linz, her dad and GY; Dad with Mickey, Dad with Gator, Dad with Doc, Dad with me–we never took a photo of just Dad and Yogi. I started to feel really bad. Oh man, he didn’t even get a photo with him. Everyone got a photo with him, even the bartender. All that time, and I never thought to take their photo. He must be so bummed.

Then I snapped out of it. But I wondered why a photo seemed so important. I’ve never been much for autographs, but I do treasure some of the photos I have with folks I’ve met over the years. But why? I think what I like about them isn’t the photos themselves. It’s the memories they evoke. The stories they elicit when people see them on my refrigerator and ask, “When did you meet ______?” Hopefully Dad won’t need a photo to do that. Hopefully the memory of those three days will be enough.

On second thought, maybe I should feel bad about not taking a photo of him … and Amber Sabathia.

Yogi signing dad's History of the Yankees book at the museum. Does this count?

To help you prepare, we’re featuring a handful of athletes whose names you’ve likely never heard, but whose stories will inspire you to turn on your TV come July 27 (Opening Ceremonies) and keep watching through August 12 (Closing Ceremonies).

We call the feature GAME CHANGERS and you can read about a new athlete each week on ESPN.com/Olympics. But I’ll make it easier for you:

* Current gymnastics World Champion Jordan Wieber believes she can be the first U.S. woman to follow up a world championship with an Olympic all-around title in the same year. READ ABOUT HERE HERE

* BMX Racing hopeful Corben Sharrah (rhymes with Hurrah!) is making his first run at the U.S. Olympic team. READ ABOUT HIM HERE

* Peter Hudnut and the U.S. water polo team return to the Olympics in search of a gold medal. This time around, they won’t settle for silver. READ ABOUT HIM HERE

In the current issue of The Magazine–the Draft Preview Issue with RGIII on the cover–I profile Arizona State middle linebacker Vontaze Burfict, an athlete dealing with the negative after-affects of a crummy Combine. When Burfict arrived in Indianapolis, he was considered a top-15 overall pick. Three days later, after giving a few uncomfortable interviews and clocking a 5.09 40, he was being called “undraftable.”

I first met Burfict a couple weeks before the draft, at a training facility here in LA called The Factory. Former New Orleans Saints tight end Billy Miller runs the facility and when I asked him who he was working with and would make a good story, the first name out of his mouth was Burfict. “People have it all wrong about him,” he told me. “I was worried about having him training here, after everything I’d read about him. But he’s the quietest, most soft-spoken guy. He works hard. He gets along with everyone. He’s shy, but he’s not what people think. And he has an incredible back story.”

Aside from glowing on-field comparisons to Ray Lewis his first two years at ASU, that was the most positive assessment of Burfict I’d come across. How could everyone, all this time, “have it all wrong?” That was a question I was interested in answering.

Over the next moth and a half, I spent time with Burfict and found he was nothing like the guy I’d been reading about. He was, however, exactly as Miller had described him. Shy was an understatement. I’d go so far as to say his shyness likely borders on social anxiety.

Besides Burfict, I interviewed more than 25 coaches, friends, teammates, family members, academic advisors and scouts for this story and found a vast disparity of opinion between those who know Burfict off the field and those who only watched him play football. The most commonly used words to describe him, by those who know him well, were “shy,” “quiet,” “respectful,” “loyal,” “funny,” and “a good teammate.” Not one of those words was used by a scout. And that is a problem.

In three years at ASU, Burfict, was shielded from the media. I believe the media relations folks did this believing they were protecting him. And as coach Dennis Erickson said many times over, it was not their job to teach him interview skills or force him to talk to the press. He was in Tempe to win football games.

So, absent of Burfict’s voice, the media began to use his on-field personality–violent, fierce, loud, rule-bending–to describe who he was off the field, as well. But that couldn’t be farther from the truth. The guy owns purse dogs, likes to bake and decorated the Tempe apartment he lives in with his longtime girlfriend Brandie. He struggles with self-confidence and nearly gave up football the day he arrived home from Indianapolis.

Working on this story made me think about how much our current culture is dominated by reality TV and the perception that celebrity equals success. Young people would just as happily check “famous” on a list of what they want to be when they grow up as “doctor” or “lawyer.” Shyness and introverted behavior are viewed as something people must “overcome,” like a sickness, instead of common personality traits. I think it was tough for anyone to understand Burfict’s reluctance to embrace the cameras begging for his attention. Who would remain silent when given the opportunity to shout from the rooftops, “Hey! You’ve got me all wrong!”? Who would shun celebrity?

So his silence was read as arrogance. And as the perception of who he is as a person stretched farther from reality, Burfict retreated even farther from the media. Those who know him best–his mom, grandma, sisters, brother, uncles, teammates and friends–knew what he was like and that was all that mattered to him. It didn’t matter what anyone else thought. Until it did.

Those four days in Indianapolis and the year leading up to them likely cost Burfict millions of dollars. But he says he’s come out on the other side a different guy, one willing to let strangers into his living room and share more of himself with his fans, the media and the NFL team that drafts him this weekend. He’s predicted to go in the fifth to seventh round right now, but I think a team will take a chance on him earlier than that. And in my opinion, they’ll be getting a bargain.

As I do before posting any entry to this blog, I will first click “Save Draft.” Seems more apt this time than usual.

Fortunately, I get to do it a lot.

Amy is in the green dress - always the center of attention.

Three years ago, my friend Amy Unell was a producer at the Today Show and based in Burbank, CA. Then she was offered a fellowship at her alma mater, Duke University, and the opportunity to make a documentary that she’d been dreaming about for years, on the longtime track coach at Duke. So she took leave from work, headed to Durham and one year later, I was in NYC watching a Tribeca Film Festival screening of The Coach Buehler Story.

Thursday night, I went to the premiere of her sophomore film, ’91-’92 Back-to-Back, a film she made equally as quickly with her producing partner Grant Hill, who she met while working on the first film.

The film chronicles those back-to-back championship seasons and Hill’s efforts to reunite the team on their 20th anniversary. It was great. And funny. And I couldn’t be more proud of my friend.

Don’t miss its TV premiere March 11 on Tru TV!

Gary Ziegler - the man who may one day take me back to Peru

Last Thursday, I was invited to attend women’s night at the Adventurers’ Club of Los Angeles. Started in 1921, the club is still a mens-only organization, but once every couple of weeks, they invite women to their weekly dinner and presentation. Current club president Marc Weitz is a fan of my blog, so he and past president Steve Bein invited me to be their guests. They’ve also invited me to give a presentation at a meeting this fall.

The Adventurers Club of LA, located somewhere northeast of downtown, was organized in 1922. They've been in the same building for decades. And yes, that is the first kayak to navigate the Nile. (Awesome!) And a stuffed polar bear. (Not so.)

Walking into the meeting spot in east LA was like walking into the past. I don’t think much has changed about the building since the 1960s, aside from the addition of more taxidermy. The newspaper clippings about past members were fascinating, but there was little in the archives about recent members and adventures. Marc, who is considerably younger than most of the members of the ACLA, is trying to attract younger members to the club while still maintaining its long legacy. (Hence my invite.)

The speaker Thursday night was Gary Ziegler, a Colorado-based archeologist who specializes in the Inca and has spent more than 40 years exploring remote archaeological investigations in Peru. He is truly an adventurer and I enjoyed his talk. I also love Peru.

My favorite piece of memorabilia - a bike that traveled around the world. Twice.

I’ve never returned since spending a few weeks there with the Mulanovich family in 2003, but I certainly plan to make a return trip. I would like to spend time in Cusco and at Machu Picchu, as well as in Mancora, the fishing/surfing village in the north that I fell in love with on that trip. Ziegler also owns a company that organizes tours on horseback through the Andes, so I’m pretty sure I was invited to this club meeting to help me plan my next vacation.

That night, I also met a woman who makes her living as a big-game hunter, several men who have sailed around the world and a married couple who are gemologists and jewelry designers and have lived in more countries than I’ve visited. I also saw my first shrunken head, which could have waited until after dinner.

But if you don’t, a quick recap: In 2003, Matt, a former motocross racer and mechanic, was paralyzed in a car accident and told he would never walk again. Travis Pastrana was driving the car. The two developed an unlikely friendship that continues to this day.

Go Matt!

Matt, of course, didn’t accept his lifetime sentence in a wheelchair. Instead, he fought like hell to move one toe, then walk, then run, then compete in triathlons, including Ironman tris. He is now a member of the U.S. Paracycling team and one of the most inspiring people I know. I say that knowing he absolutely hates when people say that.

This morning, in the pursuit, Matt finished 10th in the C1 division. (Paralympic athletes are divided based on their level of disability, from C1 – most disabled – to C5.) He’s a road cyclist, just recently started competing in track and said he went into the weekend worried he’s been overtraining. He hoped to finish 5th or 6th, so he was disappointed with 10th. But although he didn’t make it to the medal round, he was still impressive to watch. If you’ve ever seen track cycling, it’s scary for the able-plus bodied. Watching someone you know struggles to walk on solid ground race around that track is incredible. Watching the guys with one leg do it — unbelievable.

Italian rider Paolo Vigano owning it ...

After his event, I hung out with Matt, his coach and a couple of his teammates. They told me stories about several of the athletes, each more compelling than the last. The field was filled with men and women coming to professional sports after losing an arm or leg–or both–while serving their countries in the war. There was Mark Colbourne, a former member of the British rugby team, who fell in a paragliding accident two years ago and suffered a spinal cord injury. He took second in qualifiers in Matt’s division. And the South African man racing Friday was able bodied until the husband of the woman he was, um, dating, used a baseball bat to break, among other things, his back.

Like I said, each story was more riveting than the next. And the most inspiring part of each of their stories was the moment when they picked themselves back up and got on a bike. A lesson for us all.

But that’s changing, and it’s been really wonderful to watch. Imagine, instead of bitching and moaning, athletes are actually taking the initiative (and their own time and money) to change the situation for themselves and their peers. Even the contests that lasted only a short time made an impact on the sport and provided additional opportunities for athletes who wouldn’t have had the opportunity to compete, say, on the east coast or in a women’s-only event.

I was reminded about this today when I received a press release for Simon Dumont’s 4th Annual Dumont Cup March 23-24 in Sunday River, Maine. The slopestyle course was designed by Dumont himself and this year, the contest will air on NBC Sports April 10 at 12:30 pm ET. It will also feature the best pro slopestyle skiers in the country, as well as amateurs who rarely have the opportunity to compete west of the Rockies.

For more on the event, check out Simon’s Dumont Cup website HERE.

I ended the college football season with stops at the Rose Bowl and BCS National Championship game in New Orleans. After the LSU-Bama game, I talked with Alabama RB Trent Richardson and found out he’d actually committed to the “goals” project we started at the beginning of the season. I felt like I’d won a national championship, myself! READ THE MAGAZINE PIECE HERE.

On January 19, freeskiing pioneer Sarah Burke died from injuries sustained while training in the Park City halfpipe a week earlier. Sarah was an incredible woman who opened so many doors for athletes in her sport and I am proud to have called her my friend. The day she died, I wrote this piece for ESPN.com. YOU CAN READ IT HERE.

The following week, the Winter X Games were dedicated to celebrating Sarah’s life. Wednesday night, I attended the Powder Awards and spent the day talking to her friends about how they would celebrate her memory. YOU CAN READ THAT STORY HERE.

The rest of the Winter X Games was a blur. Besides writing daily feature stories for ESPN.com, I also hosted X Cast, our live online companion broadcast to the TV broadcast. Talk about trial by fire!

Also last week, we launched our ESPN Any Era project. For about a month, I spoke with many NFL Hall of Famers for the project, which was rolled out slowly over the week. I also wrote two stories for ESPN.com, one of which also ran in the magazine.

ESPN.COM: TOUGH WIDE RECEIVERS ARE HARD TO FIND.

ESPN THE MAGAZINE: TOUGH OR DIRTY? HOFERS WEIGH IN ON NDAMUKONG SUH. HE RESPONDS. 

Also last week, we launched our Olympics coverage with an E-ticket I wrote on gymnast Jordyn Wieber. Get to know her name. You’ll be hearing it a lot in the next few months. This piece was posted in celebration of six months to London. READ IT HERE.

And now, I nap.