Over the years, my job has brought me into contact with a number of famous people from all facets of life.

I like to think I’m the kind of person who doesn’t have to drop names to prove my importance.

But I think I will anyway.

Over the years, I’ve interviewed Tony Stewart, Fuzzy Zoeller, Evan Bayh, Mitch Daniels, Frank O’Bannon, Arie Luyendyk, Al Unser Jr. and a host of other well-known individuals. I’ve had the opportunity to cover events featuring former Vice President Dan Quayle as well as his wife, Marilyn, former President Bill Clinton and presidential candidate Barrack Obama. I also had the chance to say “howdy” to Gomer Pyle one time after an Indianapolis 500.

My favorite encounter with a famous person, however, occurred long before I became a journalist.

At the time, this person wasn’t famous himself. In fact, he was a little boy of maybe four or five years of age. I was just a 16-year-old teenager trying to make a buck so I could keep paying the then unheard price of 69 cents for a gallon of gasoline.

My work as an usher at Bush Stadium in Indianapolis led to my meeting the child of one of the future members of the Big Red Machine. There were many players from a squad that would win the World Series in 1975 and 1976 playing for the Indianapolis Indians in 1973.

I knew many of their wives by sight, and some of their children as well.

One of those children just happened to be Ken Griffey Jr. Like most boys of that age, Junior loved to throw or roll a ball down the ramp to the area where he sat with his mom and other player’s wives and children.

He wouldn’t remember much about me from his days hanging out at Bush Stadium.

At the time, I wasn’t aware of how far this little boy would go in the world of baseball.

It was great to see him recently hit his 600th homer and join an elite crowd of just five other players in the game’s history. I’m happy that Griffey’s name will go down in history with the likes of Ruth, Aaron, Bonds, Mays and Sosa.

In my book, Griffey’s already got a leg up on at least three of the people on that list because he seems to have been able to stay out of trouble. He also is a far better role model than some of the other members of that club.

Junior might not be the greatest player to ever play the game. But he’s in my top 10.

Danica Patrick’s win in the IRL Indy 300 at Motegi, Japan, on Saturday was probably the greatest news for open-wheel motor sports racing in years.

The dazzling beauty sparked a fairly big surge of the interest in the sport when she appeared on the scene several years ago. You could tell Patrick had more going for herself than looks at that time, and her win in her 50th start Saturday night proved she has what it takes to get to victory lane - often.

I knew she could do it, and I’m sure her victory is going to make this year’s Indianapolis 500 more exciting.

As a kid growing up near the track, the 500 was the race to see and in my book it still is the greatest race in the world.

I’ve only missed six races (including the last three) in a time span of 40 years, but I have no intentions of missing this one. It sure would be great to see Patrick wind up in victory lane.

It was a little odd to see tears in victory lane. It’s not something you’re likely to see out of Tony Stewart, but I’m sure she’s not the first one to shed a few after a win.

Way to go Danica. I hope you keep kicking some butt in a male-dominated sport.

I’ve waited for years to see Brownstown play Seymour on the football field. That wait comes to an end at 7 p.m. Friday.

Despite what many think, I really don’t care who wins the game. Yes, I have a son who is a freshman at Brownstown Central and he’s hyped about the game. And my wife is a Brownstown Central graduate. I know who both of them will be rooting for Friday night.

I on the other hand only truly care about how my Ben Davis Giants do on Friday night.

I still think the Braves-Owls game will be good for the community and one that will be talked about for a long time to come. It’s a game that should have been played many years ago.

I hope the two schools continue to meet for years to come. Here’s wishing both team “Good Luck.”

I’ve always been a Tony Stewart fan and that’s not going to change any time soon. Why? Because he’s a Hoosier and he knows how to win.

Tony wants to win every time he straps into a race car and there’s nothing wrong with that. I think he was probably out of line after Saturday’s incident with his teammate, Denny Hamlin, at Daytona, but even Joe Gibbs stuck up for two-time champion. I think he was pretty hasty in making a decision about who was at fault in this melee.

Tony often opens his mouth before thinking about the consquences of what he says, but that’s who he is. He reminds me a lot of Dale Earnhardt Sr., who never caused a wreck in his life on the track if you asked him. It was “just racing,” Earnardt would say.

It didn’t, however, change my opinion one bit about a Hoosier who claims he’s not a politician, but simply a race car driver who just wants to win.

I’ve not given up on Tony’s chances of winning another title although rival Jeff Gordon sure looks like he’s well on the way to another title. Tony is doing what he needs to do to make sure he makes the chase, but he doesn’t need anything similar to what happened Saturday night to occur again. It’s not been that good of a season for Stewart, but he can still turn things around. A couple of wins would do a lot to help the cause.