So I find myself standing across the blackjack table from a dude that looks exactly like John Danks. I show my friends and they agree that yup, that guy looks like the guy in the picture on my phone. Buuuuuuuut I live in Grand Forks, North Dakota so there’s no chance it’s John Danks.
Nobody is sitting next to this doppelgänger so I pulled up and played a few hands - I had been drinking for a bit so I’m not going to pretend I was cool - I just flat out asked him. Turns out John Danks is a closet UND Fighting Hawks, formerly the Fighting Sioux, hockey fan. We had both just been at the game.
John is currently living in Nashville, Tennessee with his wife (country music singer Ashley Monroe) and 2.5 year old son.
I asked him what he is keeping busy with and he said he’s “Mr Mom”. He also sits just below those crazy sons of bitches on the Titans OLine that drink beer out of catfish at the Preds games. He told me at least 3 times that he couldn’t throw a baseball through the tv hanging about the table. I could tell that definitely still bothered him and didn’t pry any further.
I live in Twins territory so we talked about game 163 and how much he loved Jim Thome. We also talked Mark Buehrle and Chris Sale. He was big fans of both - mentioned they were the only teammates that came to his wedding. We also relived the jersey incident. He told all of his and my friends the story briefly and we all laughed about it. Danks said they fined him a stupid low amount that was the cost of the jerseys and that Sale had told everyone multiple times he couldn’t wear that on the mound for a real game - made suggestions for some alternative times they could wear them that didn’t go anywhere. Sale was excited to get out in the trade. Danks also loves Coop and had just talked to him the week before. I asked about Hahn and Kenny. He was very respectful and appreciated Hahn’s professionalism. Said he was always good talking contracts. As for Kenny he said, “Kenny is Kenny”. He was not a fan but wouldn’t say anything negative. He said Jordan is back home selling real estate and loving it. Their family are big UT fans. His dad was also there - met him as well.
I was having a blast and offered to buy him a beer - he said hell no and said he would get me one. I figured there was no chance he was coming back but he did and came back 20 minutes later with my coors light. He was really down to earth and a blast to hang out with. Really nice guy - went out of his way to talk to my wife who was having fun but not loving life as much as I was. Nobody else recognized him which he seemed to be good with, but he also didn’t mind that I did and was picking his brain.
Really fun and really random evening.
