Best & Worst Experience Meeting An Athlete

[docpatlv]

It's funny how people can have different outcomes with meeting the same players. I'm sure they get tired of people "bothering" them, I know that I probably would.

I don't get too many autographs in person, but two of the nicest signers I have met are Lou Brock (twice) and Johnny Mize. Rickey Henderson, not so much.

I met Sandy Koufax a couple of years ago at a shopping center. He was eating ice cream with his lady friend. I waited until he was finished and approached him. I just told him that I wanted to meet him, he responded with a huge smile and a shake of the hand (probably still on an ice cream "high"...lol). I didn't want to ruin the moment by asking him for an autograph or a picture of us together.

Edited to add: My experience meeting Pete Rose was similar to Rickey Henderson. Had first row seats behind the visitor's dugout at Busch Stadium. Brought my 1965 Topps card of Pete just in case. Was about ten feet away from him and asked if he could sign the card for me. He just looked at me and turned away. A side note on Pete that I've told before, but I grew up in Marion, Ill, home of Ray Fosse. Ray was always great with signing things for my brother and I as my father had operated on his mom years ago. I remember one of my teachers in junior high always badmouthing Rose for the All Star game incident. Well, years later, when Rose was sent to prison for income tax evasion, guess where he was sent. You guessed it, Marion, Ill. He wasn't enthusiastically received.