Giants 81-Game Road Trip Couple Re-Visited
SAN FRANCISCO -- In 2014, KPIX profiled a San Francisco couple that spent their entire summer traveling with the Giants. All told, Bert and Le Anne Steinberg made it through the grueling 81-game schedule that canvassed 17 cities.
Bert always wanted to emulate a baseball player, and Le Anne convinced him to turn a compulsive idea into reality.
"You have your last chance in your life to do it... do it!" Bert barked.
Considered newlyweds, they were married two years before the baseball odyssey began, and shared a passion for the game. Among their differences, a 37 year age gap. Bert was 93 when he completed the trip.
"I have been asked every possible question," Le Anne said about curious people. "We were on an airplane and some asked if we had sex."
It's been almost six years since the Steinberg's finished the trip and along the way became quasi-famous thanks to TV mentions by Mike Krukow and Duane Kuiper. Former manager Bruce Bochy presented the couple with a framed team-signed jersey that now lives in Le Anne Steinberg's office.
But this story has a bittersweet update: Bert passed away in January of 2019 at the age 98 after a throat cancer diagnosis.
"He was still up walking and talking the day he died," Le Anne said. "I walked him to the bathroom and he collapsed in my arms."
Le Anne now lives in Florida after moving from the San Francisco condo that was within walking distance to Oracle Park. Before Bert died he agreed to adopt Le Anne's daughter Stephanie. "He always wanted a girl and she is there to make him proud."
Le Anne no longer has Bert, her baseball partner in crime, but says she made a lifetime of friends on the road six years ago.
"I'm planning a spring training trip for my 65th birthday to get together with all the fun people we met on that trip," she said.