Fan a DBAG? or is he right? you be the judge

found this on Olney's blog this morning about a fan that caught the first home run hit by Matt Carson. To summarize he wanted $10,000 for the ball.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... 19R0FM.DTL

Link above.

My rant:
Players now a days especially in the majors ignore fans asking for autographs. I witnessed a few months back with then Rockies were in town Todd Helton, Tulo and Atkins standing in the field together, not shagging, just b.sing while about 10 fans waited (no joking that was about it).
Dex came over and spoke to me, which was cool, but the rest of the guys were just ignorning the people. How can you do that? There was probably 2000 people in the stadium!

He is just acting like the players do (well most) he is being a big ridiculous in his "demands" but then again... Some of these guys won't even give the "common" fan the time of day. They ask for an autograph and the players pretend that they lost their hearing all of the sudden.. hmm..

Now on the opposite side of the coin, Ryne Sandberg lined people up and signed for 20 mins, 2 items per person nightly. I thought this was pretty classy.
What are your thoughts?

I have no problem with th fan asking for something like that.

Lots of players dont give fans the time of day so its kind of reversed in that if teh player doesnt have/want to fork over 10K, dont bother.

Burbank must have been the fan who caught the ball.... :lol:

It would never happen, but it would be great if the government said the ball was worth 10k because that's what he said and made him pay taxes on it.

brianga26 said:

found this on Olney's blog this morning about a fan that caught the first home run hit by Matt Carson. To summarize he wanted $10,000 for the ball.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... 19R0FM.DTL

Link above.

My rant:
Players now a days especially in the majors ignore fans asking for autographs. I witnessed a few months back with then Rockies were in town Todd Helton, Tulo and Atkins standing in the field together, not shagging, just b.sing while about 10 fans waited (no joking that was about it).
Dex came over and spoke to me, which was cool, but the rest of the guys were just ignorning the people. How can you do that? There was probably 2000 people in the stadium!

He is just acting like the players do (well most) he is being a big ridiculous in his "demands" but then again... Some of these guys won't even give the "common" fan the time of day. They ask for an autograph and the players pretend that they lost their hearing all of the sudden.. hmm..

Now on the opposite side of the coin, Ryne Sandberg lined people up and signed for 20 mins, 2 items per person nightly. I thought this was pretty classy.
What are your thoughts?

Click to expand...

I don't think the fan is a D-Bag, he's just trying to cash in on a once in a lifetime moment.

Your comments about the players not signing bothers me a lot more. Have you seen some of the lowly Autograph Hounds that stalk players before and after games, at hotels, and airports? It's pathetic.

I can see why some players ignore the fans. Now, this guy Carson just hit his first home run and might have been a friendly guy in the Minors but he's always going to remember how some fan held his ball hostage.

The problem is on both sides.

There is some greed on the side of the person who caught the ball, and Carson (or any similar player) clearly wants the ball. And in sales, once you show your hand, through normal negotiation out of the window.

If Carson simply responds with a, "Hey, I'll give you tickets to the game of your choice, signed jersey, blah, blah blah" and is willing to walk away knowing that it is the best offer that the guy will get, then it gives him the power.

Once your desire for something is made clear...the price always goes up., or at least is less negotiable.

200lbhockeyplayer said:

The problem is on both sides.

There is some greed on the side of the person who caught the ball, and Carson (or any similar player) clearly wants the ball. And in sales, once you show your hand, through normal negotiation out of the window.

If Carson simply responds with a, "Hey, I'll give you tickets to the game of your choice, signed jersey, blah, blah blah" and is willing to walk away knowing that it is the best offer that the guy will get, then it gives him the power.

Once your desire for something is made clear...the price always goes up., or at least is less negotiable.

Click to expand...

Isn't this what he did though (through the team). The team says we'll offer signed bats, jerseys, hats or whatever, but will not pay money for the ball. The fan said I only want money, and both sides walked away from the deal.

The fan was totally being a Dbag! The funny thing is he couldve gotten something pretty nice for it..but now he sits on a worthless ball.

Your comments about the players not signing bothers me a lot more. Have you seen some of the lowly Autograph Hounds that stalk players before and after games, at hotels, and airports? It's pathetic.

I can see why some players ignore the fans. Now, this guy Carson just hit his first home run and might have been a friendly guy in the Minors but he's always going to remember how some fan held his ball

I agree there are a lot of auto stalkers out there which borderlines on stalking. I dislike those guys to the maximum. But when a player ignores a kid, just flat out ignores him, what do they expect? Why is baseball sucking compared to the NFL, NBA? its because the those players are visable. While they may not sign autos, they are made larger than life (Jeter being the exception to this). In the majors its like they have a deaf ear to everyone. I don't know if you remember Dirk Hayhurts's article with B.A where he said they were "trained to ignore everything" only to find out the kid that wanted an auto was deathly sick..

As for Carson, I agree he very well maybe a good guy in the minors, and probably is. Very rarely have I ran into a jerk in the minors (and yes I love getting IP autos, but I only get them at the game.. period). Those who hunt autos outside of the park are a disgrace. But it seems baseball (MLB) is distancing itself more and more from the fans

Tomlinson21RB said:

200lbhockeyplayer said:

The problem is on both sides.

There is some greed on the side of the person who caught the ball, and Carson (or any similar player) clearly wants the ball. And in sales, once you show your hand, through normal negotiation out of the window.

If Carson simply responds with a, "Hey, I'll give you tickets to the game of your choice, signed jersey, blah, blah blah" and is willing to walk away knowing that it is the best offer that the guy will get, then it gives him the power.

Once your desire for something is made clear...the price always goes up., or at least is less negotiable.

Click to expand...

Isn't this what he did though (through the team). The team says we'll offer signed bats, jerseys, hats or whatever, but will not pay money for the ball. The fan said I only want money, and both sides walked away from the deal.

Click to expand...

Yes, and I guess I should have stated that I was speaking generally.

Clearly the guy's only option for money is probably eBay and while I think Matt Carson was a nice guy while with Low-A Battle Creek...I don't think a home run ball of a "nobody" Yankee call-up will be looking at more than $200.

Someone out there will get the ball to Carson.

Most kids anymore at ballparks are there hounding as bad as the adults. There is a kid at Rays games with the set up binder of cards (8 per page of each player) that hounds and he is no more than 14 years old. I sit 8-10 rows behind the Rays dugout when I go and have noticed the kid as he runs through the aisles and runs into/through people to get all of the cards signed. Come to find out he is with one of the local hounds that pesters all of the local professional teams.

I've never asked for an autograph at a game, practice or otherwise as to me it's an annoyance that I don't want to be.

I will say this about the ball, to me it's pathetic at best to hold someone else's accomplishment ransom. To each their own but it isn't in me to do such a thing. Heck I still have the ball from my first homerun in high school, so I could only imagine not having the ball from my first MLB homerun because someone wanted to cash in on it unreasonably.

The fan isn't a DBAG. Clearly Carson was very cool about it, so my next statement doesn't apply to him. Any major league player that gets upset or gives a fan crap, because the fans demands for the players milestone ball is higher than he is willing to trade/pay, can go pound. Worst case scenario, these players are making the league minimum and get to play baseball for a living and the last thing they need to get upset about is getting a baseball that he hit. The baseball is the most meaningless part of the accomplishment anyway. I don't get it.

As for the comments on the Rockies players...

I can't speak for the other guys, but one of the reasons I started collecting Tulo was because of how cool, nice, and approachable he was. While he was playing for Tulsa I got (2) 8x10's, (1) MLB ball, & (4) RC's signed over the course of 3 games. He also took a picture with me and talked to me everyday. Obviously, the minors are a little different than the bigs. However, I went to a Royals V Rockies game in KC and didn't even try to get his autograph, but I took a few pictures and noticed later that he did sign for the KC fans.

These guys play a 162 game schedule and your experience was a single snap shot of a very long season. The problem is that your snap shot was while the Rockies were on the road and playing against the team with the worst attendence.

These baseball players make so much damn money, good for him. These guys get GUARANTEED contracts, so they get payed the full amount of the contract even if they are hurt or cut. They don't deserve to be handed anything from the fans who help pay their salaries. Pay the $10,000 if you want your ball.

I'd like to say I'd give a rookie his cherry homerun ball for nada.

I might say something like, "When you get to having a whole lot of extra money, think about me and see how I'm doing."

If I had caught a player's first career HR ball, instead of asking for an enormous sum of money, I would rather trade the ball to get the chance to meet the player and maybe get an autographed bat and ball or something like that.

MattinglyAlexander said:

I'd like to say I'd give a rookie his cherry homerun ball for nada.

I might say something like, "When you get to having a whole lot of extra money, think about me and see how I'm doing."

Click to expand...

And that's why they expect so much for doing so very little. Baseball players have everything handed to them in their lives. Even the crappy players make millions, and they still feel like the world owes them something. I think the only players I ever encountered that were not like this were hockey players.

sportscardtheory said:

MattinglyAlexander said:

I'd like to say I'd give a rookie his cherry homerun ball for nada.

I might say something like, "When you get to having a whole lot of extra money, think about me and see how I'm doing."

Click to expand...

And that's why they expect so much for doing so very little. Baseball players have everything handed to them in their lives. Even the crappy players make millions, and they still feel like the world owes them something. I think the only players I ever encountered that were not like this were hockey players.

Click to expand...

Say you're at a game with your kid (don't know if you have kids, but it's hypothetical). They drop their favorite teddy bear that they got when when they were born over the outfield wall. They don't go anywhere without this thing. Now a security guard picks it up and knows how important it is to you to get it back. He isn't making the big bucks, so he says he wants $50 from you for it. It's well within your budget to shell out the $50, so is the guy being a ********* or is he teaching your kid not to expect everything to be handed to him/her in life?

Tomlinson21RB said:

sportscardtheory said:

MattinglyAlexander said:

I'd like to say I'd give a rookie his cherry homerun ball for nada.

I might say something like, "When you get to having a whole lot of extra money, think about me and see how I'm doing."

Click to expand...

And that's why they expect so much for doing so very little. Baseball players have everything handed to them in their lives. Even the crappy players make millions, and they still feel like the world owes them something. I think the only players I ever encountered that were not like this were hockey players.

Click to expand...

Say you're at a game with your kid (don't know if you have kids, but it's hypothetical). They drop their favorite teddy bear that they got when when they were born over the outfield wall. They don't go anywhere without this thing. Now a security guard picks it up and knows how important it is to you to get it back. He isn't making the big bucks, so he says he wants $50 from you for it. It's well within your budget to shell out the $50, so is the guy being a ********* or is he teaching your kid not to expect everything to be handed to him/her in life?

Click to expand...

...because that is the same...

Adamsince1981 said:

Tomlinson21RB said:

sportscardtheory said:

MattinglyAlexander said:

I'd like to say I'd give a rookie his cherry homerun ball for nada.

I might say something like, "When you get to having a whole lot of extra money, think about me and see how I'm doing."

Click to expand...

And that's why they expect so much for doing so very little. Baseball players have everything handed to them in their lives. Even the crappy players make millions, and they still feel like the world owes them something. I think the only players I ever encountered that were not like this were hockey players.

Click to expand...

Say you're at a game with your kid (don't know if you have kids, but it's hypothetical). They drop their favorite teddy bear that they got when when they were born over the outfield wall. They don't go anywhere without this thing. Now a security guard picks it up and knows how important it is to you to get it back. He isn't making the big bucks, so he says he wants $50 from you for it. It's well within your budget to shell out the $50, so is the guy being a ********* or is he teaching your kid not to expect everything to be handed to him/her in life?

Click to expand...

...because that is the same...

Click to expand...

No not, the same but...

Person 1 has something with sentimental value to Person 2.
Person 1 asks for money to give it to Person 2.
Person 2 can afford the asking price from Person 1.

Remove the fact that ballplayers make significant amounts of money and it's a similar idea. Just because you can ask for money, and the other person can afford it doesn't make it the right thing to do.

The Teddy Bear actually belongs to your kid, so the guy is a dbag. The ball belongs to the fan who caught it, unless th rules have changed.

Giving a player an important ball.. well, if I was a player, I'd want my ball, but if the person who caught it didn't ask for anything, I'd check him out in the future, see how he's doing." That's just me though.

Tomlinson21RB said:

sportscardtheory said:

MattinglyAlexander said:

I'd like to say I'd give a rookie his cherry homerun ball for nada.

I might say something like, "When you get to having a whole lot of extra money, think about me and see how I'm doing."

Click to expand...

And that's why they expect so much for doing so very little. Baseball players have everything handed to them in their lives. Even the crappy players make millions, and they still feel like the world owes them something. I think the only players I ever encountered that were not like this were hockey players.

Click to expand...

Say you're at a game with your kid (don't know if you have kids, but it's hypothetical). They drop their favorite teddy bear that they got when when they were born over the outfield wall. They don't go anywhere without this thing. Now a security guard picks it up and knows how important it is to you to get it back. He isn't making the big bucks, so he says he wants $50 from you for it. It's well within your budget to shell out the $50, so is the guy being a ********* or is he teaching your kid not to expect everything to be handed to him/her in life?

Click to expand...