Your Best Encounter with a Brewer?

[rickh150]

Around 2004, I met Gorman on the Field Level Concourse on the 1B side. He was just walking past(probably from Gorman's Grille), and I had him sign the ball I got from batting practice. He was one of my favorite players as a kid, and I was a bit shocked to see him. I wanted to say/ask him something, and if I had more time to think I probably could have come up with something better than(not word for word)..."Hey, I still remember your last at bat in the World Series(he struck out against Sutter after fouling about 10 off), and that was impressive." He looked at me as if to see if I was making fun of him, but then, I believe, he knew I was sincere in my appreciation of that long at bat, not wanting to give the World Series to the Cardinals. "What was it, something like 13 fouls?" Gorman replied. I said my thanks and parted ways.----------(If anyone can recall, I still want to know how many pitches he saw and fouled off.)

 

In 2005 or so, I also got Jerry Krause's autograph (former GM of the Bulls) during batting practice behind home plate, once again on a baseball from bp. I think he was a baseball scout at the time. The most unique thing here was that after he signed, he said, "Thank you" very sincerely and gave me the ball. He still doesn't get his due for those Bulls championships, but Jerry did make his share of blunders at the end of their run.

 

 

[yfinn6]

The one encounter with a Brewer that stands out was in Philly, in 2002 I think. I was still in HS. Was vacationing out there with my family, and we planned it while the Brewers were out there. So one of the days we went to the Dave and Buster's out there to help kill some time. I had my Brewers cap on, as did my brother. A guy comes up and asks, "Hey, are you all from Milwaukee?" It was Ray King. My brother, dad, and I recognized him right away, but my mom had no idea. He introduced himself, chatted with us a bit, and asked if we were going to the game that night. We mentioned that we were planning on it, but hadn't bought tickets yet. He said, "Don't worry about it, I'll leave you guys 4 tickets at will call. Just mention my name." He took a picture with my brother and I and went on his way. Very nice guy.

 

So we get to Veterans Stadium to pick up the tickets, and they were behind home plate, like 15 rows up. Awesome seats. Have always rooted for Ray since.

Wow. I'm really blown away by some of these stories, but this one is the best so far IMO.

[hawing]

I enjoy this thread topic whenever it arises, but the stories do make me a little envious. When are these guys going to start hanging out in Madison?

[mattsr0625]

my best encounter with a brewers was back in 1993. i wrote a story/letter to robin yount and tried for a few weeks to hand it to him. well finally the day came where i could give it to him. he took it and walked on. no big deal. about 2 weeks later i get a package in the mail from the brewers. the i open it up and it was a reply from yount himself. he kept the letter and wrote back to me. then i noticed that the hand writing on the envelope was the same as younts. that made is even cooler to me because he took the time to write back to me. that is my favorite story and was my favorite piece in my sports collection. now fast forward 17 years and when i decided to leave my wife she thought it would be nice to shred the letter and envelope from yount.

[Baldkin]

It wasn't a Brewer, but today I had seats in 102, right behind the visitors bullpen. Chan Ho Park spent the 4th-7th innings tossing gum and baseballs up to kids, which was amazingly awesome. When he came in for Meek, he got a standing O from 101 and 102.

[DuWayne Steurer]

My best personal encounter with a Brewer would have been with Ernie Riles in the mid 80's. There was a signing at the Janesville Mall during the late spring, so my dad took myself and my little brother. When he signed our stuff, he was pretty friendly of course. My dad said "Hey Ernie, we're gonna be in Detroit for a series against the Tigers in July, say hit to us if you see us there!". He smiled and said "Sure!"

 

We laughed it off. Later that summer, while we were vacationing, we did indeed go to a Brewers game in Detroit. We moseyed on down to the dugout, and there was Ernie, and he was signing for just a few kids, and when he saw us, he immediately said "Hey! The Janesville kids!" and gladly signed a few more items for us, while chatting with my dad for about 5 minutes about this and that.

 

I just remember being really impressed that he instantly recognized us from 2 months prior and a 3 minute meeting in a mall with several dozen other kids. I was always a big fan of his after that.

[azcheesehead]

In the fall of '08 I was living in AZ, which made attending AZ Fall games a must. The Brewers on that team we entirely represented by Agent39, I think. In one game Lorenzo Cain broke his bat and afterward I saw Agent39 with it in his hands. I offered him $20 for the bat as a semi joke. He told me he couldn't give it to me. After getting Cain, Aguilar, Jeffress on some balls and taking some pics, I headed back to my car. While walking through the lot a car comes speeding up to me. At this point I didn't know if I was gonna get mugged or what cuz the car was on a B line for me. It was Agent39 with Cain's bat. He gave it to me with one stipulation: DON'T let Lorenzo know you have this! Naturally, I took it to the game the next day. As Lorenzo came out of the club house, I approached him and asked him to sign the bat. He took one look and said, "Damn, dude! I broke this bat yesterday. How in the world did you get this?" I told him I had my ways. He then signed it and said, "Damn Josh!" Lorenzo was a pretty nice guy and rooting for him this year has been way more fun having a personal encounter with him. The bat is in my classroom and my students think it's pretty sweet too!

[ilovebeer]

Back in the mid 80, when they were thinking about building the Bradley center on cs grounds, my dad called Bud Selig, to say he was against building the Bradley center there, he talked to his sectary and she told my dad, what she would pass along the note, about 20 minutes later, Bud Selig called him back, and they talked for about 10 minutes. Back in the late 90's i went down to spring training, I stayed at the team hotel, the Dodson ranch in mesa, Jim Ganter and family were at the next table, later that week, i was sitting in the hot tub, when Jay Aldrich sat in the hot tub we talked for a while, then Jim Ganter just got back from dropping in family off at the airport and came to sit out in the hot tub also, we had a nice talk. I went to see Robin get inducted into the hall of fame in 99, on you plane ride back from Detroit to Milwaukee, Jim Gantner and family we in the row behind us and he and his wife remembered me and we talked. I went to see the Brewers play in Toronto and we went down stair to the mall and to get something to eat, not many people were there, then Bj Surfoff walked in and he sat at the next table, which was kind of weird with 95% of the tables we empty.I hate to say this back at cs, after the game i would go out and watch the players come out and i would talk with Wendy Selig Preid at least 3 times a home stand and also with with Pat Listach wife a lot, she was a very nice lady.

[pitchleague]

now fast forward 17 years and when i decided to leave my wife she thought it would be nice to shred the letter and envelope from yount.

That's a pretty cool story with a sad ending.

 

You know, it wouldn't hurt to write to Robin again and explain your original letter to him and the letter he sent back to you and what happened to said letter. Maybe he'd write you an updated version.

[TracyThom]

I met Willie Randolph during his 1 year stint with the brewers (1991). I was a 16 y/o high school kid that was still holding the dream of playing pro ball. I wasn't looking for autographs...just hanging out around the rail before the game. He was signing a different person's stuff and asked if I wanted an auto. I politely said "no" but would take any advice that he had for a HS baseball player. He asked if I was a pitcher or hoped to be a position player. I said "both" and he left for the dugout. He emerged with a big smile as well as with Duffy Dyer and Larry Haney. We chatted for about 10 minutes on what the biggest attributes HS players seemed to be missing and they both wished me "good luck" and went back to their duties. Although I never made it as a player (maybe could have been a DH http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif ) their words really helped me understand my shortcomings in baseball and how to improve upon them. I also became a mega-fan of Willie Randolph.

Wow, this is my favorite story of the bunch.

 

My only real Brewers encounter was with Gorman Thomas about 3 years back. He was signing autographs at the grand opening of the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Monona. He happily signed my bobblehead and gave me a couple of Brewers caps. One thing about Gorman, the guy cusses like a sailor. I knew that he used to live in Wales, because I used to see him driving around with his personalized license plates while visiting relatives in the area. I remembered he had STORMN and he told me he also had SPIKE20. He told me that he no longer gets personalized plates since they kept getting stolen.

 

[davego]

I was in the parking lot before a game in 1996(?) Matt Mieske's wife was doing a fundraiser thing. She had other wives with, but she is who I recall. My clown-buddies and I were in the midst of having fun, so we donated a significant amount of money. I remember that part because we all were pretty broke by the end of the day.

[twobrewers]

I love reading these stories.

 

However, I'm sad that they are all so old.

 

I'm sure there is a lot of pressure on players in today's society, but I'd love to hear Braun, Prince or Weeks chatted someone up or gave them tickets to a game.

[AJAY]

When I was 14, there was a rumor that Teddy Higuera had moved into our neighborhood. I didn't believe the rumor. I thought it was very silly.

 

One day, I was riding my bike and one of the neighborhood kids was telling me that Teddy Higuera was in the backyard of a house on that street. I didn't believe him, and he insisted that he was telling the truth. So we ended up trespassing into the backyard of that house. I immediately saw this Mexican guy grilling food, and he stopped to look at us as. I turned to the little boy and said "You idiot, that is NOT Teddy Higuera". He then said "No, not that guy . . . look at that guy over there". I turned my head and suddenly Teddy Higuera himself was standing right in front of me. My jaw dropped, and I almost fainted. I was also embarrassed to be trespassing on his property, and I thought I would be in trouble.

 

Teddy Higuera then said to me "Do you want to play beisbol??" Still in shock, I said "uh huh".

 

He then gathered several of the neighborhood children and was pitching under-handed tennis balls to us in his backyard. We played baseball with his kids. The whole time, I was showing off like crazy trying to make diving catches and impressing him with my hitting and defense.

 

After about an hour of playing on his yard, I went flying home and told every single person I knew about what just happened. I couldn't sleep for a whole week.

 

I'll never forget it.

[ilovebeer]

Another story, I found out were Robin lived, so once a year i would drive past his house , the third year i did this, he was getting out of his car, the next year i was going down his block, about 6 or 7 houses away, I noticed BJ Surhoff cutting the grass. If you are old enough to remember 1982 in September i believe. a boat store in Pewaukee was having Don Sutton sign autographs, he is such a nice man.

[TooLiveBrew]

Awesome stories, so far. AJAY, yours rocks.

[greeg35]

AJAY, did you grow up in Glendale?

[thebruce44]

I love reading these stories.

 

However, I'm sad that they are all so old.

 

I'm sure there is a lot of pressure on players in today's society, but I'd love to hear Braun, Prince or Weeks chatted someone up or gave them tickets to a game.

Maybe its just because we are all old. I figure that players tend to do these nice acts for kids and not for the adult who may be just collecting stuff to sell on ebay. I get the impression that Prince is especially good with kids. I am sure there are some great stories out there.

 

[SoCal Brew Crew Fan]

These are some great stories...I'm afraid mine pale in comparison.

 

One funny one was during 1983 Gorman, Vuke and Uecker were signing autographs at some lawn and garden place in Brookfield. There was a huge line and my Mom took me down and waited over an hour to get their autographs. We finally get to the front, having been warned due to the crowd they will only sign one item each and put this oversized baseball card of Gorman down in front of him. He pauses, looks at me and apologetically says, "kid, I'll sign anything you've got but this picture is so ugly I just can't do it." At that point Vuke and Uecker grab the photo and launch into a whole comedy routine about how ugly the picture of Gorman is. My Mom was crying from laughing so hard. They were so nice and funny they each signed about a half a dozen items.

 

I also ran into Jeromy Burnitz out here in LA at Starbucks. He was meeting a buddy who worked in my building. We wound up chatting for about 10 minutes...he was very cool. Saw Curtis Leskanic visiting sick kids at a hospital...he was really great with the kids.

[AJAY]

AJAY, did you grow up in Glendale?

 

 

Yes, I did grow up in Glendale . . . just a few blocks south of Nicolet High School. Are you from that area too?

 

Teddy Higuera's house was on the cul-de-sac on Hyacinth Road.

[hawing]

These are some great stories...I'm afraid mine pale in comparison.

Trust me: to those of us with no encounters with Brewers, yours are also great. That Gorman story is hilarious.

[Invader3K]

I think I saw Trevor Hoffman at a Best Buy last May (didn't get to talk to him and didn't ask if it was really him...looked like he just wanted to buy something and leave with the two kids that were with him). That's my only encounter with a Brewer outside of a baseball stadium.

[greeg35]

Yes, I did grow up in Glendale . . . just a few blocks south of Nicolet High School. Are you from that area too?

Actually my cousins did, right on the corner of Sunnypoint on the river. My aunt and uncle still live there. I would visit and we would just play baseball and video games for a couple of weeks every summer, then they would come stay at our place near Green Bay for a few weeks.

I remember they walked me by Higuera's house, he, his kid and Juan Nieves were shooting hoops outside. They came down and "chatted" with us for a bit. If I remember right, Nieves had to translate for Higuera, or maybe it was vice versa; but one of them spoke virtually no English. I remember being amazed, obviously by just being in the same space as guys I watched on TV; but also by how short Teddy was. I swear I was as tall as he was when I was 10; but that can't be right.

Those same cousins have a great story about hanging out with Gorman Thomas in the airport during a delayed flight back from spring training last year; but its not my story to tell.

We all were at spring training a few years ago and Gantner recognized us and came over to chat 2 days in a row about wisconsin highschool sports. Talk about just a "real" guy. We bumped into Angel Salome and JJ Hardy, just said hi. I impressed everyone with my bf.net knowledge of who the minor leaguers were, and I showed everyone Gallardo for their first look. We also saw Gamel have a major meltdown at a coach when he was told he'd be a level lower than he though he should be, he was especially mad that LaPorta would be a level higher. Spring training is great for all kinds of brewer encounters.

[TooLiveBrew]

We also saw Gamel have a major meltdown at a coach when he was told he'd be a level lower than he though he should be, he was especially mad that LaPorta would be a level higher.

 

Well now this is an interesting tidbit.

[greeg35]

Seems to fit the profile of him if you read between the lines. Then again, maybe it was just a bad day and/or a normal "baseball world" reaction to that kind of bad news. Who knows? Hopefully he has matured since then, more mature always = better.

[Bikeage77]

My favorite memory was the first home game after Braun got called up. 620 used to do a post game show from fridays, and always tried to get the newest Brewer on the show. There was probably about 20 people at Fridays hoping Braun would show up. Between segments of his interview he signed some baseballs. I had a team ball and a ball for him. When I got to him, I asked if he could sign both items. He looked at me kinda suprised like he didn't want to. Then he said "both of em eh? well for you, anything" and gladly signed them both.

 

The other time was at fanfest when Braun was personalizing everything. I had a Helena bobblehead I wanted signed. When I got to the front, I said "Ryan, I am a big fan of yours and the Brewers, is it okay if you don't personalize it? I have a Brewers tattoo to show my love." Which I then then showed him, and again he was like "for you, you got it"

 

So I've had two standout meetings with Braunie