Most Embarassing Moment

[godwulf]

Re: Most Embarassing Moment

"I collect baseballs autographed by non baseball players. I always travel with baseballs since you never know who you might see".

Good to know I'm not the only one. Well, I mean, you see baseballs signed by all sorts of people for sale on eBay, but in a crowd of people getting autographs from a non-sports figure, I'm usually the only one with a baseball in my hand.

My most famous non-player signers include Arlo Guthrie, John Cleese and Gena Lee Nolin.

[mdube16]

Re: Most Embarassing Moment

The best in my collection is a Frank Sinatra signed baseball I bought from the Halper collection. I see we are going OT here but there arent many of us out there

[topekabob]

Re: Most Embarassing Moment

I'm going to reverse the story a bit.
This summer I was at a Japanese Fukuoka Hawks minor league game and hanging outside the park while my son got some autographs and a little Japanese girl walked up to me and asked for my autograph, thinking I was some Cecil Fielder-like foreign slugger. I was sorely tempted to sign "CJ Nitkowski", who actually is on the Hawks, but I just couldn't do it...

By the way, Japanese players do their autographs in Kanji, and it looks like a painting. The fans buy special 8X10 boards for the players to sign on and they hang them in their rooms like art work. Then there's the Bento boxes you eat during the game, and the 6th inning balloon release...I fell in love with Japanese baseball this summer...can't believe it took me 30 years to finally go.

[godwulf]

Re: Most Embarassing Moment

I seriously regret that with all the six-month deployments I made to Japan while I was in the Navy, I never once went to a ballgame.

[cjw]

Re: Most Embarassing Moment

I was a concierge at the Toronto SkyDome Hotel for years and got to know many of the players and their families over the years. In 1997, I got an awesome invite from Tim Johnson, the ex-manager of the Blue Jays (pls no Vietnam cracks, he is a very nice guy) to attend the Hall of Fame Game in Cooperstown. Jays vs. cal Ripken and the O's. Toured the Hall, and made my way into the offices to pick up my tickets for the game. Sitting in a waiting room in the Hall, and older gent sits down net to me and we start chatting. Turns out it's Warren Spahn!

Excellent guy, very pleasant. We talk about Canada and hockey and he gets caled into antoher room, so we say goodbye. I couldn't ask for an autograph as I was sitting there...didn't want to embarrass Tim, incase it was inappropriate to bother the HOF'ers in the inner offices of the Hall.

I picked up my tix and made my way out of the offices only to get lost. I found myself in front of a huge wooden door, so I pushed it open and it stuck a little, so I pushed a liitel more...right into Mr. Spahn, as he was in mid-interview, on camera with a ESPN! I bumped so hard that he tilted off the step he was standing on and almost tumbled into a bush. The interviewer wanted to kill me, the camera man almost tried to, but Warren took it in stride...he even said "It's my buddy from Canada...you gave my a great hockey body check" ! Class act, but I was mortified.

[r_phelps]

Re: Most Embarassing Moment

I went to a New Orleans Zephyrs game when Tony Pena was the coach. I thought i would be coolo to have a few of his autographs on his pirates cards..bad idea. I guess I caught tony at the wrong time (after bp). He cussed at me so bad i could not tell if he was even serious or not. I just started laughing and he seemed to be confused that his slurs of cuss words did not scare me off so he proceded to sign one card and then run off with my sharpie like he forgot..Chad Meyers with sacramento was a 5 star jerk after telling me i needed to get a life. I dont get autographs much anymore from these altercations with these guys. Larry Sutton with Memphis was amazing how james bond type skills he had at avoiding and not hearing anyones requsts for autographs. I also got a nice taste of tommy lasorda after he got done with the bar one night at the winter baseball meetings. I saw a kid once ask curtis wilkerson if he was brad wilkersons dad and i kinda felt bad for the kid.

[skipcareyisfat]

Re: Most Embarassing Moment

I saw a kid once ask curtis wilkerson if he was brad wilkersons dad and i kinda felt bad for the kid.

Reminds me of the time this guy asked Bob Feller during a private signing here how long he had been throwing a knuckleball. Feller was beside himself and mixed in a few swear words with his response.

[BaseballGM]

Re: Most Embarassing Moment

This happened to my good friend, a St. Louis Cardinals fan. He moved away from the midwest as a kid and got to go back as an adult to see the Cards play a game one summer. He gets to the park to watch BP and sees a gentleman dressed in street clothes behind the cage. People/players are coming up to him and saying hello to "Lou."
My friend says. "Wow, that's Lou Brock. Hey Lou, can I get your autograph?" Lou signs his baseball. My friend is so excited, he put the ball away. Shortly thereafter, the announcer tells the fans to please stand for the national anthem, to be sung by Lou Rawls . Sure enough, after looking at the signature, it was Lou Rawls who signed it.

[bradleysupplies]

Re: Most Embarassing Moment

My step-father used to play in Hank Aaron's scholarship golf tournament - he was paired with Larry Doby one year.

Anyway, he had no interest in autographs and I sent him a number of items to get signed by the celebrities.

He told me that he asked Hank Aaron in the locker room (who was wearing nothing but a towel) to sign a few baseballs - they turned out great, but that's a tough image to get out of my head...

Joel

[ivo610]

Re: Most Embarassing Moment

Not my most embarrassing moment but the signer...

I got to hang out with Chris Paul from the NBA Hornets in vegas during the all star game a few years ago since I donated a large amount to his charity. Since I knew I was going to meet him I bought a pair of shoes that just had come out at Niketown in Caesars. The shoes I bought were with Chris's face on the shoes. Anyway I brought the shoes when I met him, set them down and talked with him for about 30 minutes. I asked him towards the end if he would sign them for me. He said sure no problem so I went over to where I set them down and had to ask BJ armstrong if I could get them back(which was funny). Anyway chris looks at them as says "What are these?" im like ughh... your shoes. "Never seen these before." which to me was kinda cool. Then he signs "To Bryan, Chris Paul" As he reaches for the other shoe he pauses and says "Wait your name was Bryan right?" "No, its Ryan." He looked at me like he had just ran over my dog. I thought it was funny and had to keep telling him it wasnt it a big deal.

[legaleagle92481]

Re: Most Embarassing Moment

Oh boy this happened September 25th of this year in New York City. Like most red blooded American males I find Sienna Miller, the actress to be very attractive and I have seen a few of her movies so I waited outside her then running Broadway show to meet her and get a picture of her and her autograph. As an aside for those of you not from NY most stars who do Broadway will sign after the show usually just Playbills or pieces of paper or index cards but it is better than nothing. I have gotten autographs from Hugh Jackman, Daniel Craig, Johnny Lee Miller, David Alan Grier, James Spader, Kerry Washington, Carrie Fisher, Bill Pullman, Julia Stiles, James Gandofoli, Jeff Daniels, Joan Allen, Marcia Gay Harden and Jude Law this way in the past year. Anyway put to the story, Sienna comes out and starts signing for people on the other side of the barricade and makes her way to the space in the barricade and I was worried she was going to exit the barricade and get in her waiting car without passing me so I shout "Serena, Serena don't forget us over here!" Meaning myself and 3 or 4 other collectors standing by me and she walks over and says its "Sienna not Serena", I was so embarrassed I did not know what to say but she was cool about it and signed for me and no she did not write Serena.

[island_style]

Re: Most Embarassing Moment

Around 1994 I attended a signing at the LA Convention Center where I got a Johnny Bench signed baseball. I wanted to tell him how I admired his career and congratulate him on making the Hall. It was a very long line, and I was deep in the queue. I watched him sign item after item after item. When it was finally my turn to meet him all I could muster was, "So, got writer's cramp yet?" He gave me a strange look and said, "No, I'm used to doing this." He penned a beautiful signature and added the HOF inscription, but I walked away mortified.

Kind Regards,

Ron.

Rsamiano@aol.com

[godwulf]

Re: Most Embarassing Moment

After you've said something really dumb to a celeb - as I've done several times, myself - just comfort yourself with the thought that they've probably heard much worse, and many, many times...and that you're going to remember it for a much longer time than they will.

[bigtruck260]

Re: Most Embarassing Moment

I have a couple...

Celebrity - Rob Halford 1994 at a radio signing.

Halford is the singer for Judas Priest and one of my favorites of all time. He was signing stuff after a radio interview with his band at the time, Fight. Some guys were handing him 10-12 albums to sign since the line wasn't long. There was a lady with a clipboard behind him that kept putting her arm around him (his wife?) and whispering into his ear. When I got there, I turned into a starstruck nerd and had nothing to say, but "Love your stuff, Rob - is the wife travelling with you?" He looked up, smiled and looked right back down at my CD to sign it.

A few years later, Rob came out of the closet as GAY.

Baseball Player - John Burkett

Must have been around 1988 and it was first time in the field boxes at Busch. We got there early and tried for some autographs. It was my first experience at autograph seekers too...there were MEN pushing little kids to get to Bob Tewksbury . Anyway, I got a few sigs from some Giants players...nobody I knew - and proceeded to the Cards bullpen bench (which was in foul territory by the boxes)...I got a few relievers - Ken Dayley, etc...when there was a commotion. Some dude was handing out baseballs to little kids and signing. I waited for a few minutes and when I got to him, he opened my program to a certain page (maybe the scorecard?) and looked at it - and signs it while shaking his head. I got back to my seat and my Dad says "who'd you get?" I showed him the Cards sigs - and then the autograph of John Burkett who signed his name directly above the signature he'd put there 15 minutes earlier.

DUH.

[godwulf]

Re: Most Embarassing Moment

Halford is the singer for Judas Priest and one of my favorites of all time. He was signing stuff after a radio interview with his band at the time, Fight. Some guys were handing him 10-12 albums to sign since the line wasn't long. There was a lady with a clipboard behind him that kept putting her arm around him (his wife?) and whispering into his ear. When I got there, I turned into a starstruck nerd and had nothing to say, but "Love your stuff, Rob - is the wife travelling with you?" He looked up, smiled and looked right back down at my CD to sign it.

A few years later, Rob came out of the closet as GAY.

About fifteen years ago, I was working as a dispatcher at a security alarm company, and we monitored Halford's house. He or his partner used to trip the alarm at least once a night, sometimes two or three times, so I got to talk to them a lot.

Hey, that reminds me of an embarrassing incident, from that same time period. We also monitored security gates, where residents of gated communities or their guests could either punch in their code, or call us on the gate phone for entry, and in the latter case, we'd "buzz" them in if they had the password.

One night in February, I got a call from one of the gates, and it was Barry Bonds. He said that he was renting a house, during Spring Training, from a woman who lived in that community. Problem was, he didn't have his assigned password. (It was "baseball".) I advised him that I couldn't let him in, and that he'd have to call the homeowner and get the password...then I waited for the explosion, 'cause of course I'd heard about Barry's temper. He was very cool, and said he understood. I was so surprised, I accidentally reached down and pushed the button to open the gate - telling him that I couldn't let him in, and then letting him in. He must have thought I was some kind of idiot.