The Best Advice I Ever Received... For Baseball From Pete

In 1975, while living in Heidelberg, Germany, I had the previledge to meet Pete along with a friend in a stairwell for autographs and a breif conversation. Pete was very graceful as he listened to my story about how much I was a excited to meet him though I'd never seen him play until that day. I'd read a book about him about 7 years earlier called, "Pistol Pete Maravich, Basketball Magician" but only imagined how he could do the things described in this little "Arrow book Club" selection.Strange how I also recieved a book called "Is there Something Up There", only to find out years later after his passing, that Pete, at one time, had an interest in UFO's, too.

I was a baseball player who'd only had one idol in sports all of my life (Frank Robinson), but basketball took on a new meaning as an art form the more I read about Pete. I was so excited to see Pete on the cover of Sports Illustrated in his white and red Altanta Hawks uniform frozen in mid air. I still believe Sports Illustrated has in it's archives the greatest photo ever of Pete in action from that issue where Pete is on the base line flipping the ball over his shoulder towards the basket, after gettin around future teammate Otto Moore. I watch that photo as if it was an video clip and imagine how the highlight might have looked for generations of fans to come.

After signing my Spalding collectors edition poster, and my basketball photo "Good Backspin" in my high school yearbook, Pete expressed some concern about my interest in basketball, because he'd heard that I was an exceptional baseball player. He said something to me that shook me with fear and then determination. "You know, I know you like basketball (and playing the drums), he said, but you've got to remember that when you are doing those things, there are at least 1,000 guys back in the States taking batting practice who are getting better than you... That's who your real competition is going to be when you need a scholarship, or hope to get drafted. That's why my dad stayed on me to keep practicing."

Needless to say, I was shaken to the reality that my major league dreams were at stake.
When a few years later I was a second round pick and All-American, I met Pete in D.C. after a game against the Bullets and he remembered me! I introduced one of my teammates who idolized him and was brought to tears. As I walked with Pete to the bus he joked with me and said, You might have been a first round pick and first team All-America if you'd just focused on baseball. We laughed and shared a private moment as my teammate held the other fans back.

I am blessed to have met my idols, Pete, Frank Robinson,and drummers Buddy Rich and Billy Cobham; all in private moments away from the spot light, but thank the Lord that Pete finally met his true "idol" in Jesus Christ after taking one last shot heard around the world. Incredible story. An amazing buzzer-beater. Thank you Pete for making it all fun to watch. You may not have gotten that NBA Championship ring, but may God crown you with his love throughout eternity.

Thank you Jackie, your family, and the creators of this site and others. Pete was always ahead of his time, but right on time to say good bye.

Keith Showell