Best & Worst Experience Meeting An Athlete

[Griffins]

Worst- Johnny Bench. It was 1983, I was 22 I was photographing him for a charity ad. He asked me if I knew anything about baseball, and I replied that not only did I follow Baseball closely but that he was my favorite player, and when I was a kid I’d sent him a get well card after his lung surgery in ‘72. He blew up and said I was trying to make him feel old. Total dick

Best was Kareem. I was shooting an ad for a friend of his and he dropped in and chatted for half an hour. I’d been around him before and knew he was pretty reserved so I mostly let him talk, and we had a pretty amazing conversation

Being a photographer is like having a backstage pass to the world. When you deal with people like Kareemm or Jerry West or Eric Gagne it’s the best job in the world. Johnny Bench and Tommy Lasorda not so much