Nicest and Rudest Athletes?

[BiggioBrooks755]

Best experience: Jim Edmonds at 1999 Spring Training.

I was in the Angels locker room and asked Edmonds to sign a ball. He happily agreed and signed the ball, but after he gave it back to me I accidentally smudged it with my thumb (I was only 8 years old and very nervous). Once Edmonds saw what happened he told me to hold on and disappeared into the equipment room. He came back with the coolest game use bat, in black, and a silver sharpie. He signed it beautifully under his name and gave it to me. To this day it's one of my favorite pieces of memorabilia and one of my favorite baseball stories.

Worst experience: Barry Bonds at (insert any place)

I was fortunate enough to sit in the dug out for a few innings during a Giants/Angels spring training game. I chose to sit in the Giants dugout so I got to see Barry Bonds (and Dusty Baker) swear up a storm and talk a lot of trash. I was young at the time so it probably felt more extreme, but I remember feeling seriously uncomfortable at the amount of aggression had towards the other players in a scrimmage. True competitor I suppose...

I fixed it for you

 

[jpruitt2]

Brooks Robinson has always been great. Every time I have seen him he has gone out of his way to talk to each person, as well as sign every item and pose for pictures.

Bob Gibson was another who was great. Got to spend an afternoon with him at a card shop he was signing at for free. He hung around for hours just telling stories and this was after his time signing was finished. Before he left he brought out stacks of 8x10's that he had brought with him and signed them for people who were still there. Each of us, (maybe 10 people), ended up with 8 different 8x10's on top of the items we had brought from our own personal collections.

 

[shayscards79]

In my experiences, Jacque Jones is a great person all around. Not only does he sign everything people throw at him, he genuinely cares about the fans.
I know of one story where he went out late in Chicago and was eating at pancake house around midnight. He hung out with a group of guys that recognized him for about an hour and paid the entire bill afterward.

The coolest story I heard about him was during ST when he was with the Cubs he was being heckled by a young boy in the outfield for several innings. Eventually he walked over to the boy, who was with his mother, and started conversing with them. He found out the boy had cancer and was going through treatments. Not only did he give the kid a signed bat but he got the mothers contact info and would call them every so often to see how the kid was doing.

 

[tchronis24]

Really? You're basing that off of him only signing one per? You should just be happy he signed at all. There are some minor league guys that don't always sign, or they are the same as JoFer and only sign one per and this while they are still in the minors. Nobody is required to sign for you at the stadium

This is based off my experience. As said a thousand times before doesnt mean the player is necissarily not a nice person based on one experience. The point of the thread is to share OUR experience and OPINION on a player. Now yes he didnt have to sign at all but if your going to sign whats the big deal to sign an extra for one person. Also he wouldnt communicate at all with any fans and looked at us like we were dog crap.

 

[jbone17]

These comments always get me. What was he supposed to do? Stare into your eyes and sing you a song as he signs the thing you asked him to? Maybe he is not the type of guy who talks to anyone. Not looking into your eyes dont make him the worst. Hell he gave you what you asked for. Maybe next time ask him to stare into your eyes and tell you a cool story.

It was his overall demeanor. He not looking into my eyes, wasn't the only reason. I could care less. If you want to sign, then that is fine. However, being a total dick about it is classless.