Personal encounters with rude athletes and/or celebrities

[cincinnati chili]

I've known a few celebrities, particularly in sports. All my "celebrity jerks" stories are secondhand. I've heard a few about Barry Bonds in his early days in Pittsburgh (shocking, I know).

Don't know if this counts as a celebrity. I got to work with some people in the Commissioner's office a few years back, and can tell you that at least one prominent member of Bud's inner circle is a complete jerk. I'll leave his name out, in case I caught him on a bad couple of days.

When I interned for a club, I came across a couple young "bonus babies" who were immature. But nothing to the level of warranting the "jerk" label. Maybe I got lucky. Generally speaking, it was my observation that rookie ball players who are about 19 or so are more mature and friendly than college kids of the same age, even at "elite" colleges.

Worshipping athletes is dumb, but I give the benefit of the doubt that they're at least decent people until I hear otherwise.

[westofyou]

Pete Rose was a jerk to my buddy at a Royals game back in the late 60's, broke his little 7 year old heart and made him a Johnny Bench fan.

I've never had a bad celebrity experience, but I also tend to not out them or pursue them. The only two celebrities I ever met that I was in awe of were Al Kaline and Jerry Garcia.

[Super_Barry11]

I've seen Reidling a few times at Redsfest and he's always been nicer than nice. He honestly must have thought you said something rude to him.

Reidling was a sweetheart to me as well. Of course, pretty much the entire Reds team (yeah, I've met a lot of them ) has been super nice. Of course, it probably helps that I'm a girl, but then again, I think there are quite a few of them that are truly, genuinely nice guys.

[creek14]

Back in the 20th centrury I dated a professional athlete.

I could do a thread about rude autograph seekers and over zealous sex seekers.

[Gainesville Red]

Once at a game in Plant City, when I couldn't have been older than nine or ten, my dad spotted Paul O'neil standing by himself and told me to run over and see if he'll sign my card. I remember being super-excited about it, and the pen didn't work. He looked at me and told me if I'm going to try and get autographs find a f-ing pen that works, and walked away. I was devistated. My dad still talks about it everytime he hears something about O'neil. I've almost forgotten about it, but I don't think my dad will ever forgive him. Honestly, I guess if you're going to try to get autographs you should have a pen that works, but c'mon man, that's not the way to handle it.

[Super_Barry11]

I could do a thread about rude autograph seekers and over zealous sex seekers.

I bet that's true... I've seen some insanely rude people acting like the players weren't even people. Living with that all the time can't be fun!! :thumbdown

[Cyclone792]

This absolutely SHOCKS me!

Everything I've ever read points to him as being a very happily-married family man.

No idea when he got married, this happened way back in 2001 or 2002 so it's been awhile. Either way, I think his connotations were mostly in harmless joking around, not anything serious. At least that's how I took them!

I know you're saying this in good fun. I've heard Grissom is a great guy from multiple sources.

Yep, I gave him a tongue-in-cheek jab at the Brewers woes and was laughing when he shot back, "I just like to play ball, man! It doesn't matter where, I just want to play ball!" It was one of those tones where he may have been a bit offended by the question. Other people around me were actually much more turned off to how he said it than I was because I just took it as some good ribbing to get back at me

[Gainesville Red]

Yeah, it's got to get old quick. Try to get super rich somewhere out of the public eye so you can enjoy your success, rather than always being on the search for privacy. Obviously I'm not saying there aren't perks to being a pro athlete/celeb., but I don't really like being bothered when I don't feel like, and I'm a nobody.

[Cyclone792]

Back in the 20th centrury I dated a professional athlete.

I could do a thread about rude autograph seekers and over zealous sex seekers.

I can believe it. I've seen many autograph seekers push, elbow, hip-check, you name it without regard for anybody else, even kids.

I get more out of a 45 second conversation with a player about any random topic than I do out of an autograph. Most times I talk to a player for a short bit I won't even end up with their autograph because I have nothing for them to sign.

[RedsBaron]

Pete Rose was a jerk to my buddy at a Royals game back in the late 60's, broke his little 7 year old heart and made him a Johnny Bench fan.

I've made my share of posts here that were critical of Rose, but I've got to say I never observed him mistreating fans. Back in the late 1960s and early 70s I received his autograph several times at Reds games. I have never seen a Reds player who signed autographs more than Pete did then.
My fondest memory of Pete Rose is a game I attended back in 1966. We had great seats near the Reds dugout along the thirdbase line. We got to the game very early and few fans were near where we were. Pete, facing the stands, was hitting fungos to one of the batboys. He semmed to look uo in the stands in the direction of me, a kid staring at him while holding a baseball glove. The next ball Pete hit was a soft linedrive into the stands near me. Unfortunately, someone else beat me to the ball, but I will always believe that Rose intentionally hit that ball in my direction.

[RollyInRaleigh]

Was in the lobby of the Hyatt, in Cincinnati in the late 80's with a couple of friends and former Pirate/Giant pitcher Don Robinson (also a friend) and his parents after a Reds/Giants game. We were just talking and relaxing when I noticed there was a little boy with his parents with some baseball cards, waiting for his hero, Will Clark, to come through the lobby. He had waited for probably an hour, and it was probably getting close to his bedtime, around 11:00pm, when Clark, clad in jeans, a plaid shirt, cowboy boots and hat, and a belt buckle the size of Texas, comes strutting through the near empty lobby. The kid gets terribly excited and runs up to Clark, saying, "Mr. Clark, would you sign my baseball cards?"

Clark doesn't break stride, and replies, "No. You didn't say please."

The kid was heartbroken, and his parents were not happy at all. One of my friends looked at Donnie and said, "What's up with that?"

He shook his head in disgust, and said, "That's just Will, being Will."

He didn't need to say anymore. I always liked Clark as a player, but after that little incident, I lost all respect for the guy as a person.

Robinson, by the way, went over to the kid and his parents, and gave him his autograph, asked them if they were going to be at the game the next day, and asked them to come down by the Giants dugout about an hour before the game. We were sitting right by the dugout the next day, when Robinson gave the little guy a baseball, autographed by the entire team, and a sanitary hose full of baseballs and even had Roger Craig to come by and shake the kid's hand. The kid was in heaven, and Robinson defined what it is to be a "Pro."

[919191]

How about Tony Perez? Back when he was coaching for the Reds, at Riverfront, my oldest son and I were standing in back of the Reds dugout, I think near the end of BP. Perez was walking towards the dugout, and I had a ball and a sharpie, and I held them out, and he looked at me and said "No balls.". At first I thought these were fighting words, then I realized he didn't want to sign a ball! Seriously, he wasn't rude- this thread remonded me of the "incident".

When Jerome Walton was playing for the Reds, I was watching BP from the first row behind the plate, next to that netted thing there, on the third base side. Walton walked through there (you could get players to sign there sometimes) and I was just gazing in there, daydreaming or something, and he looked at me and said "No autographs". i said "Cool- didn't want one."

I guess he wasn't exactly rude, but kind of arrogant perhaps?

I know a guy who was watching a game in KC and tried to get Clemens (don't know if he was Yankee, Blue Jay' or a Red Sox at the time) and he just said a 4 letter word followed by the word "you".

[RFS62]

I was standing in line at a golf course to pay my greens fees, and I noticed the guy two people in front of me looked very familiar. Then I realized it was Sandy Koufax. I couldn't believe it, nobody else knew who it was.

I paid my fees, and went outside, and there he was loading his clubs on his cart. I went up to him and said "I just wanted to tell you I think you're the greatest lefthander of all time. I saw you pitch in Crosley Field, and it was a highlight of my life as a baseball fan". He was very gracious, said thank you and how much he appreciated the comment, and we went our separate ways.

My son was getting our clubs loaded on the cart, and missed the whole thing. He was really sad he missed him, as I had told him many times about Koufax and we played a lot of Strat O Matic with the cards I had as a kid in the '60's and Koufax was untouchable.

So, after we finished our round, we went down to the driving range to work on a few things, and there was Sandy, all by himself, hitting balls. I went up to Sandy, said hello again, and asked him "would it be an inconvienence to ask you for an autograph?"

He said "of course not, I'll be glad to".

I had the incredible good luck to have a baseball in the car, but couldn't find a pen. Then Koufax spent at least two minutes looking through his car to finally find a pen to sign the ball. I couldn't believe how gracious he was. Nobody else around, and he stopped hitting balls to look through his car for a pen to sign a ball.

I asked him how his elbow was doing, and he said it's alright and doesn't bother him much. He was a dedicated golfer, and we talked a little about the course we had just played.

We were grinning for about a week after that encounter.

[Chip R]

Back in the 20th centrury I dated a professional athlete.

C'mon, tell us who it was. Babe Ruth or Red Grange?

[westofyou]

I have never seen a Reds player who signed autographs more than Pete did then.

Better have your own pen (even if he's holding one) I guess.

I don't blame most for their reactions, but I'd suggest they save them for the over 19 crowd.