Quote Originally Posted by godwulf View Post
If the story is essentially true, Bench and his fans have nothing about which to complain, in my opinion.

People who've slammed the poster for "violating the rules" about only books being signed are assuming that such was the case at that particular signing, and we don't know that it was. At the Garigiola signing I mentioned earlier, no such rule existed or I wouldn't have asked Joe to sign my baseball and photo.

The part of the story that I find distasteful is the whole money business. If Bench didn't want to sign the bat, a polite "Sorry, I'm only here to sign books" would have said it all - and if the fan persisted or whined or got angry, then he would have been the jerk. Sending the fan to talk to his son - as though talking about money was somehow beneath him, and something to be delegated to others - is just weird.
I think my point is being missed. Because one person had a bad experience with Bench, two internet threads now exist bashing Bench. Is that really fair to Bench?

From what gather the original poster did everything in a correct and polite way. He first asked, retreived the bat, and got it signed. He didn't carry it with him expecting it to be signed. And who wouldn't blame him for being annoyed at the price request only after Bench signed, especially when he didn't have the money on hand that Bench was asking. But still, an unfavorable personal encounter between two individuals doesn't need to be reported, especially when that report is just going to fuel more unfavorable responses. I mean what kind of idiot burns a Bench autograph because Bench was a jerk to someone else? And people wonder why players do not necessarily like to sign autographs.

Just chalk it up to him having a bad day. People are still allowed to have those.