Best & Worst Experience Meeting An Athlete

[Tony Gordon]

Best experience was in summer of 1981, I was 14 years-old, when the Boston Red Sox were here in Chicago to play the White Sox. I walked into the Ron of Japan steakhouse with my family in Downtown Chicago. The host immediately handed me a blank postcard, pointed at a table, said the guys there were baseball players and told me to get their autographs on the postcard. I immediately recognized Carl Yastrzemski. I walked over to Yaz and asked him to sign the postcard. He couldn't have been more gracious. He signed the postcard then handed it over to Dwight Evans, Frank Tanana and Chuck Rainey, who all signed as well.

My worst experience was in the summer of 1983 when the All-Star game was at Comiskey Park. My dad somehow got us tickets to the players' dinner on the night before the game at a hotel in Downtown Chicago. Prior to the dinner, the players were scattered all over the hotel. I walked around and got quite a few autographs. I found a group of players having a conversation with Rod Carew in an empty banquet hall. I had been a huge fan of Carew and checked his stats daily in the Sports Section of the Chicago Tribune. I walked up to the group and had each guy sign a single baseball, except for Carew. I stood next to him for what seemed like forever, probably five or ten minutes. I thought he would take the ball from my hand like the other guys. Instead, he ignored me. I finally said, "Excuse me, Mr. Carew, can you sign my baseball?" He exploded at me, shouting, "Can't you see that I'm talking!" I said I was sorry and walked away, no longer a fan of Rod Carew.