Posted By:
JerryI'll elaborate on the reason I KNOW that Hank Aaron has a monumental chip on his shoulder. I took my sons to a show where he was signing. Their grandad was a scout for the Braves in the 50s and knew Aaron quite well. They each wanted a ball personalized, so we waited until the ENTIRE LINE was finished, then went up for our turn. I politely introduced us, addressed him as Mr. Aaron, and he replied: "I've never heard of the guy". No problem. I then asked him if he would personalize the balls to my sons, standing beside me, and he pitched a fit! Threw up his hands and said: "I can't do that for you. If I do, I'll have to do it for everybody!". I then pointed out that there WASN'T anybody else in line and that it would mean alot to my sons, for whom it would be a connection to their grandfather. He refused, got up and left, with me standing there with my balls in my hands (so to speak).
Anyway, the promoter, witnessing all of this came over and asked me if he could help. He said Aaron was tired, but that he would be happy to take them in the back and try to get him to sign them. I said sure. He came back out and, unbeleiveably, said that Aaron agreed to sign ONE of the balls. I looked down at my sons, then back at the promoter and said: "which son would YOU pick?". I told him to forget it, but the promoter insisted on trying again. He came back out with both of them signed, but it didn't really mean much at all to my sons at that point. They were old enough to realize what it all meant.
There is NO excuse for that type of poor, boorish behavior. Aaron was more than willing to take my hard earned money, and it wouldn't have been much of an effort at all to accomodate our minor request (in fact, many ballplayers, as we all know, PREFER to personalize so that we're insured not to make any money off it).
I used to collect HOF inscribed balls. I asked Willie Mays, very politely, to put HOF and his year on the balls, one year at a time. I had paid for three EXPENSIVE autographs. He wouldn't look up, but snidely said that I'd have to pay alot of money to get him to do that and then ROLLED THE BALLS back to me, smudging one of them.
Bob Gibson was my childhood baseball hero, stemming from the time he returned from a broken leg to lead the Cardinals to a championship. On the way to the signing, I told both of my sons to think of a question to ask, since celebrities were people just like us, and they shouldn't be afraid to talk to them. My sons were about 6 and 8 at the time. When my six year old asked Gibson what was his favorite pitch, Gibson leaned forward with a NASTY sneer on his face and snarled: "I bet your father told you to ask me that question, didn't he?" My son shook his head yes, and Gibson continued, "Then you tell your father to ask me HIMSELF. But I STILL won't tell him unless he pays me alot of money and even THEN I probably won't tell him". My jaw dropped. On the way home, my 8 year old said: "Dad, Bob Gibson is a big JERK, can we write "JERK" on the ball?"
My sons have absolutely ZERO interest in going to shows now, because of far too many experiences like those above. THAT is what is sad.