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Gary Pagano
Gary was sort of a non-roster invitee with the Cincinnati Reds in 1998, but he was never a professional ballplayer. He had played baseball at Florida Coast College. The photo came from an article published about him by the Cincinnati Enquirer of February 27, 1998. His was an interesting story. He offered to work as the Reds' spring training batting practice pitcher for free. The Reds' GM Jim Bowden decided to take Gary up on the offer. The fact that Gary was a waiter and pastry chef at Sarasota's best restaurant probably didn't hurt his chances. At any rate, Gary never did pitch batting practice, but he went through all the daily drills with the major league players throughout that February, and came to be pals with several of them. He was age 34 at the time this dream experience was occurring.
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