Anyone else have a bad experiance getting an autograph?
inFluX
Posts: 108
Year was either '94 or '95 when I ran into Alex Rodriguez after a Tripple-A ball game here in Edmonton.. The game was the Edmonton Trappers Vs. The Tacoma Rainers he didn't play but seemed to be there just to help out the Tacoma team (coaching) which is the Mariners farm team..
I waited around outside the ballpark for awhile and there was hardly anyone around. I was around 14 years old at the time.. I ran up Rodriguez and politely asked him if he could please sign my ball... He was a real d!ck about it.. He acted as if I asked him to turn this straw into gold like it was a huge chore for him... While signing the ball (not on the sweet spot) He screamed at some other guy 'Get the f'n car! I wanted it ready so I wouldn't have to do this sh!t!'
I almost threw the ball in the garbage along with his cards after that.
I waited around outside the ballpark for awhile and there was hardly anyone around. I was around 14 years old at the time.. I ran up Rodriguez and politely asked him if he could please sign my ball... He was a real d!ck about it.. He acted as if I asked him to turn this straw into gold like it was a huge chore for him... While signing the ball (not on the sweet spot) He screamed at some other guy 'Get the f'n car! I wanted it ready so I wouldn't have to do this sh!t!'
I almost threw the ball in the garbage along with his cards after that.
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I have had my share of players who just ignored me and others but have also had many good experiences. I would like to share a good one. A friend of mine and myself went to an Orioles game against the Red Sox. Wade Boggs was on his way to an automobile instead of the team bus. He stood at the car door for about 20 minutes signing anything anyone asked. He did so and after each item he signed he stated that this was the last one because he had dinner reservations. He signed for about 20 to 25 minutes. He then left before everyone had gotten an autograph including myself.
About 30 minutes later he returned in the same car because his reservations were cancelled and signed for everyone who was still there. I think I had him sign three trading cards. This was definately a good experience from a class ball player.
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Anyway, some other player came up to me from behind and took my program out of my hand, signed it in a couple places and handed it back.. said "here ya go, man".. i couldnt make out the signature until i got home and i figured out it was Ron Gant.. (i didnt know who the hell ron gant was in 1988).. but i started collecting his cards (still do)..
and i'm glad Ron Gant had a decent career! screw dale murphy..
Cannot believe it would lot let me use Joe's correct spelling of his name said it was a restricted word.
At one point Marcel Dionne came out of the dressing room and started signing for everybody. I went over and gave him my 1992 OPC rookie reprint, he politley signed and then tossed it on the floor and took somebody else's card. I was kinda unhappy about that one.
The very same time though my dad and I met up with a friend of ours , Gaston Gingras , (who was at the Heritage classic and won a cup with the Montreal Candiens in 1986) and being the nice guy he is he signed my cards and gave me a free card that I'm sure he had made. The experience was kinda nice and a definite change from Marcel Dionne. But other than Marcel, no bad experiences.
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I have a good one to share and something i will ALWAYS remember.
1993 the family and I went to a Marlins and Cardinals game. Brother and I went to the players parking lot and got autographs from Bernard Gilkey and Mike Perez (wow!). The huge mob of people we were with went running around the corner so we followed. There was Ozzie Smith in a van with his kids. He turned off the van and signed for at least 100 people. We were in the back of line but Oz made sure everyone was taken care of. It was so cool to step up to that van and see the Wizard. My Dad was off to the side catching everything on camcorder and Oz even offered to sign his hat.
Pro athletes today should make a better attempt to give back to the fan's that make their paycheck's. I know they have a busy schedule but the last thing they should do is use foul language or be hateful.
Just the other day i heard a great story about Kurt Warner. He was signing for a bunch of fans and kids and he had to cut it short. He had some pre signed cards of his own that he passed out to the people he missed. Talk about going the extra mile. Thats great!
Ben
E
<< <i>The boy asked for his autograph and what came out of Carew's mouth...."sorry kid, I don't sign unless I'm getting paid for it". >>
At least Carew was honest about it. He could have pretended he was the victim of mistaken identity, or just told the kid to leave him alone.
I don't bother with autographs, but made an exception at the National last month for Joe Greene. It was nice to meet him, but I have a LONG list of things to complain about the experience. Needless to say, if I really liked waiting in a line for an hour and a half, then getting 20 seconds of actual time to speak with somebody, I'd have never gotten out of the Army!
Did I mention I paid money for the privilege of being herded around like cattle? Actually, that might be stretching things; I ended up with Mean Joe's signature on a 1981 Marketcom mini-poster I bought while in high school. Cattle end up a lot worse off when they get to the end of their line...
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I did see Elle McPherson on the street one time about 15 years ago. I wish I had asked her for her autograph, and her address, and her phone number, and could I take her out for a drink sometime?
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after the game my boys were jumping for joy on "getting an autograph". they just new they were going to get an autograph of mcnair, mason and calico. that just happened to be the cards they brought. i had been trying all game to let them down easily regarding the autographs.
well, after the game we waited until most had left (wasn't that long since it was preseason). i was walking around asking security about where the players went after the game. they showed me a tunnel where some of the players exit. there were about 100-200 people waiting for the remaining players to exit, lined up along a 6' chain-link fence. several players had already exited and we were just hanging around. all of a sudden rocky boiman appears. wow, super nice guy, went straight for the fans and signed for practically anyone. then calico came out and did the same. my youngest was ecstatic. calico took his time and talked and signed pretty much anything. some others came out that i didn't recognize and we got those autographs on a shirt of my oldest son. mason and rolle came out and did not acknowledge anyone. they went straight to their car and out of the lot. as the crowd started dwindling...out comes mcnair. my kids were distraught as he went straight to his vehicle and loaded up. as the "awe's" fell over the crowd waiting, mcnair comes back after loading and my kids are jumping for joy saying "he's coming back!!!". mcnair signed for about 15-20 minutes and it was great.
never underestimate the power of kids. if it wasn't for their determination of obtaining an autograph, we probably would've joined the crowd leaving in the 3rd quarter. this ended up being the best game i'd ever been to and up until last year i had been to every titans home game (including the "music city miracle" and the super bowl vs the rams)...
i'd give mcnair and a few other titans and a+++.
Thanks,
David (LD_Ferg)
1985 Topps Football (starting in psa 8) - #9 - started 05/21/06
<< <i>Nobody should feel they have "the right" to get anyone's autograph just because they are a fan and are "there." These guy's have lives too and try to live them. >>
Fair enough. I don't even mind when players have their kids brought down to the locker room so they can carry the kid out the back gate and have a way to easily avoid signing.
But when I've paid 20-30 bucks and stood in line for a half-hour to get Pete Rose to sign a ball I also had to buy, I expect him to not spend the whole time he's scribbling his name looking over his shoulder and ordering his lunch. Jerk.
Morrie
Worst experience - National - Willie Mayz
Oddest - Mary lou Retton - someone asked for an extra auto for his brother who could not make it - her snotty reply - "sure, you just want to sell this on ebay"! like i'm sure there are a skazillion people out there who would kill for her auto!
She has like... so lost her olympic cuteness!
Stone
That troll was never cute.
All was going about as well as it could until I met face to face with Eric Wright, or at least that's who my memory tells me it was. He couldn't have seem LESS interested in giving an autograph, much less being there at all. He made no eye contact, scribbled his name, and started walking away before he handed me back my program. I wasn't going to accept that kind of treatment so I carefully ripped the program so as to completely remove his picture and autograph from it, then I threw the ripped piece into the nearest trash bin. When I got back to my fiance she asked why I did that. I said it was because he was a jerk. I still have that old program, ripped and all. It represents the last autograph I ever asked for.
On the other hand, my wife runs into Bubba Paris virtually all the time at the nearest Walmart doing a mini-auto signing thing. She describes him as a really nice guy. She's brought back a hat and photo, and each time he talks to her for a while and personalizes the autograph to reflect what they talked about. So I guess it isn't all bad, but you won't catch me asking for an auto. I'll talk to him, yes, but I don't need him, or anyone, to sign anything for me to remember it.
Then in the game Jason Bay came over to the fence to sign and this one guy was about to throw is 3 year old son at him to get his auto. You could tell the kid had no idea who he was and the dad was just using him to get an auto for himself.
<< <i>snotty reply - "sure, you just want to sell this on ebay"! like i'm sure there are a skazillion people out there who would kill for her auto!
Stone >>
lol.. you can probably pick one up for under $5 bucks in a few hours.. heh
this is the USA gymnastics cutie in the 2004 olympics.. although, i'm sure she's jailbait..
Jailbait Quiz
<< <i>USA gymnastics cutie in the 2004 olympics.. although,
i'm sure she's jailbait... >>
yup. Carly is 16½ years old...
in most states that will land you in the slammer.
One day my folks took my brother and I to Battle of the Network Stars. You remember. Robert Conrad and Gabe Kaplan on the obstacle course. Penny Marshall anchoring the tug o'war. Anyway, Rafer Johnson was one of the commentators. I actually dug Rafer Johnson. So, with all the stars there, I wanted Rafer's autograph. I was shy so my dad went with me during a down moment. Rafer told me "Don't distract me. Can't you see I'm working". He was alone sitting in a chair and I was the only one asking. He never signed for me and my dad called him "a fockin' a-hole". Man, Rafer turned one fun day into a piece of shat.
S.
My best experience was when I was 11 and in ICU at the University of Wisconsin in Madison Wisconsin after my bone marrow transplant. Although I was barely conscience, I remember several older football players signing a nerf football for my mom and dad and leaving it for me. My mom tells the story of how one of the players started to cry when he saw me hooked up to the IVs/monitors. Two of the names on the football - Jim Taylor and Elroy Hirsch. I still have the ball proudly displayed.
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Greg M.
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My best autograph experience was when I was 9 years old though and in 3rd grade, we just moved to our new house in Poway, CA (There are like 30+ baseball players that live there, odd I know) and Andy Benes happened to be our next door neighbor. I was having a bday party with around 10 people or so and somehow my dad convinced Andy to come over and sign autos for my friends. He just showed up and all of my friends and I were in complete shock. I remember running to my room and we grabbed as many cards of his as possible. He brought with him a signed hat for me and around 20 signed 3x5 photos. My dad was a baseball coach so he had a dozen new baseballs and Benes was kind enough to personalize everyone of them for us.
I know Benes was just a semistar but from that day on he always was one of my favorite players, one of the nicest guys I ever met. I used to go to games with his wife and his kids and we would sit in the players wife section, he used to play catch with me in the street, just an all around great person. Sorry for rambling on about this but I know a lot of people bash players so I wanted to share a positive experience.
Thanks for sharing your Benes story.
I watched him pitch a lot before the bigs. Think he pitched at Evansville (might be wrong), Missouri Valley Conference. I live in Wichita so i'm pretty sure he was around here when they played Wichita State.
Plus he was with the Wichita Wranglers, Padres AA club. It didn't take long for him to get called up. I watched him pitch one game and he was sitting down guys left and right.
I got a autograph RC of his by mail when i was kid.
Actually saw him on the tube yesterday doing a St. Louis Cardinals Kids show. He was riding around in a Hummer with Fredbird giving out Cardinals tickets to kids.
Ben
Dennis
BTW never had a bad experience asking auto's. But I've only asked a few Formula 1
drivers......
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The most recent auto I got was at a Twins-Tigers game in Detroit, and Joe Nathan was standing around the tarp before the game signing for 15-20 minutes. I had him sign the ticket stub, which is all I really had that was signable.
I have a hard time with the concept of paying money to stand in line for the opportunity to stand in front of a guy for 20 seconds while he signs something for you. Takes all the excitement out of collecting and turns it more into a monetary value.
<< <i>I have a hard time with the concept of paying money to stand in line for the opportunity to stand in front of a guy for 20 seconds while he signs something for you. Takes all the excitement out of collecting and turns it more into a monetary value. >>
I completely agree. I did it 3 times, total, then realized that the autograph actually cheapened my appreciation of the player. It's one thing to meet the person and shake their hand and say, "Thanks for doing what you do." Then, you're talking to a person. When you hand over cash and they scribble their name, you're just another customer. If I want to be a customer and get sneered at by people who don't care about where I'll be in 5 minutes, I'll go to Wal-Mart.
Morrie
Back to the topic - I too have absolutely no desire to obtain autographs from anyone now, but would shake hands or have a pic taken.
I too went the mail route in the 70's and got a ton of great signatures on 3 X 5 cards. They used to routinely print the home addresses of the Hall of Famers in whatever the SCD equivalent was back then.
I really have no bad stories, but for a good one, a couple of years ago I was at the Taste of Chicago and one of the radio stations had Moose Skowron and Carlos May there signing autographs. The booth was at an out of the way location, so there were very few people there. I had some time so I asked them if I could ask them some questions and they talked to me for about the next 25 minutes about neat things they remembered. The best part was the Moose talking about how utterly fantastic Mickey Mantle was in the mid-50's. He said he was always a little saddened because the Mick never really realized how great he was. I would rather have a 30 minute chance to talk to someone like that than 200 cattle herd autographs.
Keith