Bob La Londe wrote:

Interesting. I won't be repeating that though unless I were to see a
confirmation somewhere.



I actually interviewed Roland about the incident at one of the Classics.
Funny, I can recall a lot of the details of the interview, but not which
Classic it was. I know my wife was there, and she didn't come to that
many Classics with me, so it had to be Baltimore, Richmond, Birmingham
or Carolina.

Anyway, according to Roland's telling, which does jibe with the timeline
claimed by the other parties involved, Roland was off on a filming trip
when the request came in, and they basically asked if he was available
on a specific date. His office looked at his schedule and said no, he
was booked up for that period. They (Roland's people) asked if there
were alternative dates and were told no, it had to be those specific
days. They did not make any effort to see of Roland's schedule could be
tinkered with, or contact him and see if he would be willing to try to
reschedule another commitment to make room for that one.

When Roland called the foundation (if memory serves, it wasn't
'Make-a-Wish', but one of its clones) after learning of the request more
than a week later, they were the ones who told him no-thanks, they had
already arranged with someone else to take the kid fishing. I don't
think it was Dance. Might have been Parker. I'd have to listen to a few
hours of taped interviews to find it and check the details, and I can't
even remember what year it was anymore. (Heck, I'm thankful I can still
remember how to catch a fish every now and then.)

Martin's position was that 'his people' screwed up to a certain extent,
but that the people at the foundation were at least partially to blame
for being inflexible as to the date. Supposedly, the date was set in
stone not because of the kid's needs or health concerns, but to coincide
with the schedule of a reporter who was doing a story about the
organization.