A JDate Success Story

Phil Elson originally wrote this article for a minor league baseball magazine on June 13, 2003.

Prologue by his mother-in-law, Ellyn Polsky

Julie and Phil Elson were married in 2006

Julie Polsky saw Phil’s profile and photo on JDate.com the night before she moved from St. Louis to Little Rock. Her friend’s brother had subscribed, so Julie and friend Karen checked out the possibilities. Phil was the only one of interest. When Julie arrived in Little Rock she inquired of several people if they knew of a broadcaster named Phil Elson. Since Phil had only been in Little Rock for about six months, no one really knew him. Some thought he was on TV announcing sports or reporting the weather. Phil had never been on JDate before, but because he was new in town, he decided to take a chance. Julie went to several Travelers games before figuring out that Phil must be the guy in the announcers’ box. Julie remembered his profile picture and recognized Phil when she saw him in person. When I questioned her, she told me that she wouldn’t have gone out with him if he were a total stranger.:) They married on Nov. 6, 2006, and are now are the proud parents of a two and a half-year-old-daughter and are expecting their second baby in the spring.

Binoculars
By Phil Elson

Every self-respecting member of a press box has a pair. Binoculars are an integral part of a broadcaster’s equipment. Some guys have huge binoculars that help them count how many hairs are sticking out of the pitcher’s nose. Others use a tiny pair that only a person with eyes the size of lemonheads could use. I just need a steady pair that doesn’t give me a raging headache when trying to see who’s warming up in the bullpen.

Binoculars are great for peering into the dugouts, watching meetings on the pitchers’ mound and getting in on arguments. They help broadcasters get a little closer to the game.

The real reason, however, that every person in the press box has a pair of binoculars is to get a little closer to the crowd. To put it mildly, we’re checking out the fans. I don’t feel that I’m letting anybody in on some press box secret. Anyone that looks up from the stands can see us watching everyone during the inning breaks. And fans are doing the same thing during the game. The media just have a better vantage point in the press box.

Ballparks are incredible places for people watching. With a few thousand people at a minor league game, some mighty interesting people are hanging around. That’s why some fans that don’t like baseball go to the ballpark in the first place. They’re checking everybody out.

Then came Sunday afternoon, August 19, 2001. The Travs played their final regular season home game against the Midland Rockhounds under a perfect blue sunny sky. After the top of the second inning, I pulled my binoculars to my eyes and scoured the stands. I stopped at the 15th row of section F in the first-base box seats and saw a petite, dark-haired girl in her early 20s. She sat with a friend talking and smiling thoroughly enjoying the ballgame and the summer heat. My binoculars stayed pinned on her. I was mesmerized, and she was beautiful. She featured a gorgeous smile and freckles galore. The way she walked told me that she was a sassy lady.

All of a sudden she looked directly at the press box and caught me staring at her. She flashed that amazing smile and tilted her head. Although I felt like a fool at the time, I smiled back and waved at her. For that split second I forgot where I was. Then I realized that the commercial break was over and went back to calling the game. I tried not to pay her much attention for the next two innings, but my curiosity got the best of me after the fourth and I locked in on her.

She caught me again, but this time she waved at me. I lowered my binoculars, stunned for a split second. I waved back. Then she raised her right hand and put up three fingers, then one finger followed by two fingers. I wondered what she was doing. Did the scoreboard have the count wrong? Was she telling me how old she was? Then it hit me, and I almost fell out of Ray Winder Field’s open-air press box.

This gorgeous lady was giving me her phone number from 100 feet away! Hurriedly, I scribbled it down on my scorebook, and then got back to the game. I was too shocked to respond to her. For the rest of the game we exchanged glances and smiles. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the final out was recorded and the fans got up to leave. If not for my post-game show, I would have leaped down to the seats.

She left the ballpark without saying a word, and I was left to my post-game show. We had two days off before heading to West Texas for a 12-game road trip that would end the season. One day before heading out on the trip, I sat in my press box and gathered the courage to call her.

I dialed the number…and it was wrong. WHAT?!? I wrote down the wrong phone number? Out of all the stupid things that I had done…wrecking the car when I was 16; staying out until 2 a.m. the night before the SAT exam…this was the worst. There was nothing I could do. I didn’t know her name, and I didn’t know where she lived or worked. I screwed up big time!

The next day I hopped on a plane and flew to El Paso to start the road trip, resigned to the fact that I would never see that gorgeous baseball fan again.

I was wrong.

Thankfully the Travs made the playoffs due to a first-half East Division Championship. We began the first round in Little Rock against the Wichita Wranglers on September 2. Game time was 7:30 p.m. and she got to Ray Winder Field at 7 p.m. That’s 10 minutes before the pre-game show started. Perfect timing! From the press box I saw her and bolted to the grandstand. She stood in the souvenir line and I walked right up to her. I extended my right hand and asked her name.

“I’m Julie,” she told me. “And why didn’t you call me?”

I fessed up to the idiocy of my writing the wrong number and got her real phone number. We talked one hour after the Travs beat Wichita. We talked the next night right before the Travs headed out to Wichita to finish the series. I learned that she had just moved to Little Rock from St. Louis, her hometown. She was here to work for a major retailer in its corporate office.

I spent eight long days on the road in Wichita and Round Rock, including September 11, in the Hilton Garden Inn. Julie and I spoke on the phone every day. And when the Travs’ Luxury Liner returned to Little Rock, I went home, showered, shaved, and drove to her apartment for our first date.

We’ve had about three hundred dates since then.

I loved baseball from as far back as I can remember. It seems perfect that I would find my true love at the ballpark.

I still have binoculars in the press box and I always will. But these days, I only use them to look into the bullpen and dugout. Honestly!