Best Item an Athlete has Given You or You Have Given an Athlete (No $$$)

[allstarsplus]

Last night vs. the Giants I followed thru on a promise to a fellow Forum member JasonHalliburton that if he drove the 8 hours from Knoxville Tenn to DC, I would take him to the game and see Bonds (well there was no Bonds sighting). We got into the stadium prior to batting practice. Brian Schneider came over to talk to us. When I say "talk", I mean talk. He and Jason had the State of Tennessee in common as a lot of Brian's family lives there. After the Nats first season in 2005, I purchased all of Brian's catchers gear. I told him I would be interested in purchasing any gear this year too and he said he has been donating it to needy kids in the Dominican Republic (classy guy). After BP, Brian brings me his "away" catchers gear autographed and a bunch of sweat bands. Check out what game the chest protector was used in:

Attachment 7069

Andrew

This was part of what I originally posted in the "Class Act" thread. I wanted to start a new thread for the best item an athlete has given you or you have given to an athlete with no money changing hands.

I have been given baseballs, some bats, caps and some other stuff, but for Brian Schneider to give me this item was over the top. I didn't even ask for it.

It kind of reminds me of the old Coca Cola commercial when Mean Joe Greene throws the kid his jersey. Sure, Gilbert Arenas throws his jersey to the crowd after every Wizards game but that is kind of part of his post-game ritual.

Here is a picture of me with the chest protector:


Here is a better pic of Brian Schneider. I hope to photomatch much better than from this pic:



Here is Brian Schneider with Jason Halliburton:



I will Post later the best item(s) I have given an athlete.

Andrew

[AutographAddiction]

Dwight Howard game Used Jersey. Near 30 pairs of UNC Football Players Gloves!!!

[shoremen44]

Best item ever given by an Athlete...

I think the year was 1989... I could be mistaken, but I was at an Orioles game with my father, and he knew a bunch of the cops working the game... I asked one of the uniforms if they could get me a ball signed by my favorite Oriole, Mickey Tettleton... so the game goes on, and nothing from the cop... the game ends and my dad and I are about to leave and I hear someone say my name... I turn around and it is Tettleton... he calls me over shakes my hand, spends about 10 minutes talking to me and gives me his bat... my very first gamer... and I still have it!


Best item I ever gave an athlete...

(I posted this in another thread, but I revived it here too)

He isnt an athlete, or at least not any More but...

I bought some old bats back at the begining of the summer... all were old international players that played in Baltimore before there was a major league team... like my 1936 Woodley Abernathy (international league HR champ).

Well... one of the bats I bought was of Lee Riley... who among many other teams played briefly in Baltimore in 1939.

I was going through my collection and decided to sell some bats and decided that I wasnt that attached to the Riley bat and was going to see if I could get the $100 I payed out of this sidewritten old bat.

In preparing to sell the bat I found out that the only Lee Riley at the time ended up being the father of Coach Pat Riley. I sent a note to the only email address I could find for the Miami heat and wanted to know if Coach Riley would like his father's bat. I got a nice response from their marketing guys and he told me that Coach Riley was very excited to get it.

I sent it off... and a week or two later I got a copy of Pat Riley's Hall of Fame book... autographed to me... and a long hand written letter from the Coach thanking me for my gift. He was very excited to have a bat that his dad "had his own hands around".

The letter is over the top nice... I am not an NBA fan... but Pat Riley is a stand up guy...

[sox83cubs84]

Best given to me:

During 2006, when I was dealing with a back infection during most of the baseball season, Tony Clark sent me a package from Phoenix. Inside were a half-dozen batting gloves, a pair of cleats, and a half-dozen D-Backs caps (some worn by him, others mint and signed by him).

Best I gave out:

1972 Brewers road knit I gave to his son, Derrick, when "D" was with the Cubs.

Dave Miedema

[platinum1]

I couple of years ago I was searching Ebay and I found an old raggy Cuban Baseball jersey with the name Contreras on the back.
I got it for like $50.
The day I got it I went over to the Cell and waited for Jose to leave the park and when he came out he saw me standing with the jersey.
It turned out that the jersey was his first ever professional jersey.
So I just gave it to him for nothing.

[yankees506]

I never thought id get the chance to tell this story, i was in LA in september of 08 and decided to check out a game, Manny Ramirez was in the outfield and i began yelling at him. Im from NY so i was yelling how washington heights (where he was born in NY) followed him to LA, to my surprise he began to walk over, we talked for about 20 min while he was shagging balls and at the end i said "manny, NY would love to take something of manny back home" he laughed and bp ended, about ten minutes later i see manny come jogging down the foul line, he gets to where i was sitting and says "im looking for New York", i stand up and he throws what looks like a shirt to me, he leaves and when i open up the shirt i immediately knew what it was, i looked at the neck and there was a 99 written, he gave me his gu undershirt, it wasnt a jersey but wow I was not a manny fan until that day.

[wildcats97champs]

this past year i was the personal driverfor champions tour pro peter jacobsen while he played at the dicks sporting goods open. about 3 hours after i had dropped him off at the airport i got a call from peter himself asking me if i could return to the course and see if he had left a club in the inspection room. sure enough it was there, he kindly asked me if i would mail it to him at the next tourny he was playing at and he would "make it right with me" so about 3 weeks after i mailed the club i got a huge package in the mail from peter with a note thanking me for mailing it $100 bill and the golf bag he used at the dicks open that year. not bad for a $12 mailing and 45 mins of my time

[metsbats]

Not given to me by an player but in 2000 a clubhouse contact gave me a empty champayne bottle and a Budweiser congratulations Mets poster from the Mets Clubhouse Wildcard celebration.

In 2006 I purchased the throwback jersey Ed Hearn wore during the 86 Mets Reunion ceremony from MLB auctions and traded him the "gift" jersey he was given.

[AutographAddiction]

Well, I feel like I should tell my story about the post I mentioned earlier...

Earlier this season I got a Dwight Howard Game-Used Jersey! Talked to him before the game and made a sign to remind him and he gave it to me after the game!



I will also put a link on here to my blog so you can WATCH THE VIDEO OF HIM GIVING IT TO ME!
http://autographaddiction.blogspot.c...-everyone.html

And as for the UNC gloves, I have sat next to the UNC tunnel every football game for about 3 years. You can see me in all of these pictures... I have collected many game-used sweatbands and gloves over the years and players now recognize me and know me by name...



If anyone is interested in any UNC football (or basketball) game-used items or autographs I can help you out. There are many future 1st rounders on the team now...

tsharp94@gmail.com

[LWMM]

If anyone is interested in any UNC football (or basketball) game-used items or autographs I can help you out. There are many future 1st rounders on the team now...

Yeah, and even more sitting on the bench indefinitely