A few months ago I consigned a number of items to Grey Flannel Auctions here in Scottsdale. I'm selling off my entire collection of bats, jerseys, helmets, etc., have sold quite a few jerseys on eBay, but decided to go with Grey Flannel on some of the higher-end stuff, including six Randy Johnson bats.

I told this story many years ago on this forum, but long story short I had one of RJ's 2001 World Series bats, and I got the opportunity to have it signed when the Unit showed up for his one and only appearance at Diamondbacks Fan Fest in 2007. (I paid a whole $2.50 for the autograph ticket.)

If you go to the current Grey Flannel listings and find the RJ World Series bat, scroll through the photos and you'll see me (in a red Dominicana jersey) pointing to the place on the front of the bat where I was asking Johnson to sign in black Sharpie. In the second photo, you see RJ signing on the SIDE of the bat with a blue Sharpie, and me looking like, "What the...?" I had assumed that I'd be cropped out of the photos when Grey Flannel put the listing together. I think it's hilarious that they didn't do that.

From comments he made a minute before, he was clearly not happy about my owning that bat, and he did what he could to "mess it up" for me. I've heard of other players doing that to people, but in all the hundreds of interactions I've had with players over the years that's the only time it ever happened to me. As I was walking away, after politely thanking RJ, he looked up with a sh*t-eating grin on his face and said "Have a nice day!"