You're not getting Alex Rios' autograph

I think I've told this story on here before, but when I was 9 or 10, the Phillies came to town and my parents took me. Mike Schmidt was my favorite player. Anyway, we get to the stadium, and about 15 rows down from our seats, Tug McGraw is sitting in the stands talking to this guy. My parents encourage me to go ask for his autograph. So I walk down and I say, "Hi Tug," and he yells "No" at me. I was crushed. Soured me on autographs pretty much forever.

After I became a sports writer, he came to town as a broadcaster for a game I was covering. One of my regrets in life was that I didn't go up to him and tell him what an asshole he was. He died before I got the chance.

 

Never understood autographs. That being said, Rios shoulnd't have dropped the f-bomb.

 

Sorry, novelist, you interrupt somebody's private converstaion -- as you tried to do with Tug -- you're likely to get blown off. Same as if you see an athlete in a restaurant and you interrupt his dinner.
Tug was one of the best guys I ever covered.

 

At the end, the guy says "You forget where you come from." How does he say that and not get lights turned out?

 

When I was a kid, my dad always took me to games in Cincy. He's a Reds fan, and I'm a Cubs fan, so we tried to make it to at least one Cubs-Reds game every summer.

The Cubs rallied to win one night in extra innings, and it was a great game that probably left both sides a little drained. My dad usually took me out of the stadium by the players' parking lot and tried to help me get autographs after the game. Most of the players were understandably pissed, tired or both that night and went directly to their cars and left. Not Chris Sabo. He stayed for what seemed like an hour just chatting, taking pictures and signing autographs for kid after kid, including me. My dad and I still talk about how extremely cool Sabo was that night. Long live Rec Specs!

My younger brother — who is young enough to be my son — has had similar experiences the past few years with the Cubs' Sean Marshall and Houston's J.R. Towles. Ryan Dempster, Randy Wells, Angel Guzman and several other Cubs were also generous with kids this week in Atlanta.

I haven't cared about an autograph since I was 12-13 years old, and I don't get the obsessions of others, but whatever floats your boat, I guess. I know my brother still lights up when a big leaguer signs a ball for him.

 

Z-Man could tell the story better, but I know Don Sutton acted like a total dick to him once ... at an autograph signing.

I never really got autographs either. I got them when I was really young in the late 70s, in particular at Saz's Bar where the Brewers liked to hang out (in Wisconsin, kids could/can? accompany their parents into a bar) from the likes of Mike Caldwell and Lary Sorensen (he didn't give me any of his coke), but I grew out of it at a pretty young age.

 

Tyler Houston borrowed my sharpie and signed everyone's stuff but forgot mine.

After years, I've forgiven him.

 

Exactly. A polite "not right now, I'm talking with someone, ok?" would have done.

 

Once when I was a kid, I got Barry Bonds' autograph twice in one night. That was when he was skinny, played for the Pirates and wasn't always seconds away from a roid-fueled fit.

But seriously, Barry stood there between batting practice cuts, signing for a line of kids that stretched from the top of the dugout to the concourse at the Astrodome.

Then, he signed for us again after the game while waiting to hail a cab.

 

Back when I was little my father would take me and my younger brother to get autographs down by the visitors dugout at Fenway. Over the years we got three different baseballs signed by Reggie Jackson. Reggie J, Reggie Jax, Reggie Jackson.

 

Classic! I've seen guys take 45 seconds to explain why they're too busy to sign when it would have taken 15 seconds to sign.