Experiences meeting pro athletes

[winters in buffalo]

I've never collected autographs or sought out celebs of any sort just to meet them, but my last job allowed me to meet several pro athletes.

Even though I'm a Dolphin hater, I'd have to say that Dan Marino is one of the nicest people I've ever met. He came to visit my company and we did a charity fundraiser lunch. Afterwards, he offered to match what we raised.

My coolest celeb experience was at a Bills Alumni event, and I got to bowl 10 frames with Jim Kelly, Steve Tasker and Pat Williams.

A close second would have to be the time I set up an event where people got a chance to race against Terry Labonte at a go-kart track. I didn't participate in the race, but it was a fun day.

[Phil]

When I was around 8 or 9, my dad sat beside Teemu Selanne on the plane once... my brother and I had just recently got a pair of Selanne cards from when he was on Jokerit of the Finnish League, and so when my dad's plane landed in Wpg, we were there to meet Teemu with pen in hand. Although he was in a bit of a hurry, he was really nice about it, asked us how old we were, and then went on his way.

I've also met a couple of Blue Bombers around town (Milt Stegall will be at one of my church's youth events on Oct 11th).

[sc49erfan15]

How many guys on here collect sports cards? Just gotta ask that before I delve into my experiences...

My grandpa is a PSL holder at Ericcson Stadium (Panthers) and they used to (they still might, but I never go) have "PSL Appreciation Day" where a bunch of players came out and they gave you a tour of the stadium, etc. I met a lot of early Panthers, Kerry Collins, John Kasay, Winslow Oliver, Dwight Stone, Anthony Johnson, Fred Lane, come to mind. Once coming home from one of these PSL days, I had a piece of Panthers autograph paper signed by a few Panthers, most notably Fred Lane. Coming home, we stopped at an Exxon...Glen Rice and Bobby Phills were there getting gas. I got both of them to sign the sheet with Lane and the other Panthers on it. Now, both Phills and Lane are dead... ???

Irving Fryar- Met him at a church in Charlotte. Nice guy.

Rick Sanford (70s-80s Patriots/Seahawks DB)- Met him at my church here in Rock Hill. His brother was my 8th grade History teacher. Really nice guy. It's a small world.

Jose Canseco: **** ****  :angry: I'm sorry. But this guy is an ass. Arrived VERY early for a Charlotte Knights game when he was with them and had a few cards with me. There were about 5 people in the stands. Some 6 year old kid tossed his Knights hat at him and he just walked away.

Gerald Dixon (ex 90's Browns/Bengals/Chargers/Raiders LB)- He went to my high school, and I also went to his football camp. Cool guy.

I think that's about it. Woohoo!

[GMac]

Lets see...

Me and my brother put together sports dinner to raise money for local ball teams and got Jeff Odgers of the NHL to speak... he was a local guy and offered to do it for free... really great guy and funny too who thought a hard nose player like that would be a great speaker...

met Cassie Campbell when she was doing colour for the CIS womens hockey tournament in regina... she walked in on the arena announcer looking at porn on the Agridome computers... now that was funniest thing i had ever seen... he just hung his head as she looked disgusted... im laughing just thinking about it

although possibly the coolest story i got...Me and my brother met Smilin' Henry Burris during his first stint with the Riders... it was funny how it happened we were in Jersey City in regina looking at a Guy LaFleur Collectors plate for my Dad for Xmas... well it was by the change rooms... well this guy walks by and i never got a good look at who it was... my brother was "I think thats Henry Burris"... I was like sure it was... well we were shooting the breeze with the salesman about hockey when it Henry came out of teh change rooms... he was trying on a Jeff Garcia 49ers jersey...lol... he caught our conversation and joined in hes a big hockey fan especially the Flyers... did the funniest Garcia impression ever when we were bugging him about the jersey in his hand...

****This ladies and gentleman was post 175****

[Saintsfan]

My stories aren't very exciting particularly as you are all americans and these all take place in Britain!

Dave Titmuss, a basketball coach in england, who went onto coach the England national team, and was coach of the GB wheelchair team at the last paralympics, coached at my high school for a while.

I see soccer players around town every now and again, as quite a few players who play for london clubs live nearby me! (Vinnie Jones lives/lived not sure which in a small village just outside my hoem town!)

I once saw snooker player Dave Harold out and about in his home town, when I was living in Stoke-On-Trent,

Graham Taylor, former England football (Sorry soccer) coach did a talk to the upper school kids at my high school when I was just starting there and we all saw him as we were walking onto the field for trials for the soccer team. (We all got very excited for a few seconds till it was obvious he wasn't stopping to watch us!)

I think thats about it, so nothing that exciting!

[yh]

Well, I had another Aeneas Williams encounter this morning.  It was 20 after 5 a.m. and I was on my way to the gym.  I was at a stop light and a big white Escalade with Louisiana plates pulled up next to me.  I looked over and sure enough it was Aeneas.  Guess he was on his way to the airport for the bye weekend(my health club is just off one of the main roads that leads to the airport and I would have to think there is some compelling reason for him to be on the road at that ridiculously early time of day).

[Grish]

In 1997 myself and a friend of mine headed to spring training for the M's. Since the M's share a complex with they Padres he was really exicted because we had another friend who was working behind the scenes for both teams and could sneak us in behind the fences.  My buddy is a huge Ricky Henderson fan and we ran into Ricky on a bad "Ricky Day".  We where the only three people on the other side of the fence that day.

We had just spent about an hour talking to many of the Padre's infielders as well, when Ricky came out and saw us. My buddy asked for his autograph. Ricky looked up to the sky and said, "Ricky needs sunglasses." He ran back into club house and out another door so he could avoid signing one autograph.

Beyond that bad expience most of the players, coaches where very pleasant.  This includes guys like Davey Lopes, Chris Gomez , Archi Cianfrocco, Ken Cammiantti, and the guy that really took time to chit chat with us Terry Shumpert. In fact Shumpert had a running gag with my Buddy who walked there. As for the M's it was only Griffey we had a problem with.

A side note is my friends and myself where approached at a local gas station by a group and asked if for our autograph's because they thought we where players for Seattle.

[yh]

It's been a pretty rich week for me.  Last Thursday it was Aeneas Williams at an intersection and this morning it was Keith Tkachuk having breakfast 2 tables away from me at a restaurant that happens to be on the same street where I saw Aeneas.

[-kj]

What part of town are you stalking these guys in, yholla?  

[yh]

What part of town are you stalking these guys in, yholla?

I play racquetball every weekday morning at the St. Louis JCC which is just off of Lindbergh Blvd, which is the major north-south street for the west-central St. Louis County area (Creve Couer - Ladue - Frontenac - Huntleigh-- just in case you're somewhat familiar with the lay of the land).  This area, coincidentally happens the location for a number of rather ritzy neighborhoods (suffice it to say, I live about 10 miles west of those places - I'm not there yet, but a guy can dream).  So, it's probably not that unusual to see a jock or two on certain stretches.  I was just surprised to see one out at half past 5 a.m.

The place where I have breakfast occasionally happens to be smack dab in the middle of a ritzy business district (Saks and Neiman are across the street) so naturally you're going to run into a few local celebs there, especially if they live nearby.  I've seen one of the owners of the Cards in there before, but never an actual athlete.  And frankly, I probably wouldn't have noticed him at all had he not been the only guy in the joint wearing a t-shirt and bright yellow shorts.  The place usually attracts suits and business casual guys like myself.

So you think I'm a stalker, eh?  Well considering I'm a lawyer I guess it's not so much of a step down in station.  

[-kj]

Ahh, Lindbergh, I know it well.  West County, that makes sense.

(I started life living in Bridgeton, then we moved out to St. Charles County.  Now, of course, I'm in Minneapolis.)

[yh]

Geez, I thought I might actually get through an entire week without a pro athlete sighting, but nooooooo.

Last night my wife, daughter and I were walking through the parking lot of the Chesterfield Valley Sam's Wholesale Club.  My wife spotted a couple with a small child loading up their BMW SUV and so she offered to take their empty cart from them.  The couple were happy to oblige and as I popped my daughter into the basket I asked my wife how it felt to take a shopping cart from Pavol Demitra.

[yh]

. . . . dragging this one back from beyond the depths . . . . .

I was having lunch at the bar at Brio (nice Italian chain restaurant) and a guy comes over and asks if anyone is sitting at the empty seat next to me. I said "no, help yourself" and looked up and it was Jamal Mayers from the Blues. Fortunately there was another empty seat on the other side of me because I wound up offering my seat to Bryce Salvador who walked in about ten minutes later to join Mayers for lunch. We made some small talk and I steered well clear of discussing the recent lockout settlement. Mayers said everyone was expecting the Pronger trade and he thinks Brewer will be a good fit. They're a couple of genuinely nice guys.

[youcan'tseeme]

<font color='#000000'>I saw Bobby Orr a couple year back when my towns junior team was playing in Scarborough.  It was nice to see a great like that at a junior hockey game.

Adrian Smith or the Toronto Argonauts came and talked to my Football team at the beginning of our season he does alot of stuff in the community considering a year before that he talked at my school about bullying.</font>

<font color='#000080'>Pinball Clemons is one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet, if you ever get the opportunity to I suggest you do it, you won't forget it.</font>

Yah i have to agree he is. i've met, Darcy tucker, Joe Thorton, Wayne Gretzky, Wendal Clark and Dougie Gilmour. also my Grandad played in the EPL for tottenham I've met him

[scooter13]

<font color='#000000'>If you want to count the old Roller Hockey International as "pro," then I met quite a number of the St. Louis Vipers. Frank Cirone and Jeff Blum were outstanding guys, and even chatted me up before a game in Minneapolis (before I moved here; I was living in Iowa). I got most of the '95 team to sign my jersey over the course of the season, including team president/general manager (and Blues legend and Hockey Hall of Fame inductee) Bernie Federko.</font>

Jeff Blum?! Geez, I used to bowl with him when we were kids. It was right around the time his brother was playing for the Edmonton Oilers (or better to say when he was playing with their farm team). We even named our team the Oilers.

I have met quite a few hockey players, both current and past. My sister used to work for a sports collectible store in the Detroit area and they would bring guys in to do singings. This nicest ones were usually the past players. The two that really stick out were Borje Salming and Peter Stastny.

[marlinfan]

Gary Sheffield almost run me and my family over a few years ago outside Pro Player Stadium.

Ass.

[VitaminD]

I have met a number of athletes over the years and generally have nice things to say about all of them. I had the good fortune to attend UNC in the mid/late 1990s, when I was one class behind Stackhouse, Rasheed and Jeff McInnis, in class with Shammond Williams, and a year ahead of VC and Antawn Jamison. Plus, I lived in the football dorm (I didn't play, it was also a freshman dorm, and a penal colony for older students who got booted from the nice dorms... LONG LIVE E-HAUS!) and lived next door to Brian Simmons (Bengals), Jonathan Linton (ex-Titans, Bills) and on the same floor as Vonnie Holliday (Dolphins). After he was drafted by the Packers, we saw Vonnie walking around campus, and he came over and talked to us, the same goofoffs he played Sega Genesis against during our freshman year. Unreal. I also had the good fortune to meet some girls who played on the UNC women's soccer team, the msot dominant college team in any sport, ever. And one day I wound up playing pickup games of roller hockey with 9 girls who played with the national team at one point.

When he played for the Flyers, Marc Bureau moved in next door to my mother. I got to meet him and a few other guys on the team. All good guys.

I've met a lot of the Phillies over the years. Even Hall of Famers like Mike Schmidt and the late Rich Ashburn were very nice to me.

Moses Malone turned me down for an autograph when I was 8. That sucked. But the only one that really bothered me was when Steve Frickin' Jeltz wouldn't sign for me. I got autographs from almost every other member of the '87 Phils, and he couldn't be bothered. Puh...RICK!

[NJTank]

Tom Seaver is a pompous ass first he pulls up in a white limo then he walks past the fans without eye contact nose up in the air.

[BCBoy]

The only sports figures I have met are from or were on the Vancouver Canucks.

Naslund, Jovonovski, Linden and Morrison are really nice people, and Bertuzzi is also a great guy to meet

[Pat]

Ive met Paul Quantrill. Woohoo!

And I swear one time in Detroit, Ben Wallace pulled up beside us at an intersection.