Best Item an Athlete has Given You or You Have Given an Athlete (No $$$)

[allstarsplus]

http://www.gameuseduniverse.com/vb_forum/images/buttons/viewpost.gif (http://www.gameuseduniverse.com/vb_forum/showthread.php?p=51348#post51348)
Last night vs. the Giants I followed thru on a promise to a fellow Forum member JasonHalliburton that if he drove the 8 hours from Knoxville Tenn to DC, I would take him to the game and see Bonds (well there was no Bonds sighting). We got into the stadium prior to batting practice. Brian Schneider came over to talk to us. When I say "talk", I mean talk. He and Jason had the State of Tennessee in common as a lot of Brian's family lives there. After the Nats first season in 2005, I purchased all of Brian's catchers gear. I told him I would be interested in purchasing any gear this year too and he said he has been donating it to needy kids in the Dominican Republic (classy guy). After BP, Brian brings me his "away" catchers gear autographed and a bunch of sweat bands. Check out what game the chest protector was used in:

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Andrew This was part of what I originally posted in the "Class Act" thread. I wanted to start a new thread for the best item an athlete has given you or you have given to an athlete with no money changing hands.

I have been given baseballs, some bats, caps and some other stuff, but for Brian Schneider to give me this item was over the top. I didn't even ask for it.

It kind of reminds me of the old Coca Cola commercial when Mean Joe Greene throws the kid his jersey. Sure, Gilbert Arenas throws his jersey to the crowd after every Wizards game but that is kind of part of his post-game ritual.

Here is a picture of me with the chest protector:
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Here is a better pic of Brian Schneider. I hope to photomatch much better than from this pic:

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Here is Brian Schneider with Jason Halliburton:

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I will Post later the best item(s) I have given an athlete.

Andrew

[AutographAddiction]

Dwight Howard game Used Jersey. Near 30 pairs of UNC Football Players Gloves!!!

[shoremen44]

Best item ever given by an Athlete...

I think the year was 1989... I could be mistaken, but I was at an Orioles game with my father, and he knew a bunch of the cops working the game... I asked one of the uniforms if they could get me a ball signed by my favorite Oriole, Mickey Tettleton... so the game goes on, and nothing from the cop... the game ends and my dad and I are about to leave and I hear someone say my name... I turn around and it is Tettleton... he calls me over shakes my hand, spends about 10 minutes talking to me and gives me his bat... my very first gamer... and I still have it!


Best item I ever gave an athlete...

(I posted this in another thread, but I revived it here too)

He isnt an athlete, or at least not any More but...

I bought some old bats back at the begining of the summer... all were old international players that played in Baltimore before there was a major league team... like my 1936 Woodley Abernathy (international league HR champ).

Well... one of the bats I bought was of Lee Riley... who among many other teams played briefly in Baltimore in 1939.

I was going through my collection and decided to sell some bats and decided that I wasnt that attached to the Riley bat and was going to see if I could get the $100 I payed out of this sidewritten old bat.

In preparing to sell the bat I found out that the only Lee Riley at the time ended up being the father of Coach Pat Riley. I sent a note to the only email address I could find for the Miami heat and wanted to know if Coach Riley would like his father's bat. I got a nice response from their marketing guys and he told me that Coach Riley was very excited to get it.

I sent it off... and a week or two later I got a copy of Pat Riley's Hall of Fame book... autographed to me... and a long hand written letter from the Coach thanking me for my gift. He was very excited to have a bat that his dad "had his own hands around".

The letter is over the top nice... I am not an NBA fan... but Pat Riley is a stand up guy...

[sox83cubs84]

Best given to me:

During 2006, when I was dealing with a back infection during most of the baseball season, Tony Clark sent me a package from Phoenix. Inside were a half-dozen batting gloves, a pair of cleats, and a half-dozen D-Backs caps (some worn by him, others mint and signed by him).

Best I gave out:

1972 Brewers road knit I gave to his son, Derrick, when "D" was with the Cubs.

Dave Miedema

[platinum1]

I couple of years ago I was searching Ebay and I found an old raggy Cuban Baseball jersey with the name Contreras on the back.
I got it for like $50.
The day I got it I went over to the Cell and waited for Jose to leave the park and when he came out he saw me standing with the jersey.
:eek: It turned out that the jersey was his first ever professional jersey.
So I just gave it to him for nothing.

[yankees506]

I never thought id get the chance to tell this story, i was in LA in september of 08 and decided to check out a game, Manny Ramirez was in the outfield and i began yelling at him. Im from NY so i was yelling how washington heights (where he was born in NY) followed him to LA, to my surprise he began to walk over, we talked for about 20 min while he was shagging balls and at the end i said "manny, NY would love to take something of manny back home" he laughed and bp ended, about ten minutes later i see manny come jogging down the foul line, he gets to where i was sitting and says "im looking for New York", i stand up and he throws what looks like a shirt to me, he leaves and when i open up the shirt i immediately knew what it was, i looked at the neck and there was a 99 written, he gave me his gu undershirt, it wasnt a jersey but wow I was not a manny fan until that day.

[wildcats97champs]

this past year i was the personal driverfor champions tour pro peter jacobsen while he played at the dicks sporting goods open. about 3 hours after i had dropped him off at the airport i got a call from peter himself asking me if i could return to the course and see if he had left a club in the inspection room. sure enough it was there, he kindly asked me if i would mail it to him at the next tourny he was playing at and he would "make it right with me" so about 3 weeks after i mailed the club i got a huge package in the mail from peter with a note thanking me for mailing it $100 bill and the golf bag he used at the dicks open that year. not bad for a $12 mailing and 45 mins of my time

[metsbats]

Not given to me by an player but in 2000 a clubhouse contact gave me a empty champayne bottle and a Budweiser congratulations Mets poster from the Mets Clubhouse Wildcard celebration.

In 2006 I purchased the throwback jersey Ed Hearn wore during the 86 Mets Reunion ceremony from MLB auctions and traded him the "gift" jersey he was given.

[AutographAddiction]

Well, I feel like I should tell my story about the post I mentioned earlier...

Earlier this season I got a Dwight Howard Game-Used Jersey! Talked to him before the game and made a sign to remind him and he gave it to me after the game!

http://www.gameuseduniverse.com/vb_forum/%3Ca%20href=%22http://s151.photobucket.com/albums/s152/1234tls/?action=view&current=IMG_2019.jpg%22%20target=%22_blank%22%3E%3 Cimg%20src=%22http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s152/1234tls/IMG_2019.jpg%22%20border=%220%22%20alt=%22Photobuc ket%22%3E%3C/a%3E
http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s152/1234tls/IMG_2018.jpg
I will also put a link on here to my blog so you can WATCH THE VIDEO OF HIM GIVING IT TO ME!
http://autographaddiction.blogspot.com/2010/05/hey-everyone.html

And as for the UNC gloves, I have sat next to the UNC tunnel every football game for about 3 years. You can see me in all of these pictures... I have collected many game-used sweatbands and gloves over the years and players now recognize me and know me by name...

http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s152/1234tls/8131_1215045903661_1454224031_30608503_3788326_n.j pghttp://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s152/1234tls/8131_1216727105690_1454224031_30613731_3540658_n.j pghttp://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s152/1234tls/axaxaxax.jpg

If anyone is interested in any UNC football (or basketball) game-used items or autographs I can help you out. There are many future 1st rounders on the team now...

tsharp94@gmail.com

[LWMM]

If anyone is interested in any UNC football (or basketball) game-used items or autographs I can help you out. There are many future 1st rounders on the team now...



Yeah, and even more sitting on the bench indefinitely:D

[AutographAddiction]

Yeah, and even more sitting on the bench indefinitely:D

I knew I would get that response. But even so, they are future first rounders:D

[lehmsbobby]

In 2000, I was at a Giants game in great seats near the dugout on my birthday. Without asking, Barry Bonds handed a bat through the dugout, seemingly to the late Giants majority owner Sue Burns. However, Bonds motioned her to me, and gave me his famous Sam Bat, uncracked with heavy use. His generosity and kindness that day, amid the scandals and bad rep, will stay with me forever.

[SaintsGeaux]

i have gotten many of my items given by the athletes but i would have to say a free cal and billy ripen cap. that s what you get when the team loses by 20 runs as i got in Texas in 1996 against the Orioles.

[jshortt]

Josh Hamilton gave me the bat he used to hit 2 homers in his first MLB multi-homer game against the Rockies in 2007. Totally uncracked, and you can see the ball marks from both hits. Didn't think about it at the time, but I wish I'd had him inscribe that on the bat.

-Josh

[thomecollector]

A couple of years back. I went to the O's vs Sox series in Baltimore. I brought a Kingman 2007 AllStar Game Jersey. It was from the Old timers game. I bought the jersey from my buddy Bob Koppel. I didn't collect him , but I had an idea. I knew Jim was a fan of him growing up. I sent it to the Feller Museum signing that Kingman was doing. It cost like $30 for the auto with inscription. I had him sign it "To Jim, Best Wishes ! Dave Kingman 442 HRS. " I went to the game
on his birthday. When he came over, I gave it to him in a box. He went to the clubhouse. When he came out, he couldn't thank me enough.He was blown away. :D

[Dewey2007]

Best item an athlete has given me with no $$$ involved was the George Brett bat that Larry Gura gave to me during a game in 1981 at the Oakland Colisuem. It was my first bat ever and unfortunately I sold it with my original bat collection a few years back.

The most meaningful items I have received have been from a couple of former Cal Bears athletes. Former NFL player Chidi Iwouma gave me a Lions jersey he had in storage and former Florida Marlins player Chris Clapinski sent me a bat. These guys didn't have to do it but I am grateful for their kindness.

I once gave Terry Kennedy a couple of baseball cards of his dad Bob Kennedy at the team hotel when I was getting autographs as a kid. I remember he was very thankful when I told him that I brought them for him to have because it didn't seem that he had any cards of his dad at the time.

Dewey

[Klattsy]

I gave Brett Ronenberg I heap of his trading cards at the Australia vs Canada World Cup qualifier (we lost :( ). I actually got him to sign some cards the game before, and he said he was chasing some of his cards, the next night I gave him about 6 cards including a refractor and a WBC numbered one...it took me a year to track them down again :) He told me his ebay username and now I send him links if I see them online :) How I wish i'd swapped them for a GU item...

Mark.

[WadeInBmore]

Not a game used story by any means but a moment in time I will never forget. The past job I did in Detroit had a couple of surprises instore for everyone. I'm use to being the only person with a baseball past on a film set however when the job started and baseball came up I was quickly encouraged to go and introduce myself to the key grip because "he used to play.". A very peculiar statement in the very least. So I go and introduce myself and low and behold he is former major league shortstop/utility infeilder journeyman Ross Jones.
Over the course of the next 6 weeks Ross and I had many a great baseball conversations. He even scored us comp tickets to a tiger rays game (6 rows behind home plate)!!! So, as a customary tradition on movie sets, I decided I wanted to get the crew a wrap gift. After talking with a good buddy who was on the job with me, we both decided to purchase a bunch of Ross Jones baseball cards that we could give to everyone.
After some searching on Beckett.com I made a bulk purchase of 100 1988 tools Ross jones baseball cards!!! The cards were a bigger hit then I ever couldve guested. The crew, the actors, and even the producers and director were all buzzing about these cards. It really put a smile on my face when I realized that 100 grown-ups were excited about a baseball card and that's all anyone was talkin about. For the last week of the show, roughly, Ross happily signed his autograph to every card are nervous and excited crew members approached him with his card. Ross said his baseball career was a lifetime ago, but to see grownups revert back to their childhood as they embraced our national passtime and the thrill of the autograph was priceless!
Ross came up to me with a smile on his face as he asked HOW MANY cards I had brought in!? He said at first he saw only a couple of cards but then a steady stream of cards up til lunch!!!
It was an awesome moment and the best value a 25 cent card has given a group of grownups!!!!

Wade