Met Andy Pettite tonight

[thetruth]

i also saw troy oleary walking around the streets of boston a few years ago when he started for us. saw chris chelios at a sox game. hehe lame stories i know.

[fvilla18]

I personally know Horacio Ramirez...but i guess that isnt saying much....yet

[G-Man]

last summer my little cousin threw out the opening pitch at a red sox blue jays game at fenway. i got to go onto the field to take pictures and i met manny, delgado, trot nixon, and jesus damon.


and mark summers from double dare was on the field too. he had to borrow a glove to also throw out a pitch

LOL, mark summers. what a boob that guy is.

[TMurph]

i met Jim Thome in a bar about 5 years and shook his hand (he's got some huge hands) and i got him to autograph my clevland indians shirt at the time also,
what a pimp, he had like a dozen women around him

[Jack-In-A-Box]

I was at The Cheesecake Factory here in Atl a couple years ago. As I'm about to leave Alan Henderson(Atl Hawks ), and the guy that sings the song "This is how we do it" (cant think of his name for the life of me) came walking in. The people in the resturant made us move of to the side so them and there group could go to their reserved section. Henderson is freakin huge. Also got to meet Garrison Hearst just before he went pro. I went out and bought some cards of his and had him autograph them thinking one day they'd be worth something. I doubt with the way his career has gone they're worth anything more than what i payed for them back then. I still have them though sealed in some 2in casing.

[harmonjh]

I've met Donny Baseball a few times back in my hometown of Evansville, IN. He grew up with my Mom's family. He's a pretty cool guy, unfortunately for him, his restaurant tanked though.

[rolenfan]

I live in St. Louis and am pretty lucky to have met quite a few athletes. In St. Louis, unlike some other cities (NY), athletes can actually go out in public without geting mobbed.

Met Lou Brock about 10 yrs. ago in line at Schnucks. He was buying wine and cheese and I got his autograph on my cash register receipt.

My brother dated Mike Shannon's daughter and we used to hang out at his house.

I was at a bar with my sister 2 yrs. ago and Fernando Vina hit on her (yes, he IS married). She turned him down flat, he walked away like he just took a Big Unit curve for stricke three.

Sat with Whitey Herzog and Buck O'Neil at an Amateur baseball HOF dinner. Now THAT was a great evening!

I was on the field at Busch taking pictures of a kid throwing out a first pitch. We got to watch BP and Mark McGwire spent his time between his turns talking to me and the kid. He's a great guy if he's not in public, but if he is, he walks right past you. I've seen him in his hotel lobby also.

I also do quite a lot of volunteer work related to child safety issues and have met Grant Wistrom, Keith Tkchuck, Ozzie Smith (several times), Kurt Warner, Jackie Smith, Charlie Spoonhour (GREAT guy!), Willie McGee and others.

Brett Hull used to own a restaurant when he was here and he would go through the room signing menus for patrons. He would sit at your table, talk for a few minutes, then go to the next one.

I go to a lot of local high school games and have met Dan Dierdorf, Andy VanSlyke (real jerk), Peter Stastny, Stan Musial (several times, he will talk to ANYONE, all day long), Red Schoendinst, John Tudor, and lots of others.

My best story, though, is this:

I was in an arport waiting to pick up my mother-in-law early on a Sunday morning about 15 years ago. I was looking up at the monitor to see if her plane was on time. Some guy rushing to catch a flight crashes into me and knocks me down. I get up, pi**ed as hell, ready to fight. I'm starting to get up, ready to say something stupid like "I oughta kick your a**" when this HUGE hand reaches down, grabs my arm and picks me up. I look up - way up - and see Hulk Hogan! Needless to say, I kept my mouth shut. He apologized "sorry about that little buddy" (I'm 6-1). I followed him to his gate and he autographed a picture for me.

Piece of advice - ALWAYS say hi to a famous person, even in a restaurant. Don't be a pest, just say something nice, and be quick. Most of these guys are rally nice (why woudn't they be, they are heroes that make millions) and if you don't draw too much attention, they are happy to sign an autograph. In fact, Ozzie Smith has told me that he gets sort of insulted or feels bad if people don't talk to him. like they think he is better than them or something, and they don't want people to think that way.

[planet]

i saw him at the border... he was smuggling mexicans into the country... i saw at least three small mexicans crawl out of that hole in his chin...

[DominicanLou]

I also lived in Evansville and went to the same high school Mattingly went too, Memorial High School.

I also met Arod while growing up in Miami. Right after the draft, he was practicing at the same park where I played little league ball. I went up to him and got his autograph on a baseball. I kept the ball on my desk at home, and one day when I got back from school the ball was missing. I asked my smaller brothers where my Arod ball was and they said they had no idea I even had one, but that they had played catch that day with the ball on my desk. I found the ball in a bucket where we keep all my baseballs and low and behold, the signature was erased

Lets just say my brothers owe me one.

[Madison]

I was in an arport waiting to pick up my mother-in-law early on a Sunday morning about 15 years ago. I was looking up at the monitor to see if her plane was on time. Some guy rushing to catch a flight crashes into me and knocks me down. I get up, pi**ed as hell, ready to fight. I'm starting to get up, ready to say something stupid like "I oughta kick your a**" when this HUGE hand reaches down, grabs my arm and picks me up. I look up - way up - and see Hulk Hogan! Needless to say, I kept my mouth shut. He apologized "sorry about that little buddy" (I'm 6-1). I followed him to his gate and he autographed a picture for me.

That's great.

I grew up watching the Von Erichs here in Ft. Worth at Will Rodger's. Still watch wrestling to this day and have met more wrestlers than I can list. Most of them are great people and very fan friendly.