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#1
04-28-2021, 01:02 PM
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I've really only met a couple big names, and played softaball with a sort of star from another sport
Bob Feller was pitching a home run derby in the minor league park near where I lived in Jr High. Dad took me to see him. H was still pretty fast. After, he came up in the stands with a stack of 8 1/2x11 picture/stat sheets that he signed. Being shy I was pretty much the last kid in line. which meant that when he asked about baseball, I got to sit with him a while. Other kids came for more autographs, which mostly ended up as paper planes being thrown all over. I asked if that bothered him, and he just said kids usually did that stuff and as long as they had fun he was happy. Then the 2nd game started, and he explained the pitchers strategy etc, for maybe 2 innings before he had to go talk with the boring grownups. It was years later that I realized just how cool that was. Brooks Robinson I met at a Sports Illustrated hospitality suite when I was 13. He asked if I wasn't a little young for the hospitality suite and thought it was cool that dad had brought me there, we talked baseball for a couple minuets, and when one of the semi drunk adults complained about holding up the line he gut up and loudly said "hey! I'm talking to a kid about baseball, you can wait" So I didn't make the big deal, but he sort of did. He had backup from the two football players SI also had there. (cool setup, three sports figures, they gave you a special picture sheet with all three, and you could get their autographs and talk to them for a bit. From what dad said about the other times, after the initial rush they circulated around the room. (except for one of the football guys one year who basically sat in a recliner drinking and being grumpy. ) The one I played softball with was a gold medal winner in womens hockey. I never really thought of it as a big deal she was a teammate, and a fantastic player even outside her best sport. One of those players that makes everyone better just being there. The things that just don't sink in as being sort of a big deal until much later... 
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#2
04-28-2021, 02:13 PM
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Downplayed, ok.
In the 1990s in Las Vegas my wife and I were staying at the Venetian. We went to have breakfast in the spa and sat at the counter. A man sat down next to my wife and they started chatting. He then introduced himself: "Kenny Smith, Houston Rockets." I shook his hand and said my name and "Lakers Fan." He thought it was hilarious.
__________________
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#5
04-28-2021, 03:05 PM
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Quote:
Everyone loved him. It was just a regular table (not high stakes), but he kept buying in for $1000 at a time, over and over again. He would chase stupid stuff. One hand, we were heads up and he was chasing something stupid (I can't remember, but probably like an inside straight or something) and I had him beat from the flop. So, I bet hard on the flop, turn and river and he ended up rivering me. I swear I think that was the only hand he won that night, but it cost me a lot.
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#6
04-28-2021, 03:09 PM
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Quote:
Haha nice. It was weird "competing" with an athlete but like you I was at a low stakes table. I don't know what Worthy did the rest of the night but I think the whole table was glad he did it elsewhere.
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#7
04-28-2021, 03:23 PM
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Quote:
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#8
04-28-2021, 03:40 PM
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Late 80's, my wife and I were attending a business conference in Hawaii. We were staying at the same hotel as most of the players in that weekend's Pro-Bowl. Saw many players coming and going from the hotel, but kept it to a nod or head-shake.
One day, we were sitting at a table in the outside bar area with some friends. My wife noticed several people coming over to the table next to ours and asking to take a picture with the person sitting there. My wife asked me why they were doing that. I explained, that was Walter Payton and he was a record-breaking football player. My wife, not being shy, started a conversation across tables, telling him how nice it was that he was so friendly with all the people coming up to him and how it couldn't be easy being constantly interrupted. He thanked her and they had a brief conversation. One part I remembered, was he told her that he had a choice in these situations - he could sit in his room and stare at the walls or he could go outside and make some fans happy. He chose to make some fans happy. Just a truly nice guy who passed too soon.
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