BY THE WAY: MUSIAL WORTH AUTOGRAPH, $20 AND A GOOD STORY

Jeff Perkins had that twinkle in his eye and a fisherman's gaze, signs that usually point to a whale of a story.

Considering that "Perk" does a convincing imitation of Keith Jackson, who used to call a "whale of a football game," I didn't have to be encouraged any further.

I first met Perk while covering sports for the paper several years ago. Perk was an athletic trainer for Southeast Missouri State, so we ran into each other from time to time just doing our jobs. After Perk moved on to TCI as a sales representative, our frequent encounters seemed to take place at the Playdium.

When Perk announces he has a story to tell, people tend to react like Bleacher Bums at Wrigley when a long-ball hitter for the Cubs strides to the plate. They rub their hands together in anticipation of a nice catch.

And so it was with this same anticipation that Playdium patrons within earshot of "Perk" formed a cozy arc.

It seems Perk's sister-in-law, Rachel Nunnlee, found herself in an Amsterdam airport trying to figure a way out of an embarrassing dilemma.

After religiously sticking to her frugal budget, she was somewhat alarmed to find that she was still lacking $20, the exact amount needed to purchase a ticket for a flight back to the United States.

"She spent a year studying at a university overseas, so the price of the return ticket was probably higher than it was when she arrived," he explained. "And she budgeted her money so that she would only need enough to cover the price of a plane ticket on the last day."

The couple standing in line behind Rachel overheard the conversation she had with the ticket taker and offered to pay the $20 to help this American citizen from St. Louis out of her dilemma. Rachel insisted that she needed their names and address to pay them back.

After some prodding from Rachel, the couple finally relented.

"What Rachel couldn't understand is why this couple started to grin when she didn't recognize their name," Perkins said, his infectious enthusiasm pushing us to the edge of our seats.

Surely you know my husband, the woman said with a look of disbelief. The woman's husband produced and even wider grin. With an exasperated expression, Rachel said she was sorry, but the woman's husband just didn't look familiar.

"There is a statue of him outside of Busch Stadium," the woman deadpanned. Rachel said she was sorry, but that still didn't trigger the image of anyone she might have known or heard of.

When he finally said that there are a few baseball fans who know all about Stan Musial, Rachel thought an autographed card might be a nice gift for her baseball-crazy brother-in-law. Musial was happy to oblige.

"The irony is that Rachel's mom, Janice, saw Stan Musial play one of his last games at Sportsman's Park," Perk said. "When I heard her story I couldn't believe it. Rachel grew up in St. Louis and never heard of Stan Musial," he said, looking as though he had just identified an in-law who should be ushered out of her hometown for heresy. "If it had been me at the airport I would have been doing backflips.

"You would think some time, somewhere she would have heard the name Stan Musial," Perk said, shaking his head as his audience roared with laughter.

There is a happy ending to his story. Now Perk has something to complement his 8-x-10 black-and-white picture of Stan The Man.

So where does Rachel stand after this story makes the rounds? I think Perk is going to tell her she has been studying overseas too long.

~Bill Heitland is a staff writer for the Southeast Missourian.