By Bob Elliott
Canadian Baseball Network
Over the years you meet people in baseball in passing, you cross paths with some and sometimes you even remember their names.

Some develop into friends.

As a country music fan I was over the moon for George Strait’s music seeing him in concert 15 times, for the first time in the 1980s in Atlanta to his final tour spot a couple of years ago at AT@T Stadium, Arlington, Tx. 
 
This man I know phoned on Friday to say he was going with his daughter to see Strait play a small intimate setting at Tapatio Springs Hill Country Resort and Spa in Texas. The show was a benefit for veterans. 

On the Saturday night this man phoned, quickly asking if I had ever done face time on my laptop. I said yes, but I don’t know how to do it. He said learn, “do you want to see George or not?” and hung up. I raced upstairs. My wife Claire did not know how to do face time. Called my son in Moncton. No answer. Chances are he was sleeping with the hour’s difference. Phoned my daughter in faraway Etobicoke. No answer.

Just as I about to give up -- all the while flashing back to a night in Tampa when Shawn Green and Roger Clemens sat on a bus as Strait gave a post-concert concert and Green told me the next day they had looked for me, but we left Raymond James Stadium by a different exit -- my wife figured out from an app on her cell phone how to dial the number. 

My pal holds up the machine says “hey it’s about time dopey” turns around his machine.

And roughly 15 feet away are singer song writer Jamey Johnson and Strait on stage in front of a band.

He sounded as good as always ... a perfect 10. Only thing different was that he was wearing a ball cap instead of a Stetson.

Jackson and Strait sang:

1. Old fave the Bob Wills Texas Swing hit from the 1940s... “Take me Back to Tulsa.”
 

2. A new song ... “I was Kicked out of Country.” About then some one walked by and asked “who is that?” nodding to the laptop. And the guy said “ah just some dummy from Toronto who is a George fan.”

3. "Goin’ Goin’ Gone" from 2015.

4. The former No. 1 hit "Give It Away" written by Bill Anderson, Buddy Cannon and Johnson in 2000. 

And then the signal was disconnected ...

I could have phoned back but figured his arms were tired enough. Imagine him standing there holding up his laptop?

Four songs was plenty ... and I had written about Strait before.

Yet, that was not acquaintance who thought to phone the other night.

That was not just “some guy” I had met a couple of times. 

That was a friend.

Thanks.