Jim Harbaugh is an intense, fiery man. But like any NFL head coach there are many moments during a game when he needs to set that raw emotion aside, and think clearly to make a crucial decision fast.
He’s pretty good at that, a skill which has its roots way back when a five-year-old Harbaugh was faced with a life-altering problem at the time: either pee your pants, or miss the chance to be in a picture with your favorite baseball player.
An already wise Harbaugh strategically choose pants urination. Here’s the story he told Tim Kawakami:
We went to a Cleveland Indians game. It was one of those games where there was maybe a thousand, 700 people left when it was over. I think the lights had gone out during the game, the old Municipal Stadium.
But you could meet a player after the game. And there was–I think it was a first baseman named McGraw (note: can’t find a player named McGraw on the late-1960s Indians, but the blurriness is understandable; he was 5!). Might’ve been a third baseman.
Anyway, I know we entered the field from the first-base side, just to get a picture with him. Just to get a Polaroid picture.
And I had to go to the bathroom really bad. So I had to make a decision: Me and my brother were like 20 people from actually being able to go on to the field and take a picture with [the player] right by the first-base bag.
And it was either go to the bathroom and not get a picture, or do it right there in my pants. So I chose to go in my pants and my parents have this picture of a big ring right here (points to an obvious place on the front of his pants).
I just want that picture for some reason. I really want that picture.
As Waiting For Next Year (your home for all the Cleveland sports sadness) notes, the 1968 Indians were a team littered with general awfulness. Harbaugh has a vivid memory of the night and his thoroughly soiled pants, except for the player he was eagerly waiting to meet while presumably doing a pee dance of some kind.
Here’s to hoping the soaked pants were worth it. And yes, that picture has to be found immediately. The Internet must know.
