What's happening on Friday?
So an error is about to end.
I've been dancing for the
Padres for over 35 years and.
It's time for me to hang
up the rake as you say.
We're doing a basically
during the last dance and.
I'm pretty excited about it.
I wanted to go out, you know, with a bang,
a lot of things have changed.
It's COVID and everything,
and so I just wanted, you know,
I just turned the big 60.
If you can believe that you
know black don't crack.
So yeah, so.
That's how we're doing,
so I don't know that they we have
some special stuff going on.
I have no idea,
but I got a big group coming
out there to support me and
I'm really excited about it.
Well, I guess let's go
into what you actually do.
So tell us what you've done for the
last 35 years 1st and then we'll go into
right, right so?
I am the grounds crew dancer for the Padres.
I go on the field, the bottom of the
third just like the grounds crew with a rake.
I look like I'm part of the crew and
I go by the second base.
And they start jamming the music.
I throw the rake off and I go off.
And the crowd goes berserk.
It's pretty fun and how long you
been doing this for like I said,
over 35 years we started my one of
my buddies and his brother was doing
it back at Jack Murphy Stadium.
Certainly.
His brother couldn't do it,
so he asked me if I'd do it. Why not?
I've been in the entertainment for
a long time so we started doing it.
And then we got replaced by the dog,
Padre, which was a golden retriever.
They taught the dog how to run it
first run the second run the 3rd,
and then do a paw slide in the home. Well,
that summer there's like my little joke.
I say all the time.
We got replaced by that dog.
So we stopped dancing because
the dog took our spot.
And my big joke is the dog unfortunately
got hit by a car that summer and
had to get one of his legs amputated
this way before it became Petco.
You know, all the whole dog stuff.
And I joke around I go, yeah,
nobody never saw me hit it either.
Sorry, but so there was
nothing going on and then.
When this is back, when it was Qualcomm.
Hey this is back.
When it was Qualcomm and.
The very last night game was
called Old School Night,
so they brought back all the ballplayers,
although Scooter Tire players.
They brought back the chicken.
If you guys remember the San Diego chicken
used to be the KGB chicken brought him
back and so they they haunted me down.
My friend RJ was usually on the pod squad.
She was one of the head girls and said look,
the pod organization is looking for you.
They want you to dance,
you know just damn I said OK,
I try to get all my friend couldn't find him.
I said call him said well I'll do it
you know I had fun doing it whatever.
Well, people hadn't seen me in years.
So I get there on the field
and they go berserk.
So Jennifer Morris.
Son of John Morris said I wanted him opening
night so my boss Karen Madden at the time.
Contacted me and said you've been highly
requested to dance opening day at Petco Park,
and you know how big deal it was,
they dug up the plate.
Putting on an armored truck from
Qualcomm and then took it all way
down to Petco and that's the same
plate that's been there for all these years,
so.
Opening day,
I'm running around going to VIP parties.
This and that come in there.
I have my own little sistant
they take me to the field.
It was a who's who so many celebrities.
You know I'm looking around and I'm like.
Security in my Secret Service here,
President Carter was a good family or the
Morris family through the first pitch.
Also,
it was a big deal because Barry Bonds
were chasing after Willie Mays's record,
so Willie Mays was there.
I'm gonna start crying.
Is this this whole little scenario
that happens is after President
Carter threw the first pitch.
Everyone's coming off the field.
Here comes President Carter and I see Mr.
President. You might get a picture.
Sure.
Well, friend of mine who's supposed
to be taking pictures the whole time.
Had the old disc camera.
And his wife had swapped the
big disk for the little disk.
So here I am with my arm around
the president.
He had nothing to take a picture with it.
I'm just looking at him like
are you kidding me?
Sorry Mr.
President, we didn't need to go there.
You go, walks around,
look at my friend you kidding me.
20 second layer here comes and say,
hey kid, Willie Mays, you know, Willie?
Kind of felt like he didn't make the
money that the kids were making now,
so he charged for autographs,
pictures and everything.
Excuse me.
Do you mind if we take a picture?
Sure got my arm around him.
No,
so I just looked at my said you kid
me Blue Angels fly over.
So anyways, Long story short.
The next day opening day they have.
The Union tribune. Open day in the park,
first hat or first hit, first catch,
first dance by grounds crew and there
I am on the front page and my signature
dance with the hat turned the leg.
And so I took that picture
which I brought with me.
I got a got it pressed.
You know, the little plastic?
Frame things that they do with
my with my ticket with the pass,
got it pressed and I took a
lot of my headset on my wall.
Now would have been really nice.
It was a picture of me with Willie Mays
on one side and put another picture
with me and president on the other.
Say yeah that's in my head
and I will never ever forget.
That's why one of my favorite memories.
So what are some of the songs that
you were dancing to over the years?
Oh man, usher.
You don't have to call.
How Lordy did you pick him?
Yeah, I would pick him.
And like I said, I couldn't.
Pick a song that one of the ballplayers
walking when they walk up to hit,
they pick up their own songs.
I couldn't dance one of those songs,
so sometimes I'll pick a song to go.
You can't dance to that.
So they're already doing that.
So it could be anything.
And we had all kind of crazy night.
We had 70s night.
My boss loved dressing me up because
one day I went out to the field and
the whole big fro and the them shoes,
some platform shoes.
That was a good time, but yeah,
so it just depends on, you know,
what we had going on this time.
Single the mile.
I would dance with the fryer.
And they have to be had out there.
It's just depending on what was going on.
What are you gonna miss
most about this African,
honestly? It's all about the fans.
I love it when I'm coming off the field
and people are just going crazy and I
walk over to the side and people like
God and the funniest part of my friends
scream screaming at like I can hear them.
Some of them I can see him but I can hear him
but it really has always been about that.
Actually a real funny time.
One of the Fox Sports photographers taking
a picture of me because on the back of one
of one of my books I have my picture on you.
Padre outfit are so we walk around and
walk around the stadium during the game.
And I'm wearing the outfit and I told
the guy look, I'm probably gonna
get bombarded with a bunch of fans.
He's kind of looking like.
Yeah, right?
You know whatever it took us 2 1/2
hours to take the pictures because I
was getting bombarded by everybody.
Only problem was.
I got a cease and desist letter
from Major League Baseball because
I was wearing the Padre outfit on
and I'm selling my books.
So we had to cancel that and
retake the picture.
So I have the picture of just
San Diego with a blue hat on.
And then there's like a blue polo shirt.
So that's on my back.
Might be but yeah, that's crazy.
Any players ever dance with you or any
so? It's funny you mentioned that because
you guys probably have to look this
up because I tried to contact my boss,
I tried to contact a bunch of other people
I used to live across the street from
the center fielder and it was back in.
I've been in my place for 99 years.
And I've been point Loma.
I think he came from Florida.
His wife was praying with two two with
twins and I can't remember what what it was,
but I've been dancing by myself.
You know this whole entire time
and once I met him I said hey,
why don't we do this?
If you guys are winning when you're coming
back on the field and you see me dancing,
let's kind of do little kid and play,
you know, move thing and that he goes.
I don't know.
I said come on,
do that be fun you sure you know you're
not just you know you're a project
player likes to have fun. He does.
His wife goes you better do it so he goes OK.
So here comes the game.
They're winning.
Here he comes running toward me,
and so for one of the first times I
was kind of just shuffling over to him.
I really didn't do much dancing because
the whole highlight was for us to
do this little kitten play thing,
and he's looking at me as he watches.
And so he runs by me and people
like what happened, what happened.
So at that point the new special
events coordinator said.
We need to change this up and that's
when they start hiring professional dancers.
So then I had to start having rehearsal
and let me tell you something you guys
know about dancing just freestyle and
having fun is a whole different thing,
whole different in shape compared to dancers.
Because dude,
I was there.
Telling you it was crazy sweating like a pig,
and so that's how suddenly I had
the the I don't want to say backup
dancers because we all did the same
routine but we had to have practice
to do ring teams and everything.
So that's when you saw the young kids
that I was dancing with at that point. So
are you. Are you sad to go on what's well?
I mean, it's been a rough couple
of weeks, even though all the
big news of of the new addition.
So you sad to go and and what
maybe a big season for the Padres.
You know, I just wanted
to go out with a bang.
No, no, nobody wants them to say Eric.
We don't need you anymore, you know.
And actually, I thought I was gonna
have to get some surgery because
I reinjured old injury so I just
you know I was gonna wait till
the end of the season anyways.
But you know it's it's time.
35 years. Come on I can.
I can still still got my stuff going,
which you'll see Friday.
But you know,
it's just I'm I'm gonna miss it
cause it it the excitement like you
I can't explain to you the energy.
Like I get a little nervous
like everybody else,
but as soon as I go through the tunnel
up on the field everything goes.
Dead quiet.
And I just wait to hear the music and
throw the weight down and I go crazy.
And then after I'm done and
actually this is a funny story.
So when I told.
On when they're interviewing on TV,
they said is there anything you're
gonna bring back and I was trying
to bring back the wave because
when people weren't doing it
that was opening day and so I'm
out there on the field dancing.
And wasn't paying attention.
We didn't have a cutoff time.
I usually would just run off the field,
but I was so in the mold in or in
the moment that I forgot how much
time it was going on and suddenly
I hear coming to the plate number
32 Barry Bonds and I'm like.
I'm sitting there still out and this
was on ESPN and they have this thing.
If there's any delay on ESPN.
The team gets fined $10,000.
So here's my happy **** still
out there on second base like
you've never seen somebody run off
field so fast you thought I was.
It was a new bolt run off that field, right?
OK, so my boss is like,
you might have lost your job, right?
But that was also the day that
they were throwing the syringes
out there on left field because
the whole thing about him.
So all the focus went on that.
And everybody for kind of forgot about me.
So Wednesday I'm like God took
out my job and said we haven't
heard anything so you're good.
So that's kind of ironic that
you never had any other embarrassing
where you were you tripped
or you did anything dancing.
Nope. How do you do this dancing?
It's dancing. I mean, I've,
I've had a lot of fun, you know,
we've mixed it up a bunch of different times.
There's different stuff that I'd
like to do that I want to do,
but they were worried that some
other fan would think, well,
this guy did it, so let me do it.
You know, and then you know I thought
about start dancing on top of the dugout.
And then jump on the field.
Or you know, whatever.
But you know. There's always idiots.
All it takes is 1 so.
It is what it is.
Can you show us any moves now
you wait till Friday.
You just sound like that's
so funny because it happens to
me all the time. All the time.
Friday Friday Friday.
Friday Friday Friday Friday,
Friday come Friday.
I'm just saying because that
happens all the time to me
all the time so they found
on the ground could answer.
Well show me some moves.
I look at them really so if you
were a cook I slapped down some
meat and say cook this for me or you
know the whole you're a comedian?
Tell me a joke got to come to the game.
You got anything else?
Ask you for your favorite move,
but it's not gonna happen.
No. No way of getting the what's in the mood.
What? No, because
the first dance of the selfie
we've. Oh yeah.
Well, the selfie was funny.
So if you don't know if you've
gotten to intermarry archive,
but I that song.
But first, let's take a selfie.
So what I was doing out there,
I started dancing.
I took my phone and threw it on
the ground and I did the dive,
went down and doing 100 push-ups
and I stop and go first let's do a
selfie and I grab my phone like this.
And one of the.
Reporters took a great picture
of me like this, and so I like,
went viral on the things pretty so
it's all my my Facebook thing right now, so.
Ohh yeah, actually it's really funny.
He offered to hire me to work for
him because that guy yeah Ted.
Yeah, yeah yeah.
So very smart businessman.
That was the hardest person
or hardest working person.
I'd say in the history thing he
worked 340 days out of the year
because he got paid 20 grand a pop.
So what he did was hired for other people.
To where the chicken outfit,
but he wasn't going to pay him.
He wasn't paying them crap, you know,
he's paying their hotel lodge and
everybody was saying like go out there,
but very smart, very, very smart.
So yeah, franchise?
Yeah no smart,
no other. No other memories with like
players that that stand out to you.
So this is a big one.
My boss had called me
somebody was such a big fan.
That they asked me to dance
at their wedding.
Man, I would listen.
What's that car
dancing? They think I am. It's gonna pull
up or something, but there were huge
fans and it was really cool how we had
it set up so they could they by the time
I got there everyone knew I was there.
So I had my outfit on.
So I basically after the wedding was done I.
Came out there with the dinner salads
you know, and everyone's getting
all crazy and the DJ's like ladies
gentlemen and Eric Evers grounds for
the Padres and people are just going
crazy and their father ends up coming
out dancing with me and all this stuff.
It was pretty cool.
I mean that that was a cool experience.
A lot of the charity work that
I did at oh God,
I can't think of the ones are over in
Delmar are are not Delmar over Coronado.
Ohh God can't remember once they are.
But anyways I did a lot of charity with them
for free to dance and basically you know.
They sold me, you know,
to charity auction things.
Sometimes it was 800 bucks
I'd come dance for him.
Or being a massage therapist.
I throwing a free massage and stuff and
so I'd come to their house and and hook
them up and everything and stuff so.
But I mean I never said no to
anything except for the death, right?
Professional dancer before
I just like to dance,
I always had a good time.
I actually had to wear two shirts.
Bring two shirts because the
other one be so drenched.
What they call today is a heightened
like you're the guy that got the crowd
going because what that did for like your
organization has got them to buy liquor,
got them buy food gotten by
whatever you were the opening act.
So I mean, that's big. Nowadays
was amazing because I've had.
Text messages from Dodger fans
saying I'm not even a podger fan,
but I come see you and
that's really flattering.
That's really, really flattering, so.
You know, I mean like I said,
it's always been about the fans.
It really has. Do you
remember where it was? Real hard to
hype up the crowd when the Padres
weren't doing so good and were. Or,
you know, there's
it's really funny.
You say that because there was
a time when we were getting
slaughtered because usually I go out
there at the bottom of the third.
We were getting slaughtered
and it was raining and I go.
Do I have to go down there on the field just?
I mean I can't remember this.
It was like a ridiculous score.
It was. It was crazy they go.
Yep. And I went out there.
And it I ended up saying and they're
like the grounds at the head grounds.
Got Eric is real slippery out there.
Be careful. So I was out there.
Kind of just kind of send myself.
Well if I eat it I'll just go
with it and start act like I'm
swimming or doing whatever.
But yeah, times when we weren't winning
and there's times like literally
when we were winning when I got off
the field by time I got back to the
green room we were losing again.
I'm like that just that fast.
But you know, I just like I said,
I love the fact that people are
like I'd get text messages.
Are you dancing? Are you dancing?
Are you dancing?
It's all it was always usually
Friday or Saturday,
but I get text message during the week.
Are you dancing?
You, dancing?
We're looking for you looking for you.
And if you blink you can miss
me real quickly because people
during the break go up to get
beer or go in the bathroom so.
If you go up bottom of the third,
you're gonna miss.
Could be that quick.