Spear the richer for Hammer experience

AS A HIGH SCHOOL and college baseball umpire, Sam Spear got up- close-and-personal with some big-time talents, including former Giants shortstop Chris Speier.

But it was in the A's clubhouse where he met the biggest star of them all -- M.C. Hammer.

"I ran into him at Bay Meadows one day," Spear recalled of the former A's batboy. "He told me he hadn't had a winner, that he'd lost $10,000. I said, 'For $10,000, you could have bought a horse.'"

The next day, Hammer handed Spear a check for $100,000. He wanted in.

Within a year, the hotshot recording artist was writing another check -- this one for $1.1 million -- to gain ownership of one of the greatest horses ever to run in Northern California, a filly named Lite Light. Again, Spear brokered the deal.

"The horse won in Los Angeles, then in Arkansas, then ran the fastest time ever in the Kentucky Oaks," he recalled. "We got invited to go to New York to face Meadow Star.

"What I'll remember most about that day is Hammer asking me to get a check cashed for $100,000. They handed me a stack of $10,000 bills. The whole Hammer experience was quite a whirlwind."

Currently living in Danville and now owner of Sam Spear Enterprises, the horse racing enthusiast/broadcaster Monday took time to touch on other memorable days in his sports-filled life.

On playing basketball at St. Joseph High. "I was on the freshman team. One day they told me to report to the court the varsity was on. I thought they were promoting me. Instead, they handed me a clipboard, and I became a statistician."

On being an umpire: "I enjoyed it immensely. I umpired one of Bill Buckner's American Legion games. Gary Nolan, Von Joshua, Steve Brye, Dennis Eckersley, Al Woods. ... I umpired Chris Speier many times. His summer team in Alameda traveled a lot, and I kinda became their traveling umpire."

On "Today at the Races": "My first show was Labor Day, 1978. We'll celebrate our 30th anniversary this year. When we first started, there were only eight TV stations in the Bay Area, and I once drove 12,000 miles in 12 weeks to get to the fairs and back to the Channel 26 studio in San Francisco. Things are a lot different today."

On the Kentucky Derby: "Before the race, I'd done numerous interviews and talked only about the race. Today, all they want to talk about is the tragedy. I wish it weren't the case."

c2008 ANG Newspapers. Cannot be used or repurposed without prior written permission.
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.