Talk about YOUR meetings with an MLB'er

[bbcard1]

A few brushes worth mentioning....

In college, Joe Nuxhall came to Marshall and after speaking played quarter bounce with a bunch of us...

Jose Canseco could not have been nicer, talking at length with my son about baseball and the beauty of the game. My son didn't notice the ankle monitor.

Bob Gibson was an ass, which I understand is to be expected.

[SmokyBurgess]

Baseball- Dale Murphy. Signing with 2 other players before a Sunday night game. Very cool. Gave the photo to a nurse friend of mine.

Non-Baseball- Mother Teresa. Went to her complex in Calcutta and spent an afternoon at the orphanage with the kids. Meeting was very short (as was M.T), but playing with the abandoned kids (starved for attention) was a memory that still lasts after all these years.

[71buc]

When Tacoma was the Twins AAA affiliate I played whiffle ball with Lyman Bostock in the parking lot of Cheney Stadium. I was 11 and he was very friendly and left a lasting impression. I was crushed when he was murdered.

I posted this story about my son couple of years ago. Although it is not a baseball story it is still fun nonetheless. I took my son to an Oakland A’s spring training game about eleven years ago. During the game Mohammed Ali made a surprise appearance. When he entered the ball park you could hear a pin drop. It was surreal. The game stopped and the players applauded him.

The crowd chanted Ali, Ali! He sat a few rows away from us and an autograph line quickly formed. He signed between innings. Those in line knelt to avoid obstructing the view of others during the game. My son asked why people were kneeling. My wife smiled and told him you do that before royalty. I told my son that this was an autograph opportunity he should not miss. At that time he was painfully timid but with a bit of coaxing he stood in line by himself for two innings. When it was his turn to receive an autograph play resumed forcing him to kneel and wait. Ali looked over at him and motioned to him. My son approached Ali rather nervously. He told my son to sit next to him in a vacant seat. He then opened a bag and pulled out a large oatmeal cookie broke it in half and handed half to my son. He sat with Ali eating that cookie for a half inning. At the end of the inning Ali smiled at him and threw a quick jab his way. He then signed the autograph and thanked my son for sitting with him.

When we returned home my shy son shocked us with the announcement that he wanted to be a boxer. My wife and I cringed but he was persistent so we relented. He boxed for a few years and although he was an average boxer the sport changed him in a positive manner. He became assertive, disciplined, and extremely confident. He has grown into a young man I am very proud of. I have to attribute some of that to boxing and his fifteen minutes with Ali.

[Mr. Zipper]

[thenavarro]

Last year at the Rangers game. I was sitting there emailing on my phone while Maven (my daughter) was just hanging out. Next thing I know, I hear Maven chatting with someone, and I look up and see her holding Scott Feldman's glove, and he was right there with her. I heard her tell him, "I can't sign your glove because I only have a black marker (he had a black glove), do you have anything else?" He said "sure, how about this piece of paper" and next thing I know, she is signing an autograph FOR Scott Feldman. He told her he was going to hang it in his locker. VERY COOL of him, she was so ecstatic. I got a picture of them, and you can see him holding her autograph in his hand in my pic. Most of the Rangers are very cool to my daughter. Ever since Nellie Cruz told her she was cute, she's been hooked as a Rangers fan, LOL. They are a great fan friendly organization

[Scott Garner]

Originally Posted by 71buc

When Tacoma was the Twins were AAA affiliate I played whiffle ball with Lyman Bostock in the parking lot of Cheney Stadium. I was 11 and he was very friendly and left a lasting impression. I was crushed when he was murdered.

I posted this story about my son couple of years ago. Although it is not a baseball story it is still fun nonetheless. I took my son to an Oakland A’s spring training game about eleven years ago. During the game Mohammed Ali made a surprise appearance. When he entered the ball park you could hear a pin drop. It was surreal. The game stopped and the players applauded him.

The crowd chanted Ali, Ali! He sat a few rows away from us and an autograph line quickly formed. He signed between innings. Those in line knelt to avoid obstructing the view of others during the game. My son asked why people were kneeling. My wife smiled and told him you do that before royalty. I told my son that this was an autograph opportunity he should not miss. At that time he was painfully timid but with a bit of coaxing he stood in line by himself for two innings. When it was his turn to receive an autograph play resumed forcing him to kneel and wait. Ali looked over at him and motioned to him. My son approached Ali rather nervously. He told my son to sit next to him in a vacant seat. He then opened a bag and pulled out a large oatmeal cookie broke it in half and handed half to my son. He sat with Ali eating that cookie for a half inning. At the end of the inning Ali smiled at him and threw a quick jab his way. He then signed the autograph and thanked my son for sitting with him.

When we returned home my shy son shocked us with the announcement that he wanted to be a boxer. My wife and I cringed but he was persistent so we relented. He boxed for a few years and although he was an average boxer the sport changed him in a positive manner. He became assertive, disciplined, and extremely confident. He has grown into a young man I am very proud of. I have to attribute some of that to boxing and his fifteen minutes with Ali.

Wow, Mike! What a great story! How cool is that?

[Big Dave]

I think these are the best kind of postings on here. All the drama queens take a break from these and the stories are really interesting and worth the read.

Thanks for the insightful stories.

[7nohitter]

Originally Posted by Big Dave

I think these are the best kind of postings on here. All the drama queens take a break from these and the stories are really interesting and worth the read.

Thanks for the insightful stories.

Hell yes!

[dgo71]

I've met many MLB players and HOFers, but one of my favorites was Harmon Killebrew. He did a speaking engagement in my area several years ago and afterwards signed autographs and shook hands and chatted with many of the guests. I had 4 8x10 photos with me and he happily signed them all. As he signed each one, he told me where the photo was taken and when. The first three were very obvious (one had the Yankee facade in the background, so it was obviously at Yankee stadium, etc...) but the last photo was an action shot of him swinging on his follow through. There wasn't really anything in the picture to clue anyone in as to where/when the photo was taken. Without missing a beat, Killer lit up and said "Ohhh! This one! This is me hitting a grand slam off of Sandy Koufax!" I was wide-eyed and with amazement said "Wow? Really??" He looked at me with a wink and said "Well, it could be!"

I also am fond of the time I met Hank Aaron. He too was at an event but this is one I did not attend as I was a broke high school student at the time. I did however manage to crash the dinner afterwards and when I saw Hank sitting at a table near the exit I positioned myself and waited for a good moment to approach him. A few minutes later one of the attendees walked over and had Hank sign his program from the event so I figured that was my chance. I approached him and first shook his hand, telling him what an honor it was to meet a true legend. He thanked me and I asked if he'd mind signing something for me. He asked what I had, and when I produced three baseball cards and a blue sharpie from my shirt pocket, he gave me a look like "Ah...ya got me." He signed all three cards however and was very cordial. I shook his hand again and quickly left. Less than 5 minutes later, the event broke up and Aaron BOLTED for the door, signing maybe 2 autographs for the 20 people waiting outside without ever breaking stride. To make the day even better, I went to a AAA Tidewater Tides game that evening against the Rochester Red Wings, and got about 10 cards signed by the Orioles up-and-coming prospect, Mike Mussina. So that was definitely a very good day for autographs!

Last, an experience I thought was pretty funny where a little serendipitous timing worked in my favor. Dave Winfield did a hitting clinic at a local college, a two-day affair, and had been giving the autograph seekers quite a hard time by denying about 90% of the time he was there. On the last day, I had found out Winfield would be leaving by cutting through the gymnasium locker room and I headed around to catch him. On my way, I ran into Winfield who was engaged in a debate with a kid who looked to be about 12. Apparently the kid didn't believe Winfield was anybody special, and Dave was, well not yelling, but using a tone that was instantly recognizable as frustration. Winfield was telling the kid he was the RF for the Yankees (this was 1990 or 91, the January after he missed a whole season to injury) and the kid just flat out didn't believe him. It was really funny to watch, and after about a minute of this (seemed like much longer!) I asked Dave if he'd mind signing an autograph. Winfield looked at me with a look on his face like "Oh thank God", signed my 2 cards and looked at the kid and said, "You SEE?!" and walked off.

[toyman55]

How great of your son Mike to be influenced by Ali. I've told the story here before but my two boys were 4 and 7 when we met Ali. While getting the autographs with my boys Ali saw my wife on the side taking pictures. he picked up my 4 year old and gave him a kiss on the cheek. We have the pictures framed along with his autograph. Ali is the Greatest of all Time.

[shelly]

When Ali would do signing for Prince of Cards he would alway ask Darren did that guy just call me a name. Stand up a pretrended to take a punch. When you saw the size of those fist comeing at your head you thought would die right then and there. He always smiled and never complained even though you could see that each time he signed it was getting harder and harder to do. He is a great man.

[RichardSimon]

A friend of mine was friendly with Ted Williams' agent the notorious Vince Antonucci and my friend had chatted with Ted at a show.
One day he gets a phone call from Vince Antonucci inviting him to Florida to look at a huge autograph collection he had just gotten. My friend invited me along.
Vince owned a large hobby store. When we got there much of the collection was spread out in the store on showcases. Vince had many, many showcases in the store. Vince said we can purchase items the next day as he was busy that first day we were there.
Vince was also the agent for Monte Irvin who was in the store at the time. I had been told before hand that we had a chance to meet Monte so I brought along all the wire service photos I had of him. He signed every single one of them (maybe 20) and told me the story about each photo as he signed it. We then took him out to lunch and later to dinner. He came back to our hotel room. All day long he regaled us with baseball stories. What a wonderful man he is.
The next day we get to the store in the morning and my friend says to Vince "give Ted a call and tell him I am here." Vince calls Ted Williams. He then comes over to me and says that Ted is coming over but I should not bother him or ask him any questions as he does not want to talk baseball.
Well about 20 minutes later, driving up to the front of the store, in a jeep, is Ted Williams, literally larger than life. My friend introduces me to Ted, who after shaking my hand glances around at the store and sees all the items on top of the showcases.
He encourages me to join him and he does a walk around in the store and every time he would see an autograph item of someone he knew something about he would tell me about that player. This lasted for a full hour. When he found out I was a Mets fan he told me how he loved the swings of Darryl Strawberry and Greg Jefferies. He told me a story of a three game series, Tigers vs. Red Sox in Boston where he won the first two games with late hits. Then in the third game, bottom of the 9th, bases loaded, Williams coming up. Tigers bring in lefty Billy Hoeft and the count goes to 3-2. Curve ball after curve ball and Williams keeps fouling them off. Listening to him was just jaw dropping. Finally Ted says "that SOB throws me a fastball, and I took it for strike three. The next day the papers in Boston ripped me to shreds: WILLIAMS FAILS IN CLUTCH were the headlines." And this after he won the first two games .
One of the greatest times of my life. And of course he signed two photos for me but I won't show them because I have done that about 6 times already and my friend Shelly will just tease me about it again .

[mr2686]

Richard, you have a signed Williams photo?

[dwr11]

This is a great thread!

I have been fortunate to have numerous conversations with MLB players. A couple of the cooler experiences were meeting Killebrew at a show in January of 1984 at the Metrodome. It was right after it was announced that he had made the HOF. I am almost certain autographs at the show were $1.00. I had this shirt made up that said on the front "Minnesota Loves Harmon" and on the back it said the "Killer is in". Harmon loved that shirt. I told him I was going out to Cooperstown for his induction in August. He told me to look him up when we got out there. We went to the Otesaga Hotel and Harmon recognizes me and the shirt right away. He asks me if I want to meet the other players. That day he introduced me to Koufax, Campanella, Drysdale, PeeWee, Musial, Kiner, Aparicio and many others. At that time they were signing anything and everything I had along except for Campy. Each of the guys gave me a few of the yellow HOF plaque cards signed. Harmon was just a class act and would occasionally write letters to me wishing me luck for the upcoming high school sports season.

One other cool Cooperstown story was in the early 80's (I think it was 82) I was able to watch Ted Williams play Tennis at the Otesaga Hotel. There was a smaller group of people watching him play and after he was done he came over and had us lineup and went down the line and signed autographs for us.

Numerous times I have talked with players in the bar. Some of the nicer guys (including all sports) were Eric Davis, William Perry, Marcus Haynes, Steve Carlton, Billy Sims, Ricky Henderson, Anthony Carter, Earl Morrall and Don Larson.

Some characters included Spahn & Matthews.

[whitehse]

I had worked for the Chicago Cubs for 7 years in the '80s which was right after I graduated high school. I started as game day security which put me on the field and in the dugout during games which allowed me to chat with almost every player that came through the National league during that time. While many of the players and team staff were great to me (Tommy LaSorda is an interesting man), I found the most interesting guys were the old timers that used their gold passes to get into games for free and hung out for an afternoon of baseball. These guys told the greatest stories and appreciated the fact anyone wanted to listen to them.

I remember a very busy afternoon where the crowd was quite large outside the gates before Wrigley opened I found myself wading through the crowd when I saw an old Boston Braves hat being worn by an older gentleman. I stopped and commented on his hat and he laughed and said thanks and proceeded to tell me he wore it while playing in a World Series. I always prided myself on knowing my baseball but I had to be honest, when he told me his name was Phil Masi it didnt trigger anything in my head. Mr. Masi obviously saw his name didnt provide me any recall and looked at me and laughed. He said go ask the guy in the Cubs radio broadcast booth who he was as he was pretty sure Lou Boudreau could tell me a thing or three about him. I did ask Mr. Bourdreau about him eventually and did I ever hear more than I wanted to know about Phil Masi. LOL

I remember having a few conversations with George Brace about his career as a photographer. He told me that he remembers sitting in the dugouts with Gehrig and Ruth when he was a much younger man and talked about knowing the many legendary players that I had only read about. Mr. Brace was not much of a talker as he was there to get his photographs and left for the day but he was always one I knew I could talk to if I wanted an opinion on a ballplayer that played in the 20th century.

As I progressed in the organization and finally would get a chance at a full time/ year round position I had a chance to meet many team executives and broadcasters for the home and visiting teams. One of my favorite memories was taking a security shift (in stadium opearations, I was low man and did whatever was needed) and getting a frantic knock on the main office door at about 4pm. This day happened to be the annual Cubs/Sox game that was being played at Comiskey park so I assumed the person at the door was a front office person who forgot something and needed entry asap. I answered the door and before me stood 3 very young players who were called up from Iowa to play in this charity game. One of those players I recognized right away as Rafael Palmeiro who would eventually stay up with the team. The players all thought the game was at Wrigley and panicked when they saw no crowds and no teammates. After a few phone calls I was able to get them in a cab and on their way to Comiskey where they got there in time for the game. These players could not have bene nicer and each shook my hand repeatedly after I get them straightened out.

[MooseDog]

Originally Posted by dwr11

This is a great thread!
Harmon was just a class act and would occasionally write letters to me wishing me luck for the upcoming high school sports season.

Every time I hear a new story about Harmon Killebrew I am astonished at what a kind, caring and GENUINE man he was. He should be a role model not just for all athletes, but for the rest of us as well.