Hey, has anyone seen the Bird/Magic documentary on HBO? It’s so interesting. I’m only thinking about that because I’m thinking about dunking … and I thought, up until last Friday, that dunking only occurred in basketball.

Little did I know there’s dunking in baseball too. But I digress a bit.

Here’s the story … last Friday afternoon, I was invited to quit my work early and go to the Sarasota Fair instead. Don’t ask me what compelled me to say yes, since I rarely quit my office before 5 or 6 p.m., but I did and so my date and I went to the fair.

I ran into a couple of friends …

We rode a couple of rides — and had a pretty impressive view of the city of Sarasota and all that surrounds it at the top of a ferris wheel.

And, then we walked by this:

Being the incredible athlete that I am (want some swamp land?), I brazenly approached “Snaps” who was a very mean-spirited man (can you see him behind the bars?) who was making fun of another guy who was trying to throw a baseball, hit a bull’s eye on a lever, and “dunk” Snaps into a pool of water. He was giving the guy, who was with his girlfriend, a really hard time about his hairline, his manliness, sheesh, just about everything. The guy threw ball after ball, but couldn’t dunk Snaps. I decided I could do it and would take pleasure in sending Snaps underwater and shutting up his big, mean mouth.

So, my date paid for me to throw a few balls and I wound up and threw … and I was wildly off. Couldn’t even get close to the bull’s eye. In fact, I came closer to hitting Snaps’ bars than anything else. He was making fun of me now, too! I’m not much of a quitter, but it was clear I wasn’t going to get close to the bull’s eye, so since I had several balls left, I turned to my date and said “Why don’t you try?”

And he did.

He picked up the ball and threw and came wicked close, and Snaps started in. “You’re no better than she was,” yada yada.

And, then my date threw again — and dunked Snaps with a pitch that I couldn’t even see, it went so fast. Down went Snaps. Then, again, my date, wound up and pitched, and hit again — down went Snaps a second time. He came up sputtering.

And madder than a wet hen.

He was taunting my date, making fun of him, but my date was just quietly smiling and picking up another ball to throw. I looked around and saw a crowd of people stopped and watching. My date threw again and missed … only one more ball left. I was hootin’ — amazed that he’d dunked Snaps twice already, but since he’d missed, Snaps was smelling blood. “I betcha can’t pull that trick a third time, ya sissy, no way. That’d be some kind of record, but I know you don’t got it in ya.”

My date just laughed. Picked up that last remaining ball, and wound up a pitch so sweet it sailed like a little angel, landed smack in the middle of the bull’s eye, and down went Snaps for a third time. He pulled himself up out of the water for the third time in just a few minutes, got back on his perch … and suddenly, was silent — Snaps had nothing to say.

My date turned to me and we walked off to more adventure, but in my head, for the rest of the evening, I was thinking about my date … well, more specifically … um, I was wondering about what else my date might be really good at.

C’mon … you can’t blame me! it was a sexy, very smooth move. He hadn’t told me he was such a thrower. He hadn’t said anything when I wanted to try throwing some balls. He maybe wasn’t even going to throw at all if I hadn’t given up after my third throw and asked him to use up the rest of the balls he’d already paid for.

I kind of like that in a guy. A guy who doesn’t tell you how great he is … just kind of lets you find out about it on your own. Makes you kind of wonder what else there is to know.