General Forum

Okay, it's time to start something.   Has anyone ever met a player (person represented on a card) in a place other than the ballpark, card show, card signing, fundraiser, restaurant next to the ballpark,  etc.....    What I want is who has run into Jerry Rice, Tom Seaver or whomever at a lumber yard, supermarketm car wash, etc.....    You know, a totally unexpected chance meeting.     I have but i will save my story for last.

Unexpected? Yes/no. When I was in Biloxi at the NCO Academy I went to one of the casino boats. I ran into Ken Stabler. At the time I didn't know he had a radio show he did from the boat. I was surprised at the lack of interest by locals. I guess no Alabama or Raiders fans in southern Mississippi.

Good story.  That is what I want, totally unexpected.

I ran into former Milwaukee Brewer Corey Hart in a grocery store. Same for Maurice Cheeks. I also ran into Cleveland Cavs guard Mo Williams in a Target store and the late baseball player Darryl Hamilton on the street in Manhattan.

When I was in college, I worked in a large video store chain in NJ (real close to Philadelphia). One evening, a very tall man came in and I was his cashier. After he left, one of my co-workers came running over to me - she was like "Do you know who that was?!?!" I pulled the account back up (we could only pull the last account back up). and read his name (for the life of me, I don't remember now, it was in 1990-91). She was like "Do you know who that is???" Since I know squat about basketball, I didn't. Apparently, he was a current (at the time) 76er. Did I mention he was tall? :)

I also used to see Mike Schmidt at a small hockey rink in Cherry Hill, NJ - he was a co-owner of the Jersey Aces hockey team (North American Hockey League) back in the late 1970s. I think three of the Phillies owned the team.

I once saw Sixto Lezcano go into a news agency in Cherry Hill. (Lots of the Philly sports players live in NJ near where I grew up).

I used to run into Bob Uecker at the grocery store where I used to live outside Milwaukee - usually near the yogurt.  I've heard rumors that he doesn't like being accosted when he's not at an official event, so I was always polite and just said, "Hi, Mr. Uecker."  He was always pleasant and polite back.  Bud Seilig also lived in the same town, and, when he was home, always had lunch at the same custard stand with the same order - 2 hot dogs and a vanilla custard milk shake.

Speaking of tall NBA players, I was at a meeting in Dallas, and David Robinson got on the elevator with me (kinda hard to miss).  He signed the hotel stationary for me.

My favorite story was when my then fiancée (now wife) lived in NH. We drove up to Montreal since neither of us had ever been there, and it happened to be opening weekend for the '97-'98 hockey season.  Habs hosted the Rangers. The hotel concierge scored us some tickets that morning after breakfast, so we were both excited both for the game and to wander the city.  We were chatting about the itinerary and looking at the street maps when the elevator stopped and two guys wearing suits got on with us (this was a Saturday).  I kept blabbing and looking at the map the whole way down, and after we got off the elevator, they went the opposite way that we did.  As they were heading out the side door, Renée says, "Hey, I think that was Wayne Gretzky."  She was right, as always.  D'oh!

I met a guy named DeAnthony Bowden in one of our local burger places. I had no idea who he was but noticed his big ass Cavalry ring and looked him up after he left. He does an accelerated kids camp thing around here. Pretty cool guy for that.

*doubled*.

In the fall of 1999 I went to the supermarket to get some groceries. I was pushing the cart up and down the aisles and kept passing this guy going in the opposite direction. He looked at me kind of funny and I wondered if I should know him. I started racking my brain. Was he one of the dads on my son's (age 10) soccer team?  Was he the dad of one of my son or daughter's friends? Finally after 6 or 7 passes I realized it was Kurt Warner. Not a big football fan I didn't ask for his autograph. My son was mad when I told him later. 

Living in St. Louis since 1986 I've seen a handful of Rams and Blues players over the years. The only Cardinal I've run across was Albert Pujols. I was really tempted to ask him for an autograph but he was having dinner with his family and it didn't seem the right thing to do.  My son, then in college, was once again upset with me.

Fun memories.  Great question.

I thought of a few more. I saw Grant Fuhr at a mall in St. Louis and Darryl Strawberry dining at a restaurant in Tampa.