Share Your Sports Star & Celebrity Stories Good, Bad, & Ugly !!
thedutymon
Posts: 4,323 ✭
Morning,
I did this thread a couple of years ago and thought it would be nice to re-visit it. Because of my work situation, and some life circumstances I have had the honor to meet and know some famous Sports Stars & Celebrities, and the Dis-Honor to have crossed paths with some others!!
In 1965/66 my Family was living in Ft. Bragg Ca. a small northern Coast town. The production of Norman Jewisons' Movie "The Russians Are Coming" came to town and my Father was hired to do some legal Contract work, because of I guess his hustling before the thing was over, Our House, Our Dog, Our Volkswagen Beatle, and the Kitchen of our house were all in the Movie, including the shot of the lady tied up on top of the Refrigerator and a lot of the Ocean shots were done from our property. As a kid (9-10 years old) the main thing I remember was that my Mom would cook breakfast for the main stars every day, Alan Arkin, Brian Kieth, Eva Marie Saint, Jonathan Winters, and Carl Reiner and they would drink coffee and sit around for 1-2 hours every morning in our kitchen before they started shooting. Jonathan Winters to this day was the nicest to the kids of any Star I have ever met!
As a child I grew up at every Home Raider Game from 1961/62 or so on through the early 1970's. We had seats in the Box behind the Raiders Bench and so I know all of the Most Hated Dangerous players of the era, Cotton Davis, Fred Williamson, Flores, Otto, Upshaw, Blanda, Belitnikoff, LaMonica, Shell, W Brown, Tatum, The Snake, Matuszak, Hendricks, Hayes, ect. ect.
To a man they never lived up to their hype in the game on the sidelines, and were the Nicest to us kids, who spent hours on the sidelines before games!
My Father as well as doing legal work for the Raiders, represented many Hollywood Western Movie Stars of the 1950's & 1960's. During the late 60's into the 70's living in LA, he had a semi-weekly Poker game at our house with Strother Martin (Cool Hand Luke "What we have here is a failure to communicate"), Ben Johnson, Lee Van Cleef, Andy Devine, and many more who I don't remember the names of, but again were all super nice to us kids.
As an adult I have worked in the Vail area off and on for 32 years now and have met many many Movie Stars and Sports stars, some good, some bad, and some downright POS's:
Just off the top of me head and a short list in no particular order:
Bill Cowher: Sat down at Bar in Beaver Creek must have been after the 2001 season, he was sitting next to me, he struck up conversation, we talked and bought beers for each other for 2 hours, about Kordell Stewart and the previous Season (Stewart was going to be what Vick is today but didn't pan out), and about my Raiders, he is a closet Fan! And a Super Nice Guy! He broke down for me what the problems for the Raiders were for the upcoming season as he saw them, and he isn't an Al Davis fan!!!!!
Joe Montana: By Far the Biggest Sports POS I have ever ran across, 3 times I have had the displeasure of being in the same room as him, once I said Hello in a Beaver Creek Shop and he told me and the girl I was with TGFM! Another time he pushed his way in front of me in a lift line like he was God !! POS all the way! A couple of other time....nevermind, you get the idea!
Kelsey Grammer: Sort of aloof and when I crossed paths with him he was going through one of his many divorces and had just hit all the tabloids, life wasn't good right then and you could tell! I sat in a couple of meetings with him and he wasn't really there, just his representation.
Jerry Seinfeld: He races in a Vintage across country Car Race and one of the routes in through Co. and to Beaver Creek where they display all the cars, and have met him several times due to this. Nice person, not overly friendly, usually pretty distracted and busy.
Jeff Foxworthy: Was in cafeteria at Beaver Creek Slope and saw him getting his food, my work partner walked over to him and told him we had given the Guard at the entrance to Beaver Creek instructions to not let any Red Necks In! He Yells out with a Big Grin "Well It Didn't Work!!!, he and his family joined our table and had lunch and were really nice
people!
John Elway: Elway used to Ride a Harley, and I used to ride with a group of his friends, buddys, and players. Keith Bishop, and one or two other Broncos, were nice, a little clichish, but one advantage was you got to ride all day, stop at different Bars and Elway would pick up the tab for everybody! This was during his playing days and with the abruptness that he quit riding, I believe he was instructed to Stop!
Yaphet Koto (Alien, Law & Order). Stopped by Stop & Save one morning for Coffee, theres this real nice Custom Van with the Plate Koto1, and he walks out of store. Asked me for directions and then told me his whole story of taking his entire family around the Country on a driving trip. Chatted for about 20 minutes and was another just nice regular guy!
Also living and working in the VAIL area has given me insight into people with money, and although a tad bit Stereotyping, for the most part they are of one extreme or the other, either POS's or really nice normal people!
YeeHah
Neil
I did this thread a couple of years ago and thought it would be nice to re-visit it. Because of my work situation, and some life circumstances I have had the honor to meet and know some famous Sports Stars & Celebrities, and the Dis-Honor to have crossed paths with some others!!
In 1965/66 my Family was living in Ft. Bragg Ca. a small northern Coast town. The production of Norman Jewisons' Movie "The Russians Are Coming" came to town and my Father was hired to do some legal Contract work, because of I guess his hustling before the thing was over, Our House, Our Dog, Our Volkswagen Beatle, and the Kitchen of our house were all in the Movie, including the shot of the lady tied up on top of the Refrigerator and a lot of the Ocean shots were done from our property. As a kid (9-10 years old) the main thing I remember was that my Mom would cook breakfast for the main stars every day, Alan Arkin, Brian Kieth, Eva Marie Saint, Jonathan Winters, and Carl Reiner and they would drink coffee and sit around for 1-2 hours every morning in our kitchen before they started shooting. Jonathan Winters to this day was the nicest to the kids of any Star I have ever met!
As a child I grew up at every Home Raider Game from 1961/62 or so on through the early 1970's. We had seats in the Box behind the Raiders Bench and so I know all of the Most Hated Dangerous players of the era, Cotton Davis, Fred Williamson, Flores, Otto, Upshaw, Blanda, Belitnikoff, LaMonica, Shell, W Brown, Tatum, The Snake, Matuszak, Hendricks, Hayes, ect. ect.
To a man they never lived up to their hype in the game on the sidelines, and were the Nicest to us kids, who spent hours on the sidelines before games!
My Father as well as doing legal work for the Raiders, represented many Hollywood Western Movie Stars of the 1950's & 1960's. During the late 60's into the 70's living in LA, he had a semi-weekly Poker game at our house with Strother Martin (Cool Hand Luke "What we have here is a failure to communicate"), Ben Johnson, Lee Van Cleef, Andy Devine, and many more who I don't remember the names of, but again were all super nice to us kids.
As an adult I have worked in the Vail area off and on for 32 years now and have met many many Movie Stars and Sports stars, some good, some bad, and some downright POS's:
Just off the top of me head and a short list in no particular order:
Bill Cowher: Sat down at Bar in Beaver Creek must have been after the 2001 season, he was sitting next to me, he struck up conversation, we talked and bought beers for each other for 2 hours, about Kordell Stewart and the previous Season (Stewart was going to be what Vick is today but didn't pan out), and about my Raiders, he is a closet Fan! And a Super Nice Guy! He broke down for me what the problems for the Raiders were for the upcoming season as he saw them, and he isn't an Al Davis fan!!!!!
Joe Montana: By Far the Biggest Sports POS I have ever ran across, 3 times I have had the displeasure of being in the same room as him, once I said Hello in a Beaver Creek Shop and he told me and the girl I was with TGFM! Another time he pushed his way in front of me in a lift line like he was God !! POS all the way! A couple of other time....nevermind, you get the idea!
Kelsey Grammer: Sort of aloof and when I crossed paths with him he was going through one of his many divorces and had just hit all the tabloids, life wasn't good right then and you could tell! I sat in a couple of meetings with him and he wasn't really there, just his representation.
Jerry Seinfeld: He races in a Vintage across country Car Race and one of the routes in through Co. and to Beaver Creek where they display all the cars, and have met him several times due to this. Nice person, not overly friendly, usually pretty distracted and busy.
Jeff Foxworthy: Was in cafeteria at Beaver Creek Slope and saw him getting his food, my work partner walked over to him and told him we had given the Guard at the entrance to Beaver Creek instructions to not let any Red Necks In! He Yells out with a Big Grin "Well It Didn't Work!!!, he and his family joined our table and had lunch and were really nice
people!
John Elway: Elway used to Ride a Harley, and I used to ride with a group of his friends, buddys, and players. Keith Bishop, and one or two other Broncos, were nice, a little clichish, but one advantage was you got to ride all day, stop at different Bars and Elway would pick up the tab for everybody! This was during his playing days and with the abruptness that he quit riding, I believe he was instructed to Stop!
Yaphet Koto (Alien, Law & Order). Stopped by Stop & Save one morning for Coffee, theres this real nice Custom Van with the Plate Koto1, and he walks out of store. Asked me for directions and then told me his whole story of taking his entire family around the Country on a driving trip. Chatted for about 20 minutes and was another just nice regular guy!
Also living and working in the VAIL area has given me insight into people with money, and although a tad bit Stereotyping, for the most part they are of one extreme or the other, either POS's or really nice normal people!
YeeHah
Neil
Actually Collect Non Sport, but am just so full of myself I post all over the place !!!!!!!
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i've played beach volleyball with Wilt near the S.M. Pier and an informal game of pick-up basketball with Magic down at Venice Beach.
but, by far the finest endorsement ever was the night me and Mrs. itz were having a meal at a local Italian diner and Mr. Charlie Sheen + who knows? were seated at the table next to us.
when the Mrs. got up to go use the restroom, she strutted by Charlie's table and he gave her a pretty audible "Whoo!" after she passed him.
with each passing day that event retains a little bit o' good, a little bit o' bad, and just shrugs its shoulders at ugly.
I also met Tommy Lee and Pamela Anderson in NYC in little Italy : He was cool she was a b*tch...
Edt add: I forgot I also met Michael J. Fox at the Tribecca film festival in NYC he is really nice guy. Shame he is going through what he is.
I also have had dinners with Rudy Giuliani on multiple occasions.
Rickey Henderson walked into Bare Elegance (it was the only strip club in the Strip District) in Pittsburgh when I was there with some friends. He was friendly and super-cool. He just hung out and talked to us for a few minutes. The strippers were oblivious.
Franco Harris stole my regular breakfast seat at Lindo’s. It is a greek restaurant owned by a guy named Mohamed on the North Side on Pittsburgh. Who’s going to gripe at Franco on the North Side. The waitress was oblivious.
When the Steelers had their practice field next to Three Rivers, I would see them all the time. Kordell Stewart was always willing to talk as he walked back to the stadium. Most of the players were.
Western PA is pretty strapped for celebrity.
Collector of Pittsburgh Pirates cards for a slightly less stupid reason.
My Pirates Collection
I used to manage a small card shop in Nebraska and we had Sandy Alomar Jr. do a signing the year he won ROY. I got to drive him around my town as we went out for supper before the signing. That was a big deal for a high schooler to be driving an MLB player in MY CAR. He asked me where a good place to find girls are in my town. Had to laugh at that. We also had Dennis Rasmussen (Omaha native) and Richie Ashburn (he was born and raised 20 miles away). More on Richie later. So after Sandy signed for us, we kept in contact when he played in KC. My boss and I attended the All Star game in San Diego in 1992 and while there, we called the hotel where the players were staying and asked for Sandy's room. We wanted to wish him luck in the game. Anyway, they rang us to Roberto's room. We told him we were looking for Sandy and wanted to wish him luck. He said Sandy was out right now, but he and a friend were headed out for supper and then to play mini golf. He said you're more than welcome to join us. So we took him up on it. He took us to a nice steakhouse. During the meal, my boss didn't know when to shut her mouth and went off on how much ball players charge to sign autographs at shows. He didn't take too kindly to it. His "friend" we determined later was his agent and he too didn't take too kindly to it either. Anyway, the meal ended, he paid, we got autographs and pictures and went on our way. Needless to say I think the mini golf invitation went away based on the conversation.
Back to Richie. We kept in contact with him and he invited us down the spring training in 1994. He invited us to stay at his condo. So we did and enjoyed great baseball stories. He even let us open his fan mail sent to his condo, so we opened each autograph request, read him the letter while he signed the piece and listened to him tell stories about what people wrote. He invited us up to the pressbox for one of the games he was calling, so we listened for a bit. After the game we again went to the pressbox and he introduced us to Harry Kalas. Harry gave me his game sheet where he was keeping score and his notes and signed it for me.
Met Kevin Costner at the College World Series one year. He signed a ball for me and one for a girl in a bikini and that was it.
Met David Letterman after his show one time. Super cool guy. Signed while smoking a stogie.
Many many many baseball player and NASCAR driver stories from my days as an autograph hound. George Brett was my guy and at one point I had his license plate memorized.
Sorry for the long post.
a simple guy every once and a while.
I do have one funny story. Mario Lemieux and I played blackjack together in Lake Tahoe. He always goes out there for the gold tournament, I mean golf tournament. We sat at a table with his caddy. He won so much money. Great blackjack player. Anyway, he played a bad round
of golf the next day, and the following night his caddy and him were at different tables. I'm sure you've heard stories about
Mario being super-competitive. This happened when Mario was in his late 20's. I'm sure that wouldn't happen today.