Your experiences with HOF'ers

[7nohitter]

Originally Posted by Scott Garner

On the flipside, I sat next to Frank Robinson at Anaheim Stadium when he was the GM of the Orioles. Several people attempted to get his autograph to no avail over the course of the game. I did get a chance to talk baseball with him though. He was very cordial and seemed to genuinely enjoy our conversation. In this particular instance I chose not to ask him for an autograph. The conversation is a memory that I will always cherish.

Not baseball, but I had chance encounters with two of my favorite all-time HOF basketball players at baggage claim areas at the airport: Magic Johnson in Detroit and Julius Erving (Dr. J) at Orange County, John Wayne airport.

Both were no longer active players at the time, but the conversations with each were awesome!

My conversation with Dr. J was about his love of golf. He had just flown into John Wayne airport to play in the Don Drysdale Memorial Golf Tournament in Newport Beach. Dr. J looked "game ready" and looked like he could still take it to the hole!

One morning I was picking up my luggage in Detroit and looked over to my right and Magic Johnson is standing right next to me. Yikes!!

I grew up in So Cal and was always a huge LA Laker fan, especially during the "Showtime era" featuring Magic, Worthy, Michael Cooper, Kareem, Byron Scott and company. I finally got up the nerve to go over and say hi.

I let him know what a huge fan I was when I lived in So. Cal. He asked me where I lived (now in the Midwest), and he made a point of reminding me that those were his roots also, growing up in Lansing, MI. I asked him what he was doing in town, and he let me know that he was picking up his mom because he was getting inducted into the Basketball HOF the following day. Unbelievable!! He spent 15 minutes asking me questions about me and my family, how I had enjoyed living in the midwest, etc. The topic of children came up and he asked if I had any and did I have any pictures? My wife had recently made me one of those calendars with photos in them. He complimented me on the photo of my young son Sam, pulled out a Sharpie and signed the photo with this inscription: "To Sam, Have a great life! All the best, Magic Johnson # 32". I was absolutely speechless...

Let me tell you, Magic Johnson has to be one of the nicest, most down to earth great athletes you will ever meet, bar none!

Scott,
Awesome encounter with Magic. We must be about the same age as I grew up during the same era except in Boston...huge Larry Bird fan. Never met him, but boy did I hate those '80's Lakers teams...in retrospect I realize that what the 10-yr-old version of me 'hated' was actually respect and admiration for the one team in the NBA (save the Sixers on occasion) who could actually handle the Celtics!