Your experiences with HOF'ers

[whitehse]

Another quick story of my time working in the major leagues.

I was assigned, along with another co-worker to be Pete Rose's shadow on the weekend in which he came to Wrigley Field and would eventually tie Ty Cobb's hit record. Pete had received death threats and various other threats and they thought it was a good idea to put two of the larger guys on him all weekend wherever he went. Pete would show up at the ballpark and we would literally follow him around wherever he went. The cool thing was I was able to see him in his everyday baseball glory. He was actually very nice to us and engaged us both in conversation the whole weekend. It was very odd to be hanging around the guy that I hated as a kid but he actually won me over.

The cool thing of the whole experience was that Pete would have a press conference every day leading up to the record setting game. We escorted him, on field, to the right field corner where a press conference was being held under than stands. After the presser ended we headed back, on field towards the Reds dugout. Batting practice was going on and we were walking in right field when a ball was hit our way. It was one of those line shot one hoppers that came right at me and I reached out and grabbed it bare handed. Pete looked right at me and said "wow nice grab"! I couldn't believe that I caught the ball AND Pete Rose was complimenting me. It took a few seconds but I realized my hand and arm were on fire from the pain of catching a major league line shot one hopper with no glove but there was no way I was going to show Mr. Rose that I wanted to cry like a baby!! LOL It was a huge thrill for me, as someone who loves the game of baseball to have this massive star not only talking to me and asking questions about my experiences but to compliment me on a great catch!!

I have heard stories of Pete Rose and how much of a turd he could be but for that weekend, he couldn't have been more pleasant and engaging to me and my colleague. He did cause the game of baseball to be cast in a bad light when he bet on baseball and do the crap he did but I did gain a measure of respect for him that weekend.