Never does a day go by where I do not count my blessings, especially when I walk into the Vin Scully Press Box at Dodger Stadium. It is not lost on me, not for one second, just how incredibly blessed I am to be in the same room with some of the very best journalists, beat writers and, of course, broadcasters on the planet.

But in addition to this, the simple truth is that you never know who you might run into in ‘The House that Vin Built.’

On May 27, 2013, Memorial Day, I was once again blessed to receive a media credential. As I walked through the narrow passageway and entered the main work room, I immediately looked to my left (as I always did) to see if Vin happened to be outside of the broadcast booth – as he often was this early before game time – to exchange greetings and, on blessed rare occasion, listen to a story as only the great Vin Scully could tell.

He was.

…but he was not alone.

To my absolute shock and utter amazement, standing next to Hall of Fame broadcaster Vin Scully was Edwin Eugene (Buzz) Aldrin Jr., the second man in history to set foot on the Moon only moments after Neil Armstrong became the first.

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Allow me to digress.

As a youngster, adolescent and teenager, I was an absolute space program nut. I can say with a clean and pure conscience that I watched every space launch and splashdown on our old black and white television in utter amazement. Heck, back then I could have told you the names of every American astronaut who had been in space. I remember to this very day President John Fitzgerald Kennedy saying:

“[The US] should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth.”

Exactly 164 days before the end of the decade and even though President Kennedy wasn’t around to see his incredible vision realized, Neil Armstrong (who himself passed on August 25, 2012 at the age of 82) and Buzz Aldrin did exactly that … and I had watched every minute of it.

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Needless to say, standing right there in front of me were two of my biggest heroes of my entire life (and I’m old).

As only he could – and would – do, Vin saw the shocked expression on my face and said “Helloooo, Ron. Allow me to introduce our moon walker to you. Buzz, this is Ron, Ron this is Buzz Aldrin.”

I was speechless.

After shaking hands with Buzz and Vin, I finally snapped out of my stupor and realized that I absolutely positively had to capture this epic – and historic – moment on film … well, at least on digits. I quickly pulled my camera from my backpack (which I had never even removed from my shoulder since I hadn’t made it to my assigned seat yet) and snapped a quick photo of Buzz and Vin.

I managed to get longtime Dodgers engineer Brian Hagan to take a photo of Buzz and I in the hallway where, moments before, Vin had introduced the two of us.

It was a moment in time that I shall never forget for the rest of my days and especially on this, the very day on which we celebrate the 50th anniversary of this historic event.

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