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I went to a Nats game today, and noticed that three players, Nieves, Zimmermann, and Willingham signed everything for everyone. Nieves even delayed Lannan in his warmup prior to the game to sign everything. On the other side, there was no one on the Mets signing anything. I've been to millions of Mets games and the Mets never sign. Also I'm staying at the same hotel as the Mets, and some sign and others were extremely rude (Johan and Frankie). I never ask for autographs because I never bring anything to sign, so these are just personal observations. Your thoughts?
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Re: Best and Worst Fan Friendly Baseball Teams
The A's are usually great with signing stuff and fan relations. Been to a few Giants and Angels games, and the both left much to be desired....Ricardo Montoya
ri.montoya at yahoo dot com -
Re: Best and Worst Fan Friendly Baseball Teams
I don't know about autographs, but at a recent Mariners game a fan trying to catch a fall ball dropped his french fries onto the warning track and he was given a new basket of fries.Comment
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Re: Best and Worst Fan Friendly Baseball Teams
The worst- Texas Rangers. I live here, and I love baseball... Too bad I'm stuck with the unfriendly Rangers. Fans here dont' support them, but they do nothing to foster a baseball atmosphere.
The best- My Detroit Tigers. Great team, great for the fans.Comment
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Re: Best and Worst Fan Friendly Baseball Teams
I went to a Mets game at PNC field and Johan signed for about 30 people and was nice, didnt talk much but he came and signed when he didnt have too even though I didnt get one. K-Rod has been pretty rude in my one experience with him, he acted like he was on his phone and refused to sign for me with no one else around a few years ago.Comment
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Re: Best and Worst Fan Friendly Baseball Teams
I'll give Angel Berroa a pass on the unfriendly Mets. In BP he was picking up a few balls and throwing them to kids instead of throwing them in the bucket. At the hotel it's probably fifty-fifty with autographs. I don't ask for autographs, I was just listening to people talking about their experiences with them.Comment
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Re: Best and Worst Fan Friendly Baseball Teams
Oakescc, interesting story because I also saw Johan sign for a number of people at PNC. I went to the hotel after the game with my buddy and we didnt get crap. DW5 walked right past us.
K-Rod was also horrible in my 1 experience as well.
The worst team in my opinion is the angels. The entire team walked past us as if they didnt even notice us. Best team is the Braves. Gotta be that southern hospitality. They are always gracious. Andruw, Chipper, Mccann, Frenchy, Furcal, Hampton, Smoltz, Justice...these guys have always been great in my experiences with them.Always buying David Justice itemsComment
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Re: Best and Worst Fan Friendly Baseball Teams
In my spring-training trips from 2005-08, the best signers were the Braves. Fully half their team, including stars, signed readily. The worst I saw were the Cardinals. Larussa at two different games simply ignored fans even a few feet away, not even speaking or waving when they called his name. On his team, only Skip Schumaker, Gary Bennett ( later traded), and 3B Coach Jose Oquendo signed. Oquendo also talked freely to fans during the game.
I suspect the attitude of the manager and management generally affects players. I've read that George Steinbrenner has criticized players in the past for signing autographs, saying he didn't pay them to do that.Comment
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Re: Best and Worst Fan Friendly Baseball Teams
I always thought getting home and away autos was magic at the Dome and even at the hotels. But I admit is has now been 2-3 years since I have been able to be a "regular" so this may have changed.
The Twins are generally very gracious before the games to sign. I would say you could get easily half of the team on any given day and if the auto crowd is small, then you could get 75% or more. After the games, you could get 2-3 players. Seemed like they'd pick a couple different guys each time to sign. I rarely went after the games because the crowd would be huge and they guys are tired and want to get home so the autos wouldn't be quite as good.
Visiting teams for some reason always seem happy to sign here. Perhaps it is the small crowds. For almost any given team you could get 20-25 autos easy in a day at the hotel and maybe another 5 during BP.
I think this will change drastically at the new Target Field. I am sure the access before the game will not be nearly as good. But the best will probably be at the hotels, yet with the hotels being closer to the Field, I am sure a bigger and newer auto crowd will change that too.
The Old Timers generally are pretty good to show the New Guys the right and wrong way to get autos. We try and let them know that politeness and courtesy will go a long way ... and no shouting or chasing ... and we'd try to discourage anyone from trying to get multiples unless you asked the player and explained.
The days at the Dome were wonderful! Players generally seemed not to be too annoyed and lots of good friendships even came from it. And notoriously difficult signers would often surprise us. Even Ichiro and Jeter. A-Rod in the later years was polite but wouldn't sign ... but I am sure he is signing now.
And it was surprising how some away guys would remember you from year to year. Ellie Hendricks would even seem to look for me ... what a great guy he was. Eddie Murray would look for me and tease you with the broken arm routine ... he'd always throw me a BP ball and laugh but only signed for me his last year through and gave me a tip of the cap after. Even former Twins when they'd come through on a new team would often ask how we were and talk about their new teams etc.
Oh, we had it good!
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Re: Best and Worst Fan Friendly Baseball Teams
Good to hear that you found the Nats players great at signing auto's especially at the home park. If you went earlier in the day to the ESPN Zone, Craig Stammen was signing autographs there too.
Wil Nieves and Jordan Zimmermann are class acts as many of the Nats are. Sunday home games are autograph day which is popular as they sign near the dugout.Comment
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Re: Best and Worst Fan Friendly Baseball Teams
Having a cute three year old son and front row seats by the bullpen, I seem to see most teams are pretty friendly especially with the kids there. I can see how players would ignore the older kids demanding "GIVE ME A BALL!", but many of the kids in the area are not even looking for a baseball or autograph at all. My little guy is just as pumped at getting a high five, a wave, or to ask one of his random questions to a player down there. The last game we went to, he was all about asking the players if they had dogs, and what do they do with them when travelling. (very serious issue in the mind of a three year old).
All that being said, I have to second that the Rangers are one of the worst. It was not bad enough that totally ignored all of the kids calling out to them in the stands, but they were overtly trying to pick up some booty for the night. The flirting and tossing up a few balls with numbers to the hoochies was almost nausiating. I feel bad for anyone who had to explain any of that to their kids.
Another observation is how bad most of the IL teams are when we go down to Toledo. Compared to lower minor leagues and even the majors, these guys just for some reason forget how to interacvt with fans. It's sad becasuse the Hens set up a very nice atmosphere for the game, but can't control the visiting teams. Maybe they are all just to focussed on making it to the bigs and relax once they get up there. Who knows.Comment
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