It was a long-ago Dec. 26 at a high-end shopping mall north of Atlanta. I was taking a brief break from my annual quest to purchase half-price Christmas ornaments when what to my wondering eyes should appear inside the requisite Starbucks but Atlanta Braves skipper Bobby Cox.
"I feel like I know you," Cox said.
"I'm a sports writer from Chattanooga," I replied. "You've probably seen me around during the season, especially during the playoffs."
Stump MartinAdded Cox, his mood lightening, "Chattanooga? Then you probably know Stump, don't you?"
Told yes, the future Hall of Famer said, "Tell Stump I said hello."
We all told Marvin "Stump" Martin goodbye Monday morning at Heritage Funeral Home on Battlefield Parkway. Both the funeral home and parking lot were packed, the chapel literally standing room only. A shuttle service from the Walmart across the road wouldn't have been unnecessary.
It was the kind of crowd you might have expected for someone who was on a first-name basis with Cox. But then Stump was on a first-name basis with everybody, from politicians to paper hangers, bankers to beggars, teachers to truants.
And kids. Always kids, whatever their age, size or skill level on or off a ballfield.
"(Stump) was Misty's dad," said minister and family friend Darrell Henry as he referenced Deb and Stump's daughter Misty Dawn. "But he was everybody's dad."
Everybody's. And everybody's granddad, especially to Misty's son Austin. And everybody's coach. And everybody's friend. Always and forever.
This isn't to make it sound like Stump was perfect. He didn't always take care of himself physically. Far too often he let his big heart further shrink his little wallet due to someone in need.
"He probably gave away millions," his younger brother Marshall said with a laugh early Monday afternon. "And he never had millions to give."
But he never quit giving of himself to anyone willing to ask for his help.
"(Stump) knew so many people in so many places in so many walks of life," lifelong friend Earl Wilson said during Monday's service. "But he could best be summed up by five words: It's all about the kids. Kids came before anything else."
Wilson was a kid when he first met Martin at Rossville High School, and the Stumper already was a big man on that campus - a star athlete in multiple sports, a leader in multiple clubs, including the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Wilson, on the other hand, stood about "five-feet-four" at that time and in danger of being bullied by most kids he came across.
Only Martin wasn't about to let that happen. He and his friends immediately embraced and befriended Wilson. The bond lasted until the day Stump passed last Thursday morning after a lengthy battle with heart disease.
"His family kept thinking God would fix this," Wilson said. "He did. God took him to a place where he was no longer in pain."
Everybody dies sooner or later. The pain usually is reserved for those left behind, those whose lives will forever have a hole in them from that person's absence. Perhaps to ease that, Martin told Henry as the two discussed what his funeral might be like: "I want you to make it happy."
Added the "Preacher," as Martin often called him: "Because Stump was happy, and funny, and enjoyed life."
To help that concept along, the service began with "The Andy Griffith Show" theme song, at least partly because the Don Knotts character Barney Fife was Stump's all-time favorite.
The show was also Deb and Stump's favorite overall. Beyond that, their marriage of 43 years, so much of it lived on dusty ballfields with the temperature hovering near 90, as it did on Monday, often seemed to have been pulled from a sitcom, right down to the occasionally campy, always entertaining "Stump on Sports," which ran for more than 30 years on various local TV stations.
But then Stump was always a star, regardless of what he was doing or whom he was around.
"Every person is special in God's eyes," Henry said. "But I think God puts a little extra something in some people. Stump was one of those people."
Late Monday afternoon, 631 miles from Chattanooga in the hallowed baseball temple Wrigley Field, the Atlanta Braves beat the Chicago Cubs 6-5. Though Cox is no longer the manager, it sure seemed like a perfect way for his old club, the club Martin so loved to cover, to join the rest of us in saying a final goodbye to Stump, who turned that little something extra into a very big life.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.