milkman wrote:
Hey Astro, I gotta tell ya about the time when we were living in Flat Rock, Michigan. Detroit Tigers pitcher Fred Gladding moves into the neighborhood and on my street. My friends and I just thought this was the coolest thing. Well, we wanted him to sign out mitts. We walked by real slow for what must have been 2 or 3 weeks trying to see him and ask. Finally we got up enough nerve to go up to the door a knock. He came to the door and we asked him if he would sign out mitts and he yelled at us "you kids get out of here and don't come back". We were stunned. After that we would walk by and yell Fred Gladding YOU SUCK! Along with a lot of other stuff every chance we got and we were big Tiger fans. We would even say hey we gotta go by Fred's and yell you suck. I even got so ballsy I would yell right at him while he was standing in front of the screen door all by myself. He didn't stay very long and moved out and we accredited ourselves with our harassment even though we probably knew it wasn't it still felt good saying it.
That is a shame that some people are jerks. I grew up near Dodgertown and my mom would take me to a game every spring. Garvey, Lopes, Russell, Cey, etc... were great about signing but I always wanted Bill Buckner's autograph. He blew me off twice in my pre-teen years. Worse he would says things like I am going in clubhouse but I will be back in a few minutes, another time it was I need to run some and then I will be back. Of course like waiting for Gadot he never made it back. I guess I got my payback in 86' with the Mets and Mookie's ball between his legs.
The road to glory cannot be followed with much baggage.
Richard Ewell, CSA General
Richard Ewell, CSA General