Bigger Jerks Than Joey Belle in the Hall of Fame

[steve B]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Sarcasm font I assume.

Nope, for real.


I met him at a Sports Illustrated hospitality room in DC when I was 13. Him and two football players autographing a 3 picture panel for publicity for SI. Dad brought me there, and the line wasn't bad. Maybe 20 people, mostly school administrators. The two football guys were polite but not real talkative.


Brooks asked me about playing baseball, and we talked for a bit. Someone far back in line bitched loudly about the line being slow, and he stood up and said "Hey, I'm talking with a kid about baseball! you can wait!" Then we talked about baseball a bit more.

For a shy 13 year old who was actually really bad at baseball that was a pretty big deal. As was him saying that as long as the game was fun not to worry about not being good at it.


I suppose the guy in a rush to get his autograph and get down to drinking might see it the other way around.