General Forum

Here are my two.  One is George Brett.  I waited tables at Jalapenos, where he frequents a bit, and once I was lucky enough to have him come in on my shift.  As he was leaving, I admit, I got "star struck".  I mean this is the guy I idolized as a kid at Royals Stadium (now the K).  He politely let me know to "quit F******* staring at him".  A bit rude, but I do understand.  He was simply getting his grub on.  Number 2, and it's cool if you don't believe me, nobody does, is Albert Pujols.  We actually have a pretty good friendship.  In my early 20's I worked at Meadowbrook Golf and Country Club, where he also worked during the winters.  He is from KC and in between AA ball he would be there to earn income.  We would work wedding banquets and such together.  He was one of  the first to tell me about Christ, and I am forever indebted to him for that.  Some cool stories...we would throw rolled up balls of foil at each other, and I remember jokingly telling him he would never get to the bigs with that noodle arm.  He then threw one and hit me in the chest, that about took my breath away.  I would also joke with him that he is too fat to make the bigs, but alas, that was just my jeaously.  I had the privledege of being invited to his wedding and it was really cool to seem him marry his sweetheart.  She had a child with down syndrome, and Alberts work off the field in helping those with down syndrome is admirable.  We talk/text about once a year, and it's pretty cool, cause his first concern is my walk with Christ, and his.  Baseball is completley secondary.  Anyway...those are my stories.  Except for my wifes encounter with Len Dawson once when she was ringing bells for the salvation army.  She said he only gave 5 dollars and was kinda pissed about that considering all the money he may have.  But, I assured her it was OK cause he didn't have to give any...and maybe he gave 5 dollars every time.  But, I will forever remember working side by side with Albert at Meadowbrook, not realizing at the time what he would become. 

Nothing ............ Nada ............ Zero ............. Zilch, never on an airplane, in a mall or by chance while on vacation, not in a hockey rink, in a mall or the local restaurant. I live in Nowheresville, Canada people. If I can scrounge up ANYTHING at all is that Cory Cross (NHL) was two grades ahead of me in high school. He was a highly non-rememberable defenseman, with TBay and Edmonton for sure. The sad thing is that with the amount of hockey players coming out of my city now I still know none of them. My wife graduated with Scott Hartnell though and were close friends back then.

My wife's biggest moment though was partying it up with the one and only Don Narcisse one night here in town. There was a benefit in town with her favorite CFL team, the Roughriders and she attended with her sister and her husband, both MASSIVE Rider fans. He bid his face off for items, jersey, team signed football, lots of things but the big one he won was a night with Don, highest bidder got to sit with him all night at the bar. Needless to say they hit it off hugely and since I stayed home babysitting soon I was getting all sorts of great pictures. Wifey wearing his Grey Cup ring, all sorts of hilarious stuff. He is one of my all time favorites as he helped Saskatchewan win the Grey Cup the day of my 18th birthday!! Still remember that day, tequila hangover and chinese for supper!! Anyway they got along with him and his cohorts so well she came home with all sorts of autographed stuff, water bottles, pictures, and to my surprise for my birthday that winter ....... a autographed Narcisse Jeresy. SWEET. Her sister and him are still real good friends and chat back and forth all the time, he even personally invited their oldest boy to Jr Camp in Regina a couple years back.

Again me ................. nothing! =(

Oh, I just remembered a couple more. In my church in south Jersey, we had Brad & Bart Oates (Phila Stars FB), Wally Ritchie (Phillies), & Jimmy Superfly Snuka's family (although he wasn't a member, he'd show up once in a while) all attending. In fact, I'm friends with Jimmy junior (he's my age, we were pals back when we were about 12 or so) on facebook. (I guess I've had more encounters than I realized!)

Sorry for the multiples people internet was being a little wonky last night.

I waited tables at a country club in the northwest suburbs of Chicago circa 1984. Mike Ditka came in with party of 7 or so guests. He was exactly the classless jerk you'd think he might be (mind you, I'm a Bears fan...). It was a nice place and (don't yell at me all you female members of the site (are there any female members of the site?)), we were trained to go around the table taking all the ladies' orders first. When I was on the other side of the large round table on about order #3, Ditka stood up and yelled his order to me over the table. Later, I offered sorbet for dessert. He eagerly ordered the passion fruit, which I warned people was a bit sour. Five people ordered it. I served everyone. He took one bite, declared it to be sour, stood up again, and orderd me to take it back for some other flavor. In an odd show of support or assholary, three other people also returned their passion fruit sorbet. One person did not. 

I did not ask for an autograph. 

The things you remember...

v3

I saw Jim Palmer at the Charles Theatre in Baltimore. He was in the lobby waiting to go into whatever movie he was seeing. I don't remember what I saw that day. The Charles shows artsy and Foreign films.

Dan, I don't know if you follow wrestling at all, but Superfly's daughter Tamina (real name Sarona) has a match at Wrestlemania 32 tomorrow.  You may have known her when she was a kid too.  And of course your friend Jimmy Jr. was WWE Tag Team Champion under the name Deuce.

vrooomed wrote: Oh, I just remembered a couple more. In my church in south Jersey, we had Brad & Bart Oates (Phila Stars FB), Wally Ritchie (Phillies), & Jimmy Superfly Snuka's family (although he wasn't a member, he'd show up once in a while) all attending. In fact, I'm friends with Jimmy junior (he's my age, we were pals back when we were about 12 or so) on facebook. (I guess I've had more encounters than I realized!)

i met a few.. when i was a kid, a friend of my father was the lead security guy at the Philadelphia Spectrum and had taken me down the locker area.. met a couple wrestlers, the Harleem Globetrotters, but my best one was meeting Mike Schmidt, my idol at Verterns stadium- i had a photo of him w/ me, but when your 9yrs old you never understand the impact of that- ended up losing that pic :-(  but still remember that day.

Thanks for that info - don't follow the sport - only did back then because I knew the guy. That's very cool. It was a pretty big family 4 or 5 kids.

switzr1 wrote: Dan, I don't know if you follow wrestling at all, but Superfly's daughter Tamina (real name Sarona) has a match at Wrestlemania 32 tomorrow.  You may have known her when she was a kid too.  And of course your friend Jimmy Jr. was WWE Tag Team Champion under the name Deuce. vrooomed wrote: Oh, I just remembered a couple more. In my church in south Jersey, we had Brad & Bart Oates (Phila Stars FB), Wally Ritchie (Phillies), & Jimmy Superfly Snuka's family (although he wasn't a member, he'd show up once in a while) all attending. In fact, I'm friends with Jimmy junior (he's my age, we were pals back when we were about 12 or so) on facebook. (I guess I've had more encounters than I realized!)