Opinion changed of a player when they were on your team?

[jake33]

Just curious from a fans prespective if your opinion has ever changed when a player you disliked or liked from another team came to play for your team and then you felt differently? Mine are below

Travis Lee - huge fan of his when he was with Arizona. When he was with the Rays, there was a view of him being an underachiever, not passionate, and at times lazy. Rays manager, Joe Maddon even released him froma Rays team that lost 100 games in September of that year because of his attitude. Never felt the same about Lee since.

Carlos Pena - viewed him as a blah player that couldn't hit his 1st round pick potential. Obviously with his on field succes, it changed my view, but amazed how great he always was with the fans.

Manny Ramirez - I will never be a big fan of his, but heard a lot of good things about him out of Tampa already. Even a huge season (and maybe post season) out of him won't get me to be a huge fan of his.

Gabe Kapler - never thought much of him as a player. When with Tampa, not huge numbers, but a VERY knowledgable player and does things the right way, team guy, shuts his mouth, worked very hard. I am sure he will be managing again when he retires.

Wade Boggs - liked him more as a Red Sox star and Yankee world Series winner, maybe I just saw more of him and liked him a bit less. He worked hard but at the end was just wanting to get to 3,000 instead of other reasons. He had more left in the tank but seemed like he got bored at the end and lost some hunger, but maybe that is just me.

Fred McGriff - got an appreciation for him a lot more from seeing him up close. Very athletic player, fluid and while nevr flashy, very consistant. he had a repuation of smearing his own autogrpah intentionally, which I thought was a little strange. As a ball player, underated.

John Rocker - never liked him, but disliked him more when seeing him in person once with the rays, arrogant and carried himself in an odd way, and at that point he wasn't good enough to flaunt it.

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Jeff Garcia - Tampa Bay Buc, never much cared for him. Still not a huge fan, but I really had to respect the way he played with his time with Tampa Bay, even with the Eagles he was a very tough guy that really worked very hard to get where he was. The way he was late in career really changed my view of him.

Roman Oben - not impressed with him before coming to the Bucs, put a very solid 2002 in for the Bucs Super Bowl Team. It was nice to see a guy that happy from winning a Super Bowl

Lomas Brown - Gruden called him out of retirement to mentor some young O-Line members. Very humble man that was one of the bes tin his era. VEry humble and soft spoken player that jsut thrilled to win a super bowl in his final season (17th year) in the NFL

Rob Johnson - Qb #11 The human sack machine, didn't want to throw the ball away or get INT to hurt his QB rating, that lead to way too many sacks. It was painful to watch him play.

Derrick Deese - Thought a ton of him when he was a 49er, as a Bucs he was very bitter at Gruden for putting him on the bench, a little too vocal in the media for my liking in his brief time in Tampa. I would have liked seeing more of him in his prime and proabbly would have thought differently.

Randall McDaniel - even at the end of his career, I really liked how much of a instructor and teacher he was. He was a quiet man that played for my least favorite team, the vikings. Really enjoyed his 2 years in Tampa, while not overally dominant, really was amazed what type of athlete that guy was.

[onlyalbert]

Heath Bell....at the 2009 All Star game he is the only player I saw sign autos for fans. Came over, talked to us, joked around, threw up a couple balls.....then got the loss later in the game for the NL. Great guy. And why didn't anyone else sign?

Skip Schumaker....went to a few games in St. L last year. Got there early for BP and pre-game. Skip was the only player to come out right before the game and sign for fans. He would start about 40 ft. from the dugout and work his way back for 15-20 minutes. No one else would do it. And after the game.....no one!! Ever.

I have to say if I was being paid their salaries to play baseball as a "job" I would sign anything, anywhere, anytime!

[LastingsMilledge85]

Heath Bell....at the 2009 All Star game he is the only player I saw sign autos for fans. Came over, talked to us, joked around, threw up a couple balls.....then got the loss later in the game for the NL. Great guy. And why didn't anyone else sign?

Skip Schumaker....went to a few games in St. L last year. Got there early for BP and pre-game. Skip was the only player to come out right before the game and sign for fans. He would start about 40 ft. from the dugout and work his way back for 15-20 minutes. No one else would do it. And after the game.....no one!! Ever.

I have to say if I was being paid their salaries to play baseball as a "job" I would sign anything, anywhere, anytime!

After awhile you wouldn't. The problem with signing at games is that fans just get way too out of hand when a player walks onto the field. Last year when I went to a Mets game, I was sitting just a few rows back from the field. The moment Mets great, Chris Carter, walked out fans were relentless. It seemed that they ran down by the hundreds for an autograph of Chris Carter, who? At games, I most certainly see why players don't sign and personally I couldn't disagree because these days they get way to hostile. I'm not an autograph guy, but when I stayed at the same hotel as the Mets almost all the players were cooperative with autographs. I remember David Wright wouldn't take pictures but he would autograph. Even at the hotel though you had a lot of people who weren't staying there wander in and crowd the lobby. My favorite was Keith Hernandez, when we were going to breakfast he followed us in and dodged the autograph hounds, and then after we finished he was on the same elevator as us and let us borrow his key so we could push the button to our floor.

[legaleagle92481]

Whenever a guy comes to the Mets this happens for me. We get Cy Young Winners, future hall of famers, record setters, allstars etc. The deals look great and I am excited by the addition then poof they come here and stink. The only guys who didn't were really Piazza, Olerud, John Franco, Gary Carter and Keith Hernadez. Otherwise we had Roberto Alomar, Frank Viola, Mo Vaughn, Bobby Bonilla, Carlos Baerga, K Rod, Johan Santana, Juan Samuel, Jason Bay and the list goes on and on.

[Mark17]

After the Twins won the World Series in 1987, they traded a fan favorite, Tom Brunansky, for a scrappy second baseman in Tommy Herr. The Twins weren't happy with their 2nd base situation and had depth in the outfield, so while it was tough to see Bruno leave, it looked like a good trade.

Problem was, Herr didn't want to play baseball in Minnesota and he made it abundantly clear. He played just 86 games for the Twins before we sent him back to the N.L. I never cared for him after that... he's a bad memory for this Twins fan.

[Jags Fan Dan]

I like Adam Dunn a lot more now that he no longer plays for the Reds. I hated watching him loaf around in the field and strike out so much. Now that I just get to see his homeruns on Sportscenter and BB Tonight it is much easier to root for him.

[jake33]

Yeah, Mets fans you guys have had it bad over the years.... I recall when you guys got one of my favs, Vince Coleman.... yikes. He looked better in red....

[ironmanfan]

Problem was, Herr didn't want to play baseball in Minnesota and he made it abundantly clear. He played just 86 games for the Twins before we sent him back to the N.L. I never cared for him after that... he's a bad memory for this Twins fan.

I personally had a negative experience with Herr. A couple years ago he was managing an Independent team in Lancaster (PA) and the team had a "Fan Fest" type thing in March, which included a signing session with Herr, a couple of nobdies from the team as well as Hall of Famer Brooks Robinson. There was just one autograph line for everyone and I had Brooks sign a cool Rawlings MVP bat in gold paint pen and when Herr saw it, he said to me "when can I expect to see that on eBay?"....I first I thought he was kidding, and I innocently stated that I would be keeping it (still have it) and Herr turned to the guy next to him and whispered sarcastically "Bull Sh*t" ......

Kind of turned my personal perception of him that day as well....

[Jags Fan Dan]

I personally had a negative experience with Herr. A couple years ago he was managing an Independent team in Lancaster (PA) and the team had a "Fan Fest" type thing in March, which included a signing session with Herr, a couple of nobdies from the team as well as Hall of Famer Brooks Robinson. There was just one autograph line for everyone and I had Brooks sign a cool Rawlings MVP bat in gold paint pen and when Herr saw it, he said to me "when can I expect to see that on eBay?"....I first I thought he was kidding, and I innocently stated that I would be keeping it (still have it) and Herr turned to the guy next to him and whispered sarcastically "Bull Sh*t" ......

Kind of turned my personal perception of him that day as well....
Man, nice attitude he has there! Must be a miserable existance to go through life so jaded.

[godwulf]

I don't think I've ever had a player even joke about my putting stuff on eBay - although I'm sure that a few, especially Randy Johnson, were probaby thinking it - but if there is one thing motivating me, more than anything else, to get my whole collection (roughly 1100 bats, 200 or so jerseys, etc) organized and photographed, it's so if a player ever does, I can whip out the photos and say, "Does it look like I'm selling anything?" :rolleyes:

[jake33]

You should have told Tommy Herr that the bat will be on ebay, as soon as he gets that ellusive #29 homerun for his career.

[Shipp_96]

I personally had a negative experience with Herr. A couple years ago he was managing an Independent team in Lancaster (PA) and the team had a "Fan Fest" type thing in March, which included a signing session with Herr, a couple of nobdies from the team as well as Hall of Famer Brooks Robinson. There was just one autograph line for everyone and I had Brooks sign a cool Rawlings MVP bat in gold paint pen and when Herr saw it, he said to me "when can I expect to see that on eBay?"....I first I thought he was kidding, and I innocently stated that I would be keeping it (still have it) and Herr turned to the guy next to him and whispered sarcastically "Bull Sh*t" ......

Kind of turned my personal perception of him that day as well....

I had the SAME exact experience with Mike Ricci (the UGLIEST MAN ALIVE) when he was with the San Jose Sharks. Now, I am NOT a big hockey guy, but I lived in Philly when he played there, then moved to SJ after he went there, so I kind of felt we had a weird common path, as both of our careers took us to the same places.

My buddy, HUGE (literally and figuratively) Sharks fan. Lived and died with them. He asked me to go to this Christmas charity event, where all the team were signing. We got some great players like Owen Nolan, Evgeni Nabokov, etc. All nice guys. He brought me so he could get his goalie mask team signed, and I would get 8x10's signed, which he planned on keeping ALL of them.

Long story short, every player we asked to take a picture. So, he asks Ricci, and he starts going ape s#!t, " Oh, HERE WE GO. You Mother F---ers, you are going right home and selling this s#!t on ebay, aren't you? AREN'T YOU!" My buddy, Ian, is like NooOoo. But, good old Mike, he goes on and on to his teammates, "See, what these Mother F---ers do they take your photo, and sell this s#!t on ebay! Don't sign while they take your picture" He then literally SCREAMS to the row of teammates we have left to get signed "DON'T SIGN IF THEY TAKE YOUR PICTURE!"

I'm thinking, YOU ARE A D!CK. You're Fugly. And who the heck is paying big money for Sharks autos? YOU SUCK!

My buddy was so horrified, so p!ssed by this, he (ironically) SOLD HIS RICCI 8x10 on ebay, out of spite.