Best & Worst Experience Meeting An Athlete

[Tabe]

I've never had a bad experience with an athlete. They've always been great. I don't do autographs, so maybe that helps. But here are a few of my favorites:

1) Al Kaline - I was probably 8 when I met him and was absolutely terrified. He was signing at a bank and my grandmother took me to meet him. He signed a photo for me and could not have been nicer.

2) In 1989, I had a friend who worked at a movie theater in Pontiac, MI (where I grew up). After the Pistons won their first title, the Pistons had a free viewing thing at the Palace for their championship video they'd be releasing. On the way there, my friend tells me that he'd met John Salley the night before at the theater and went on and on about how much time they'd spent together and how cool Spider was. Yeah, right. We get to the Palace and there's hardly anyone where we are - except one car. As we're walking in, that car's door opens and out steps this gigantic human being. John Salley. And Salley sees us and yells to my friend "Hey Johnny, how are you?" We talked for a couple minutes. Salley was great.

3) Mark Rypien - Mark lives in the Spokane area and has a foundation here. He was at a Spokane Indians game. My wife approached him, said I was a big fan and asked if he'd mind meeting me. She came and got me and I met him, told him I was a Lions fan and that he'd broken my heart in the playoffs when the Redskins killed Detroit. I said, "You guys kicked our butts". Mark got a huge grin on his face and said "yeah, we did". It was great.

4) Steve Garvey - Garvey was in town to be honored before a Spokane Indians game. The night before he was to be honored, I got up to leave after the game and he was standing in the aisle right behind me. All alone, no one around. I asked for and got a photo. The next night, I brought my good friend who was a big Garvey fan. As a kid, he mailed Garvey a letter when he played in Spokane - and got a handwritten response! He brought that letter with him. We get to the park early and look around and there's Steve down in the corner. We went over and started talking to him. He signed my photo from the night before (so cool) and then my buddy showed him that letter. His eyes got REALLY BIG and he immediately pulled out his cellphone and took a bunch of pictures of it. He called over the news reporter he was talking to and showed it to her. Then he signed it for my friend. He posed for several pictures and we talked for a good 20 minutes. Just awesome.

5) Wayne Gretzky - Gretzky was at a Spokane Indians game because his son was in town to sign a contract with the Cubs (whose affiliate was playing Spokane). My friend points out Gretzky and I go over and ask for a photo. He kindly took his sunglasses off and posed for a pic. I immediately called my wife to tell her I'd met Wayne and I'm just over the moon. Only I didn't SAVE the photo. On my phone, you had to manually save it, it wasn't automatic. I was crushed. Then I see Wayne walking into the stadium and ask for another pic. He gives me this huge sigh and says "alright" and then grins at me. Take the pic and I save it and then I see...it's completely dark because we were in a shadow. I go sit down and am really disappointed at blowing my chance to get a good photo with Wayne. Then I see he's sitting near me and I find the courage to ask for one more. He graciously said yes and, well: