In this episode of The Journey of my Mother's Son podcast, I sit down and talk with another one of my former players, Stephen Sauer. Stephen was part of the pioneering Berkshire Red Sox teams.  He joined the organization in its second year of existence, just after he graduated high school and while he was attending Kutztown University. He now resides in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and is the head baseball coach and guidance counselor at North Stokes High School in Danbury, NC. As I was mapping out our return trip to Florida, I realized that the Lord had the stars align for us to see Stephen coach a road game against one of theie big rivals, Mt. Airy. One of the things that my mom used to love to do on her travels was surprise people by showing up on their door step, place of employment, or anywhere else that she could track them down at.  Honestly, at the time, I thought that it was always kind of goofy.  However, as I age, I also seem to now get a certain sense of satisfaction with the element of surprise as well. So, on Tuesday, May 11, 2021, we started the day early in Christiansburg, VA and drove down the Blue Ridge Parkway to have breakfast at Mabry Mill.  From there went into Mt. Airy, North Carolina (aka Mayberry) and spent the day checking out the Andy Griffith Museum and all of the Andy Griffith Show attractions around the town. A little after 4:00 PM, we headed over to Mt. Airy High School, ate dinner in the RV, and waited for the bus from North Stokes to arrive. Once the team unloaded and got settled in, I made my way over to the visitors' dugout to surprise someone who I hadn't seen, other than through Facebook, for about 25 years.  The look on Stephen's face when he had to give me a double-take was priceless! We talked for a while before the game and he introduced me to some of his assistant coaches. After the game, we made arrangements for me to swing by North Stokes to do this podcast the next day. During the podcast, we reminisce about a ton of memories, from playing against the Colorado Silver Bullets to playing against a team of convicts at Graterford Prison, a maximum-security prison in Pennsylvania. Stephen reflects on his old American Legion coach, Dick Gochnauer and the influence that he had on his life.  As a coach now, he still recalls many of the lessons that Dick taught him both on and off the field and passing those lessons on to his players now.

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