Your BEST Experience Dealing with an Athlete

[4cuda9er]

First of all, I would like to say that I have had great experiences with several baseball, and football players in my twenty or so years of collecting., but I wanted to share this one because I doubt if there will be many or maybe any posts, on this player. It is Barry Bonds. I had been sitting in my kayak for approx. 3 yrs. at McCovey Cove, hoping to get one of his Homerun Balls. While in the Cove I met several friends, and we formed the Bonds Navy, which consisted of Kayakers who were regulars. Then I was fortunate enough to get Barry's 738 HR ball. I then wanted to see if I could get it signed. On three occasions I stood near the players entrance gate at the stadium, holding my framed Ball, and wearing the Bonds Navy sweatshirt... When Bonds would arrive, he would look at me, and the ball, wave, and continue to his parking stall under the stadium. The regular auto hounds came up to me and stated that Bonds never stop to sign, and that I had no chance to get the ball signed. The next day, two of my Bonds Navy friends, and myself stood at the entrance wearing our sweatshirts, and held up signs thanking Bonds for the HR splashes we had retrieved. Bonds came driving pass us, waved and said " So, you are the guys getting all my HR’s in the cove." He then drove pass us and into the security gate, and under the stadium... Then while standing by myself near the security gate about to leave to put my kayak in the water for batting practice, Bonds walked into the security area, pointed at me, and said "give me your ball" He then signed the HR ball on the sweet spot with the inscription "God Bless" He then signed my two friends HR balls for them, and several other who he had normally passed up. It was a very memorable day for us.

[elbooman]

My story was with Drew Gooden. About 3 years ago during the summer i was with my best friend and his family in their car driving around, and at a red light 4 harley davidson motorcycles pull up next to us and me and my friend immediately noticed that 1 of them was Drew Gooden. So we rolled down the windows and said hey to him and he was so cool and so nice. I collect game worn shoes so i asked him next time he came down to play in Miami if he could give me his shoes and he said sure no problem. The next year after the Cavs game i somehow snuck myslef to postgame where all the players come out after the game. After waiting about 20 mins he came out and i confronted him. He immediately recognized me after i told him that i was the boy who asked him for the shoes during the summer and he was so cool. I asked him if he could ship a pair to my house and he said yeah for sure and even asked what my name was. About 3 weeks later, the shoes came game worn signed to me. Even though he is not the greatest player, its a great story and he is such a cool dude.

ps. - Jason Kidd also sent me his shoes when i gave him my address once after the game. could not believe that either.

[jays78]

Hi All,

I love reading through the older thread with worst experiences meeting an athlete, thought we should start a specific one for the best experiences.

My BEST happened this past Wednesday. Hulk Hogan was on his media tour for his new book in Toronto, and I had got tickets to the CBC latenight show "The Hour" that he was appearing on. As it turned out, Mark Messier was also on the show.

Anyway, the studio audience there is fairly small, I'd say 50-75 people, Hulk did the interview and was leaving the stage (my wife and I were in the front row, right in front of the steps that lead to the stage, Hulk comes down and I held out his new book with Sharpie asking him to sign, and he walked right past and out of the studio....I was dejected, but figured that hey, he can't possibly stop for everyone.

Little did I know that in a few minutes they were going to be filiming a stunt for their new years show where George Strombolopolus the host runs and jumps off the stage while the Hulk makes it look like he's going to hit him with a folding chair, so Hulk comes back in, does 2 takes of this (right in front of us) and I held out the book again, this time he came right over to us and even personalized the auto to me, I stood up and asked if he would let me have my photo with him, which he said sure or something like that (it's a bit of a blur to me, I was so excited).

I was the only one he signed for, he made this 31 year old feel like an 8 year old all over again! Once he did the auto and my wife took the photo, he looked at me and said "Is that ok, brother?" .....it was so AWESOME! I was the only one in the audience that got to meet him.

[JasonBanz]

I have 2 good meetings. Back in May, our local mall had 3 Steelers, present and current signing autographs. The 3 were Jack Lambert, Mike Merriwether, and Ryan Clark. Jack Lambert stayed in a corner and signed, he didn't seem very personable at all. Mike Merriwether was a real nice guy. He ended walking around the mall later. He said he was shopping for his wife. The best one was Ryan Clark. He was an awesome guy to talk to. He was the one that landed the huge hit on Willis McGahee in the AFC Championship game this past year. After my wife got a picture taken with him, I told him I wanted to shake the hand of the man that destryoed Willis McGahee. He laughed and shook my hand. I told him I was a Dolphins fan, and my wife said, can you believe I married this. He laughed and said you can't help the ones you love. Overall an awesome guy.

In October I went to Miami for a game. We drove around to the Dolphins headquarters. While in the front lobby looking at a bunch of the game used jerseys, Dolphins cornerback Will Allen came walking through the front door. He was on this phone but shook my hand anyway. I was just happy he didn't totally ignore me. That meeting made my whole weekend!

[MichaelofSF]

http://www.gameuseduniverse.com/vb_f...rience+athlete

[platinum1]

I Daughter just met Minnie Minoso today.
He proposed to her with his 2005 World Series ring.
She had a blast

[sox83cubs84]

jays78:

I met the Hulkster at the height of his then-WWF popularity. We stood next to each other on an airport traffic island waiting for hotel vans to pick us up for St. Louis based events ( a card show, in my case). I didn't ask him to sign, but we chatted for a few minutes...he was excellent.

Dave M.
Chicago area

[Chris78]

The experience I was most impressed with (a good experience, although not a conversation with the athlete) dealing with an athlete was back in July 2007 when Steve Carlton was signing autographs at a Lakewood Blueclaws baseball game. I was about 10-15th in line and got his autograph within 10 minutes of him signing, but the line wrapped around the stadium and into the grass area in the outfield. He signed for everyone and it was well over 3 hours. The game lasted about 3 hours so it was a fairly long game and when I left he still had about 50 people to sign for. He signed for those people even after the game was over which is very impressive. I did go back to look at him after the game and you could tell he was very exhausted. By the way, he did sign it for me with his HOF 94 as well and others I saw got the same. The autograph was free.

Chris

[MJB14]

Fortunately I've had quite a few exceptional experiences meeting various athletes over the years, but there's one that sticks out more than others. Every year my dad would take a few of my friends and me out of school for the day to attend the inductions at the Basketball HOF. This was before they turned it into the impersonal event that it is today. You could walk up and interact with all in attendance no problem. This one particular experience took place in May of 1987. I was 11 at the time. It was the day Pistol Pete Maravich and Rick Barry were inducted. If anyone had ever been to the old HOF they had a room with a conveyer belt moving you through where you shoot at various styles and heights of hoops representing different parts of the country. After the ceremony we mingled with all the ex-players who were in attendance getting autographs and shaking hands then proceded to go shoot around in that room. A short time later Pistol Pete shows up. My friend and I were the only ones in that area at the time. He asks if we mind if he shoots with us. Imagine that, Pistol Pete asking a couple of 11 year olds if we mind? Of course we were excited that he joined us. He even got the staff to shut down the belt so we would be at a stand still shooting. He played "HORSE" with us even letting us win a time or two. After about 20 minutes went by Rick Barry was on the 2nd floor balcony above us looking down when Pete started coaxing him to join with "Ricky, come out and play" while spinning the ball in his hands. After a few minutes Barry showed up where they proceded to engage in a shooting competition while my friend and I gathered all the misses and makes to put back on the racks for them. At one point Pete made 20 consecutive jumpers from about 25 ft to put Barry away. It was an amazing display to witness and be a part of to say the least. A little while after Barry left and Pete was still shooting with us giving us pointers, his wife came in and literally had to drag him away saying they were going to be late for the HOF dinner. She apoligized to us and my dad but we understood entirely. On the way out Pete thanked us and handed my dad his phone # and said if we were ever out his way to give him a call and stop by. We couldn't believe it. Pistol Pete gave us his #. We never would've took him up on it cause we wouldn't want to impose, and sadly enough even if we wanted to we wouldn't have been able since he passed away less than 8 months later. One thing is for sure that was one experience that I will take to my grave with me.

[Rob L]

I Daughter just met Minnie Minoso today.
He proposed to her with his 2005 World Series ring.
She had a blast

Great photo. Tell your daughter to keep that ring safe!!