Off-Topic Forum

A follow on to the new thread of "Players before they were stars", this one is for pros you met but not at the sports venue - arena, stadium, etc.

In 1988, I met Andy McGaffigan and Tim Foley (and their wives) in Hong Kong's Stanley Market.  They were there in the off-season going into China to spread Christian words.  Friendly group and willing to chat for a bit.  No, I did not get their autographs.

Guess I will put this link here too LOL!

https://www.tcdb.com/List.cfm/lid/6900/People-I've-Met?C=2

Archie Manning and Danny Abramowicz at an Air Products picnic.

I was hanging out in my of my FLGS's right before Xmas and the owner and I were the only two in there and this guy comes in and wants to buy a whole box of one of the baseball sets that had just released....We kinda looked at him....ok sure....fast forward about 2 hours later and he's back in....asked him why....it was Sean Casey and he was looking for his card in the set as it had his son on the back.  He was a great guy and signed a couple autographs for us and went on his way....

Another story.....for any hockey fan out there....if you are every on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls, you have to go to The Blue Line Diner.  A few of our hockey friends told us about this place....it is owned by Marcel Dionne and he often frequents the place and will talk and sign autographs and pose for pictures.  And on top of that....the food is REALLY good there!!!

I've got three, or two and half. These stories have been told here before. In no particular order.

1. or 1/2 because it's kind of a sports venue: Frank Thomas (the original Met). We were at the Hall of Fame ceremonies for Frank Thomas, walking up and down the street. Before I went, a friend said that Frank Thomas was his brother's favorite player and could I please get an autograph if the opportunity arose. I said sure. Never saw the Big Hurt, didn't even stay for his speech (I was there for Maddux). But we encountered a 75 year old or so Frank Thomas and immediately knew we had to get his autograph. He was very sweet. Wrote a nice note on his picture, then forgot to sign. I reminded him. When presented with his gift, my friend was...perplexed, then pleased.

2. Served Mike Ditka at a country club I worked at in the Chicago area. He was a jerk. I was trying to take the ladies' orders first, as we were trained to do, but he stood up at a table of 10 and started yelling his order to me. About 8 people ordered passion fruit sorbet for dessert. It was sour, I had warned them. He said he didn't like it and returned it. Then everyone else did, too. There was no tipping at the club, so I don't know how that would have gone.

3. Ron Santo. Same country club. I was serving drinks in the locker room during a big golf tournament. Santo came in after his round and discovered the white wine spritzer. He order at least three in forty-five minutes, between showering and dressing. And no, he did not bother to don a towel when he ordered the second or third one.

v3

Throughout the course of my former job cleaning pools I met Jesse Tuggle, Garrison Hearst and Dikembe Mutumbo

I met Terry Harper (Hockey Player) at a Christmas party at his house, his son went through an adoption/foster care class with me and my ex-wife. It was cool to talk hockey and see some of his Stanley Cup rings when he played for the Monteal Canadiens. 5-time cup winner. 

I met Carlton Fisk at a radio station in 1975 when I was 10 years old. It was in Nov after the World Series. He was an ass. 

I met Brooks Robinson in 1998 at Fort Carson Commisary (grocery store) he was signing autographs for free and I was able to have him sign my All Star Game heroes photo, my grandfathers history of Baseball book. Was able to sit down and talk Baseball with him since no one was coming to the table to get autographs. Odd. 

My senior year of college, in November of 2016, my school hosted their booster banquet and the guest speaker was Darryl Strawberry. Our coach got us the opportunity to sit down and listen to him for a little while before the banquet, plus do a small Q&A session and grab a picture (I'll try and remember to post mine later, I don't have it on my work computer).

After he told his story (and he didn't hold back, he told us some very detailed stuff that they did on the back of a plane at times), during the Q&A, I asked how he thought he'd stack up against today's pitching. He said he had no doubt he'd be able to compete as long as no one put Chapman on the mound, because he wanted nothing to do with 102 from the left side.

Perhaps the most amazing thing was when we got our picture, he shook my hand, and when I say my whole hand disappeared...you don't really realize how large he is until you stand next to him. I mean, 6'6 is going to make my 5'11 frame look small anyway, but the sheer size of him was astounding.

Growing up so close to Philadelphia, we had a lot of the athletes living nearby in NJ. I saw Sixto Lezcano stop in at a news agency (newspapers, magazines) on his way to the ball park. I worked at a Blockbuster Video one year in college, and one of the 76ers came in and I was his cashier. If any of you know me, I know zero about basketball, and so I had no idea who it was. All I knew was he was tall. It wasn't until one of my co-workers came running over after he left saying "Do you know who that is? Do you know who that is?" I had to pull the membership record back up to see the name. I read off the name and they were like "Do you know who that is?" "Sorry, who is he?" She went on about how he plays for the Sixers. (I just looked at the 76ers 90-91 roster, and I can't remember who it was.) He was very pleasant, that I do remember. Mike Schmidt was a co-owner of the Jersey Aces (very low level hockey team that was based in Cherry Hill, NJ) and we used to see him at the little arena most games. (He brought in some of the Phillies for signing events and I remember getting Greg Luzinski, Rawley Eastwick, and Bob Boone's autographs on a single 4 x 6 piece of paper - that I spilled a drink on and ruined.)

My favorite memory of meeting professionl players was when I was 16 years old. I was a member of a local collectors club that organized a card show. I volunteered to help out at the show and was invited to have dinner with the players invited to sign autographs. The players were Johnny Mize, "Cool Papa" Bell, Ken Keltner, and Hal Trosky.