Which professional athletes have you met? I'm sure it's a lot easier to meet retired athletes than those who are active? Who was cool? Who was a disappointment?

I've met Warren Moon and Phil Gardner.

I was very young when I met Moon but I remember having a blast because he played catch with me.

Phil Gardner is one of the coolest guys I've ever met. I got a chance to talk to him at a college baseball game once. He told so much stuff I would have never thought he would ever tell a regular joe. Very, very cool guy! :)

BGray

I've met Ernie Banks,Reggie Jackson,Nolan Ryan,Tom Seaver,Rickey Henderson,Jose Canseco,Moose Skowron,Carl Yastrzemski,Byron Scott and Michael Cooper just to name a few.

Let's See
Frank Thomas- cracked joke on him, didn't get my butt kicked though
ozzie guillen- porsche broke down he didn't accept ride
Bert Byleven- my daughter ate all his candy jelly bean
Latroy hawkins- Grew up with him Stood up in his wedding
Matt Lawton- so many times, went to a junvenile concert n Ft Myers
Torrii Hunter- so many times, went to a junvenile concert n Ft Myers
Jacque Jones-so many times, went to a junvenile concert n Ft Myers
Marty Cordova- Stayed at his apt in Spring training
David Ortiz- went to casino together
Brad Radke- Same as Above
Scott Ulger -same as above
Terry Steinbach- hung out at nightclub in Cincy, short night all bars close at like 1am
Carl Pholad- Senile didn't even know that Radke or Puckett was on his team the year Radke won 20 games
and a ton more of the twins players and coaches.

And a host of other players like Glenn Robinson, went to HS with, once blocked his shot in a pickup game, Michael Jordan cheap *** used to come on the casino I worked on and not tip, Scottie Pippen, see notes for MJ, Rodman the coolest and one of the best tippers around, Richard Dent See MJ, Antwoine Walker, the worse Dice player in the world, see note on MJ
kenny lofton- just from the hood, they named a street after him, his grandmother still lives there, Wallace Johnson and Lloyd Mac, always used to come to our baseball practices when they could to work out b4 leaving for spring training.
Steve Trout- at the gym all the time
Ron Kittle- At our HS baseball games sometimes

BGray I have heard that too about Phil Garner

Yeah, he's awesome. I really think he could be a great manager if he got the right opportunity. His guys always love him. I don't know if any managers would have had a chance with the Brewers and Tigers teams he got dealt as of late.


That is an unbelievable list Ryan. Very cool!

About the most famous athletes I've met were Dan Marino, Antonio Bryant, Kevin Barlow, and Curtis Martin. Yeah, I know I know, they're all Pitt guys.

working at a brown derby in the late eighties across the street from the browns training camp at lakeland c.c. waited on a party of 6 hanford dixon,frank minniefield.and earnest byner with girlfriends or wives they were the most obnoxious people i had ever had the displeasure of waiting on i and a waitress waited hand and foot on them for 4 hours while they ate drank and insulted us and other diners rang up a 490 bill and gave us 500cash and told us to keep the change sad to say never came back because i had a loogie just waitng for their dinners

Jim Kelly, Derrick Brooks, Steve McNair, Kerry Collins, Elvis Grbac, Qadry Ismail, James Stewart, Jerry Jones, Mean Joe Greene, Bo Jackson, and others.

Sadly, all I've met was Bud Harrelson, signing autographs years before he managed the Mets. He wrote "believe in yourself" along with his autograph.

John Stallworth...lives here in town and see him when ever he travels by air. Awesome man, prominate business man with his own company. A person all should meet...

What kind of business does he own?

I believe it is in software developement.

ive met all the 2001 patriots at an after game cookout

I've got a good story about the fiction writer, Paul Auster, about how he got into writing. His favorite baseball player as a boy was Willie Mays. His wish to meet him came true when Auster waited for Mays to come out of the Polo Grounds stadium after the game. Auster wanted his autograph badly and waited a long time by himself. Finally Mays came out. Auster asked him and Mays said, "Sure. Do you have a pen?" Unfortunately, Auster didn't have one and there was no one around to give it to him. After this, he never left the house without at least one pencil in his pocket.

I have met many athletes but my favorite has to be Mark Kotsay. I know you are sitting there wondering why, so here we go. I played high school baseball in the Reno area and he has a house in the area. He and three other minor leaguers frequently came and worked out with us. Nicest bunch of guys, Mark and another even helped me with my swing.

plunge, I met Magic Johnson, one of my 3 favorite players of all time, during my freshman season at UCLA. He was playing ball with a few folks (James Worthy, Reggie Miller, Shaq etc).

I got a chance to shake his hand, he even signed an autograph!

Shaq was an arsehole. Once the practice session ended, while the pros were signing a few autos, Shaq left with a couple of bodyguards.

I tried approaching Shaq, and one of his bodyguards grabbed me.

What a piece of sh*t. And he was still a college player.

And Shaq's always talking about how he once was dissed by David Robinson when he was a high school player.

Did you Magic Johnson by chance??

plunge, could you repeat your question? Not sure what it means

Yeah, Shaq has been known to burn people seeking his autograph. I'm one of the lucky ones who have it. I won an autographed basketball of his in a sports card magazine contest.

Tim

is plunge drunk?????????????????????

bryan clutterbuck and jason christensen
bryan is my baseball coach he played with the brewers in the 80's had some bad elbow problems and jason is a pitcher on the giants who had tommy john surgery in 2002 season. he is my uncle's neighbor

No, I'm not drunk. Only syntax challenged sometimes. I meant to ask: Did you meet Magic Johnson by chance?

Originally posted by plunge
No, I'm not drunk. Only syntax challenged sometimes. I meant to ask: Did you meet Magic Johnson by chance?

LOL, don't try playing it off... you were trashed. He said :

plunge, I met Magic Johnson, one of my 3 favorite players of all time, during my freshman season at UCLA. He was playing ball with a few folks (James Worthy, Reggie Miller, Shaq etc).

I got a chance to shake his hand, he even signed an autograph!

So I'd take it your answer would be YES!

Don't worry Plunge. I've had to delete a couple of my posts the next morning. ;)

BGray

Iggy / Plunge, lolol.. You two are funny (in a good way, that is).

Plunge -- to answer your question.

Yes, it was purely by chance. I lived in the dorms, and to get to my classes, we usually pass by Pauley Pavilion.

Well, one summer's day, I was headed off for a laboratory session for an evening class (I was taking summer classes after I had completed my freshman year), but heard noises coming from Pauley, so I peeked in the door, saw a bunch of basketball players, and went down to watch.

As I came closer to where the action was, I noticed the NBA players.

Magic's a very nice fellow!!

Of course, it was about 7pm at night, and it was summer, so there aren't the usual throng of students on campus. Otherwise, I'd doubt any of the players would've stopped to sign on their way out.

He didn't say much, just "...hey, how you doing", then signed his autograph on a piece of paper I had, signed autos for other folks and left.

Some day, I want to meet Jerry Rice and Joe Montana.

Good stuff Pod... just make sure he didn't cut himself on your piece of paper. I know I know, I'm badddddddd. Anyways, looks like Plunge was on a binge like I was yesterday. Started off drinking at Happy Hour at 5 (free wings and $1 drafts), left that place at 9 and went to another bar. Had 2 pitchers there from 9-11 while playing this one damn game. I have no clue what it's called but there was 4 of us that counted numbers and if your number had a 7 in it, was a multiple of 7, or a double number (like 11, 22) then you had to say BUZZ. If you screwed up, you had to drink. So then at 11, we went to some house party. Needless to say we were all trashed after 6 hours of drinking so the house party turned into a kareoke bar for us. We drank, sang, drank some more, and played beer pong till 1AM when we woddled our drunk asses home. Now that's what I call a Friday!

Iggy, man I ENVY you!??!?!!

I remember very fondly my days at Westwood.

I'd studied like a madman Mon-Thurs, then spent Fridays-Saturdays just hanging out with my buddies. Sometimes I didn't get to sleep until 4am!! And woke up next day at about 6 pm!

Wish things could have been like that forever.

It's always a fun time, but you pay for that fun eventually. Luckily I pretty much slept through my hangover today.

I was in Trig with Itula Mili when he was in High school at Kahuku, Hawaii. I was a Freshman attending SDSU when Marshall Faulk was asked to show me around as a mentor. It lasted a day before he asked someone else to do it. He was a calm and collective kind of person.
I use to cut Junior Seaus grass when he lived in the hills of Helix in San diego. I have always met famous people when I least expected it. I didn't know it JR. Seaus house until he came out of the house with his wife. I loved cutting his grass$$$$$$. very nice individual.

I met Santonio Holmes in a Steak and Shake in Columbus after an OSU game a few years back.

Bet that was great as a Michigan fan ^^^^ LOL

Justin Verlander, Dontrelle Willis, Craig Monroe, and Aquilino Lopez (ALL WERE COOL AND GOT ALL THIER AUTO's)

Bet that was great as a Michigan fan ^^^^ LOL

Hahaha I was contemplating paying the waitress to slip something in his food so he couldn't play against us :sign0020:

When I was a kid I used to ride horses a lot and I got to ride with some of the old school Tigers - Jason Thompson and Kirk Gibson. Both were really nice.

Grew up down the road from Carl Banks.

I met Bill Laimbeer at a boat show.

I went to High School with Jon Runyan (OT- Eagles)

On Spring Break 1994 in Daytona Beach, some Cubs were partying in our hotel room and doing nitrous.

When I was in college at Mich St. I was a karaoke DJ and came into contact with a lot of the Lansing Lugnuts (AA) as well as a lot of the MSU hockey team (Mike York & Shawn Horcoff). I also lived just a fe doors down from Bryan Smolinski.

When I began bar tending I served a lot of minor-league hockey players... mostly guys who could've made it, but didn't for one reason or another.

Then when I moved to Orlando, my ex-girlfriend broke up with me to start dating Jesse Boulerice of the Carolina Hurricanes. Does that count?

I met Chris Webber at a Benihana in Michigan.

Then when I moved to Denver I joined a band and our singer was the older brother of Marlins OF Cody Ross so through him I partied with a lot of MLBers like Ryan Dempster, Glendon Rusch, Miguel Cabrera, Cody, and some other minor leaguers.

Lastly, when I used to wait tables I met the coaching staff of the LA Kings, as well as the entire Colorado Avalanche team several times. They eat lunch at the place I used to work before every home game.... kind of a team ritual.

Oh and then I went to academy with an ex-MLB pitcher whose name I probably shouldnt disclose.

That's it for now.

Darryl Strawberry - before his problems
Mookie Wilson -
Dwight Gooden

Muhammad Ali
George Foreman
Kenny Norton
"Sweet Pea" Pernell Whitaker
Lou Duva

Bruce Smith - Nice guy
Jim Kelly - Not nice
Drew Bledsoe - Scared, it was his rookie season and a crazy female fan had just poked him in the eye the day before.
Morten Anderson - extremly cool
Matt Bahr - Extremly cool
Dan Marino - Bit standoffish
Darren Perry - don't remember
Kenny Easley - Was all business
Neil Smith - Very Funny

Lou Thesz - great man wish I could have hung out with him more.

Michael Jordan - Nice and polite

Marcos Ambrose - He was super nice and actually acted like he wanted to be out meeting fans and all. We talked to him for a few minutes and had a nice conversation.

Mike Wallace - He wasnt too friendly..kind of like, I dont know.
Rusty Wallace- About the same as Mike, but actually had a smile and at least tried to look happy.
Steve Wallace - He was just really shy and acted like he was unsure of all the fans. lol

Brett Rowe - He's from around here and was here signing last summer. He was also really nice.

Shane Huffman - He was really nice and it was so funny when Shayne asked for a picture with him...his face turned so red! hahaha Then it was pretty cool the next day when we went up to him again and he was like "Hey! Its Shayne!" because the night before Shayne told him they had the same awesome name. haha

Others we've met..not really anything to say about them...lol.
Aric Almirola; Cale Gale; Danny O'Quinn Jr.; Richard Johns; Justin Diercks; Kevin Hamlin; Brent Sherman; Kertus Davis; Eric McClure; AJ Frank; Regan Smith; Ashton Lewis Jr.; Burney Lamar; Jay Sauter; Mark McFarland

Ashley

CC Sabathia-Nice guy, cool and mellow.
Coco Crisp-VERY nice guy, a jokester.
Victor Martinez-He seemed kind of jerkish (is that a word?)
Damon Jones-I met him in the Cavs locker room. He's a very nice guy and a talented player.
While I was in the Cavs locker room Varejao brushed by me, Gibson started to sing (poorly lol), Ben Wallace got his 'fro played with, and Lebron listened to his headphones...I was only a few feet away from Lebron...one of the best days of my life.

I met Tim Couch a real long time ago when I was 7 or so. And like everyone in Cleveland around that time...I had a Couch jersey. He made a comment "Good looking jersey you got on," then he signed our Browns flag. Also I have met quite a few Nascar driver since they are fairly easy to meet at the track, like Robby Gordon, Dave Blaney, David Ragan, J.J. Yeley, Paul Menard, Reed Sorenson, and many many many others.

umm

WWE:
Lillian Garcia
Earl Hebner
Theodore Long
Balls Mohoney
Sandman
Molly Holly
Mick Foley

NFL
Christian Okoye
Harvey Williams

Maybe some others...I don't really remember.

I didn't formally meet them, but I stayed at the hotel the Cleveland Indians stayed at when I was up in Toronto for a series. The only one I actually met was Jhonny Peralta who signed a ball for me (a foul ball I caught that night that he hit). A lot of them tried to sneak through the lobby without signing anything, but he signed some stuff. Kind of emotionless though. Paul Byrd stood around for at least a half hour and chatted with fans and signed stuff.

CC Sabathia was in the hotel lounge a couple tables down from me. He had two gangster looking guys with him and an old, white businessman kind of guy. They all left in a cab at 1 AM, lol.