You probably won’t hear from me Friday — long flight to Philly.

I’m incredibly excited about covering this Giants-Phillies series, consider it an honor the PD is sending me. I still get excited about covering big sports events. I love the rush and the action.

My first big assignment was in the fall of 1979. I had been working at the Chron three weeks and they sent me to Vegas to cover the welterweight championship fight between Sugar Ray Leonard and Wilfred Benitez. What an honor. What a fight.

I was staying at Caesars — they put me in a room with a mirror over the bed. Honest. One night I couldn’t sleep so I took a walk on the strip about 2:00 in the morning. The Strip was relatively deserted. Suddenly, a snappy sports car pulled over to me — the top was down. I want to say the car was a foreign number. Sitting inside was an equally snappy young lady, a babe. She smiled at me.

“Do you want to go on a date?” she asked.

I hated to let her down and tried to be as polite as possible.

“Thanks so much for asking,” I said. “But I’m on my first big assignment and I’m preoccupied and I don’t think I’d be very good company.”

She smiled and said good night and drove off and I kept walking while I thought about boxing.

About an hour later the reality of the thing hit me like a right cross to the kisser. She wasn’t asking me on a date. She was a hooker. A lot she cared about my first big assignment. I got a good laugh at myself, at what a dope I had been. A date!

I hope I’m wiser now. I’m certainly older. I’m staying in downtown Philly — I did my undergraduate in Easton, Pa. about an hour away. I would appreciate any recommendations for restaurants in the downtown area.