Around northeastern Kentucky, you won’t find many New York Yankee fans.
Fans have a love-hate relationship with the Yankees, much like they do for Notre Dame. Nobody is neutral when it comes to the Yankees or the Fighting Irish, not just around here but everywhere.
But if you ever happen into Grayson, look up Bob Genung.
Just call him Mr. Yankee.
Genung grew up rooting for the Yankees, even though he is from Nashville.
“As a child, I wanted to be Yogi Berra, No. 8,” he said. “He was like a rock star.”
When Genung was a young boy, he played Little League for the Yankees and proudly wore Berra’s No. 8. He never knew that later in life he would not only become acquainted with Berra but actually become a friend.
Genung, who owns Fitness Trainers in Grayson, stepped into a dream job a few years ago.
He met Wanda Greer, who was running the Yankee Fantasy Camp in Fort Lauderdale at the time. She was impressed with Bob and his wife Lynn, who was training her.
She liked his professionalism and personality, not to mention his deep love for the Yankees.
Genung jumped at the opportunity to work the camp as one of its four trainers. He was joined by Kevin Rand (now with the Tigers), Steve Donohue (head trainer with Yankees) and Gene Monahan (head trainer with Yankees). He actually helped Donohue on a training program that led to him losing 60 pounds.
While a part of the Fantasy Camp, he met some of the old stars and the new stars.
He had talks with Moose Skowron, Bobby Richardson, Hank Bauer, Clete Boyer and Tony Kubek. He watched Ron Guidry and Goose Gossage throw to the campers
Skowron and Bauer were roommates with the Yankees and roommates at the fantasy camp, Genung said.
“Hank died about three years ago,” Genung said. “Moose looks lonely to me. He has three World Series rings — two with the Yankees and one with the Dodgers. He’d say to me ‘That one with the Dodgers, I’d take $25,000 for it.’’’
Genung said he was the chauffeur for about a dozen of the Yankee greats one night and figured up there were 61 World Series rings in his van.
“Yogi had 10 and the rest had three to five apiece,” Genung said. “I said to myself ‘Bob, be careful, you’ve got a lot of World Series rings in this car.’’’
Genung worked the camp for six years, from 1999 to 2005, before a hurricane blew apart the park and the franchise changed hands. That was about four years ago.
He mostly felt sorry for Greer, who he called “an excellent organizer, a tireless worker. I never met anybody like her. I highly respect her.”
Genung wears Yankee gear around town. He loves the heroes in pinstripes, as one of his shirts read.
“I was always a Yankee fan,” he said. “When I walked in there I was transformed into a different time zone.”
He had dinner with Bucky Dent, who showed him on a replica Fenway Park stadium in Jupiter, Fla., where the famous home run soared over the Green Monster. The score of the game, the count and everything is shown on the scoreboard.
He made small talk with Don Larsen, the author of the only perfect game in World Series history in 1956, and has some autographed memorabilia concerning that historic day.
Genung’s son, Dylan, a sophomore at East Carter, got to be the bat boy for the Fantasy Camp All-Stars. He also took hitting lessons from Tony Ferrara, who gave lessons to Robert Redford for the movie “The Natural.” He was a batting and pitching coach for the fantasy camp.
“It must have stuck with him because he was one of first freshman to make the all-16th Region all-tournament team (last year),” Genung said. “Being around these guys, it gave him a standard to shoot for and respect for the game.”
There have been many emotional moments at the camp but maybe none bigger than when his brother died.
“I was in the room with 30 Yankees and a young man patted me on the shoulder,” Genung said. “My brother John was on the phone. He said ‘Bob I hate to tell you this because I know you’re having a good time at camp, but our brother, Dick, has just passed away.’ I went up to my room, set on my bed and had a few quiet moments and a good cry.”
Then there was a knock on the door and it was Richardson, the great Yankee second baseman of the 1960s. “He came in and held my hand while I cried,” Genung said.
Richardson then asked for a photograph that had been taken of Richardson and Genung together. He wrote Proverbs 3: 5-6 on the picture. “That meant so much to me,” Genung said. “It’s what we love by and it’s our standard of excellence. He gave me strength.”
Genung has lived in Grayson for 14 years and he calls it home now. “They know me as Bob the Builder in this area because I’ve been working with kids and adults for some time.”
Genung said he understands everybody doesn’t like the Yankees but says “you can’t deny the quality and impact these guys have had on the game. I make no bones about being a Yankee fan.”
He watched happily as the Yankees claimed World Series championship No. 27 last week even if few others in the area cheered with him.
That’s the life of a Yankee fan in Reds Country. Bob Genung wouldn’t have it any other way.
MARK MAYNARD can be reached at mmaynard@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2648.
