How Hard Is It To Meet Mario Lemieux In Pittsburgh

[#66]

My friend said when the MLB All Star game was here, every Yankee tipped what their bill was.

I'm in NJ and about 20 mins outside NYC. The Yankees have always been great with their fans. I remember going to a 4th of July game around 2000 and Jeter was at the on deck circle. He noticed a 12-13 YO old girl sneak down to wall to get a picture of him. He walks over to her and does a freeze frame pose maybe 8' away from her. The girl snaps the picture and just starts crying. Jeter walks over to her, gives her a hug and the entire sold out stadium went crazy. That's was one of the coolest things I've ever seen.

Its good to hear stories about Lemieux being such a good guy. I remember the media being downright nasty about Lemieux. They would try to paint him as being smug and treated him like the anti-Gretzky. Dig up an old autograph thread on the history boards and one name gets mentioned over and over again. 80's, 90's, 2000's... that same name of a player being a huge jerk to everyone keeps getting mentioned.

I met him a few times around 1990, the height of the card collecting craze. I've seen Lemieux sign 10 of the same card and leave with a smile. The guys as down to earth as anyone. Also like anyone if someone is going to get nasty, he'll give it back. I won't get into that story but Rangers fans are some of the worst scum on Earth.

I also have a positive Barrasso story....

 

[MetalheadPenguinsFan]

Share your stories man c'mon.

 

[DanFailsma]

I want to hear Sid stories. He usually looks miserable in fan photos, unless it's with kids.

 

[#66]

Share your stories man c'mon.

It was Rangers fans being typical Rangers fans and making rude comments about cancer in 93. Lemieux got them back though. I think they expected him not to do anything.

Others were...

Zarley Zalapski eating pizza with milk.

Bob Johnson asking me for tips before a game against the Devils and talking for about 10 mins.

Rob Brown looking homeless. His shirt was untucked and had coffee stains on it.

People waiting for autographs by an elevator and everyone could hear Kevin Stevens from the third floor.

Staying in the same hotel as the Flyers for Lindros first game and Lindros telling me and my father that he wasn't Eric Lindros. The Rex passes us and asks "Don't I know you guys?". Then he talks to us for about 20 mins and confirms that was Lindros.

Billy Tibbets open hockey stories. That guy...

Passed Barrasso and asked him for an autograph. He had a cup of coffee in his hand and I said that I was sorry, didn't see it and not to worry about it. He put the coffee on the ground, signed and talked to me for a few mins. I was shocked.

Paul Coffey stepping through card hounds to come and talk to me because I had a Pens jacket on. I laughed, thanked him and he said "Anything for a fan"

I stayed at The Mall in Hartford for the 1994 draft and pretty much met everyone. Lindros was a dick to little kids and so was Melrose. Everyone else from CP to the Primeau's were awesome. The best story I have from that is...

After the first round of the draft my buddies and I went out to eat across the street from the Hartford Civic Center. We see the waiters put 3 or 4 tables together and then 20 seats around it. After a short time Scotty Bowman walks in with the Red Wing scouts. He gets drunk and start rambling on about Guy Lafleur in practice and a dozen other stories.

Then you can hear his voice change and he says "I offered every French player in the system... I thought that's what they wanted... I didn't even get a call back... and then they trade him for that guy" He was after Sundin in the worst way and seemed pissed about how things went down.

 

[LGP89]

Not Pens related but my girlfriend served Muccutchen last week. He was with his girlfriend of several years & her family who are from my hometown in central PA. It's a relatively small town.

Anyways he tipped around 20% & she was little mad but I told her if that was anyone else it would have been a good tip. You can't expect him to rain 100's for a lunch at Ruby Tuesday. I also saw that a girl I know when I worked at Penndot just got married to Brock Holt. For a small town we are pretty good at producing hot chicks.

Crazy. I'm from the same town.

 

[iamjs]

I want to hear Sid stories. He usually looks miserable in fan photos, unless it's with kids.

I've only seen Sid get nasty once.

 

[MetalheadPenguinsFan]

I've only seen Sid get nasty once.

What happened??? Was it with some pushy 40-something autograph hound???

 

[iamjs]

Surprisingly no. I mentioned part of the story in the thread with the new poster who was trying to meet Sid, but I'll give a little more detail.

It was either training camp 2008. Only reason I remember is that Pesonen was in camp. Sid appears and the 100 or so people standing outside of Mellon go crazy. Sid walks along the rail and starts signing for a few people. As he walks away, somebody throws a hat at him....which hits him. Sid turns around and the stare that he had, you could tell he was pissed. He grabbed the hat, actually signed it, and asked who's hat it was. He lobs it back to the person and says something along the lines of "Look, I will sign for you guys. I'll do my best to get everybody here, but please do not throw stuff at me."

Sounds very polite in writing, but the tone in his voice (even for being 21 or 22 at the time), you could tell he wasn't happy with it.

 

[tntkid]

I have met Sid multiple times when he was in town with the Penguins & he was always down to earth.
Sid always took time to sign & pose for pictures especially with the kids.

If you approach him more than once in the same trip for an autograph he will remember your face so it best to not be greedy.

 

[MetalheadPenguinsFan]

Surprisingly no. I mentioned part of the story in the thread with the new poster who was trying to meet Sid, but I'll give a little more detail.

It was either training camp 2008. Only reason I remember is that Pesonen was in camp. Sid appears and the 100 or so people standing outside of Mellon go crazy. Sid walks along the rail and starts signing for a few people. As he walks away, somebody throws a hat at him....which hits him. Sid turns around and the stare that he had, you could tell he was pissed. He grabbed the hat, actually signed it, and asked who's hat it was. He lobs it back to the person and says something along the lines of "Look, I will sign for you guys. I'll do my best to get everybody here, but please do not throw stuff at me."

Sounds very polite in writing, but the tone in his voice (even for being 21 or 22 at the time), you could tell he wasn't happy with it.

Yeah I'd have been pissed too. Whoever that hat throwing schmuck was, they should consider themselves lucky that not only did they get the hat back...but especially the fact that he signed it afterwards.

If I were Sid, I wouldn't have signed the hat. Then again, I have a short fuse for BS and I'm not a people person.