Monday, June 25, 2007

And I Thought We Lost Because We Suck on the Road

From the LA Times...

Hotel isn't one of their favorite haunts
By Kevin Baxter, Times Staff

PETERSBURG, FLA. — For decades stories have circulated that the elegant Renaissance Vinoy Resort, where major league teams stay while in St. Petersburg, is populated by ghosts. Scott Akasaki, the Dodgers' traveling secretary, doesn't buy it."Those are just urban legends," said Akasaki, who booked the team into the hotel for the weekend.

But at least two Dodgers aren't so sure. After listening to teammates talk endlessly about the haunted hotel, young pitchers Chad Billingsley and Jonathan Broxton said they experienced weird occurrences in their rooms that couldn't be explained. However, neither would discuss the episodes Sunday.

"It's stupid," said Billingsley, who reportedly heard his toilet flush numerous times while he was in another room. "It's not worth talking about."

Other major leaguers and former major leaguers who have been spooked at the Vinoy include Jim Fregosi, Cito Gaston, Billy Koch, Gerald Perry, Scott Williamson, Jay Gibbons and Brian Roberts. Some Pittsburgh players were so frightened that they checked out of the hotel and stayed with a teammate's family when the Pirates were in town four years ago.

But the Vinoy isn't the only big league hotel that is supposedly haunted. At the Westin St. Francis in San Francisco, the spirits of actors John Barrymore, Fatty Arbuckle and Al Jolson are said to roam the hallways. And similar stories have been told about the Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee, where former Dodger Adrian Beltre once insisted on sleeping with a bat for protection after he had a brush with a ghost.The Dodgers no longer stay at either place.

2 comments:

Steve Sax said...

Maybe Beltre should start sleeping with that bat again, now that he's up in Seattle.

Damon said...

Pedro Cereno, Adrian Beltre same difference