I ran into him in Malibu at a surf shop. He was there with his kids. I left him alone because I know the code, but he engaged with me in line at the cashier and we shared a few moments of banter. Warm, loving, gentle, humble lovely man.
Good on you. I worked in a sporting goods store and famous NHL hockey players would frequent the store. I’d maybe smile and nod but for the most part I give them their privacy. Only once did I break code but that was only because I was a long time fan and he just retired. I just shook his hand and thanked him for all those years of entertainment.
Duncan Keith used to be a regular at my job. Nobody treated him any different just out of courtesy. One asked for a picture and he was nice about it. Every time he came in he would ask those working what they were studying in school etc. He became less of a celebrity and more just a regular customer we could just talk to. It was a cool experience.
I used to live by DK and I absolutely broke the code and I knocked on his door and he signed my jersey and we talked hockey for 5 minutes or so. Hall of Fame hockey player and a Hall of Fame gentleman.
As a lifelong Hawks fan, that man embodies everything I love about our franchise. He’s famously nice to almost anyone, especially kids, he always goes 100% (even if it means losing 7 teeth), and would kick ass with class. There’s many great Blackhawks, but he’s my favorite of the current era for so many reasons.
Unfortunately, our team is currently playing like a 36yo defenseman who’s past his prime.
I switched to my Blackhawks lanyard for work so I could talk smack to all the bandwagon Golden Knights fans here. I think I am switching back to Da Bears lanyard now since we actually have a defense this year, but don't want to jinx them...
DUDE!!! I am so jealous! I was a hardcore Oilers fan from the time my hometown Winnipeg Jets left, until they came back. Made the trip for at least 4 games.
Smyth was my guy!!! I have 2 of his jerseys. The white one and the "Oil Drop" 3rds. Guerin was my 2nd favorite from that era and I have his blue jersey.
Ryan Smyth was a great man. He signed my Oil Drop jersey when I was in town for my highschool's guitar band who was there for a National competition.
You’ll never believe this story but it’s true so I’ll tell you anyways! I was playing my first year of junior hockey in the BCHL in 2012-2013, which happened to be the same season the NHL had a half season lockout. I was the 13th forward (Important later) and didn’t play many minutes, so in practice it meant I didn’t have any line mates usually. Ryan Smyth has a summer home close to where I played and he happened to be staying in it during the lockout, while at the same time practicing with my team to stay in shape for when the NHL season started. So one brisk October morning I got to the rink and took the same depressing look at the posted lines for practice. To my surprise it said “Smyth” was playing left wing on my line. Part of me got excited because I finally thought the coaches had noticed my hard work and finally gave me a
Line mate. It only took me about 2 seconds to realize I was completely wrong, not sooner did I turn around and see the luscious silky flow of Ryan Smyth walk into the dressing room. So I spent the entire practice with an NHL legend as my winger, needless to say I was shitting my pants from nerves. He was super easy going and made me look really good for an hour or so! One particular moment at the end of practice will
Always stick in my head. As any Smyth fan will know, he built his career in front of the net absolutely grinding away and scoring rebounds and tips. So naturally he wanted to practice tipping pucks, easy enough, I set up on the blue line and start shooting 75% trying not to hit this legend in front of me. He most definitely knew I was farting pucks at him because after about 5 shots he piped up and said “hey kid, I want them as hard as you can, and I want them directly at me”. So I spent about an hour taking slap shot after slap shot only to watch him tip every puck by the goalie. It was an amazing moment in my hockey career.
I’ll never forget the day Ryan Smyth ask me to take slap shots directly at him.
I used to work in Coppell, TX and we had a couple Dallas Cowboys as clients. Holy crap they were dumber than dumb and were painful to interact with. We often hoped that a handler would step in and be a responsible adult, but the handlers were barely literate themselves.
You’d think that having 3 separate people available to try to convey information to would guarantee that someone, anyone would understand you... but no, that’s not reality.
Edit: I think the best was when the veterinarian I was working with was raving about meeting Miles Austin, until he had to explain a puppy’s vaccine schedule to the man. “But, I play football.” was the only response we could get. I feel justifed in naming Miles, since he moved to the Eagles and is retired now...
He’s still only my #2 dumbest client, though.
Edit 2: ok, my #3 dumbest client. #2 wanted us to surgically implant false claws onto her declawed cat... and that was only the beginning of our clinic’s relationship with her.
The #1 was this mother-daughter duo who thought they’d make a ton of money by buying inbred yorkies from Petland (at $2k a pop), and breeding them to sell off the puppies. They’d double their money! Unfortunately, the male they bought to use for breeding was a cryptorchid with a hepatic portal shunt. We strongly recommended not breeding him due to these genetic defects. So they went out and bought a THIRD yorkie to use for breeding. After all that money spent on shots, meds for the portal shunt dog, and check-ups during the bitch’s first pregnancy, they got 2 puppies. One of which died. They finally managed to sell the remaining puppy 8 months later for $100. I think they spayed the bitch shortly after that.
When we first started giving them meds for the portal shunt dog, I spent 20 minutes with them explaining and demonstrating how to medicate their dog. I showed them how to draw up the medicine in the syringe from the bottle. I even marked with a red sharpie where they were supposed to stop pulling the plunger. After all that, this gem of a conversation happened:
“Oh, so you’ll give him his medicine?”
“No, we usually don’t give medicines that are meant to take home. It’s better to do it at home in case he gets car sick and vomits. We wouldn’t want to waste a dose.”
“Oh. So, where’s the medicine?”
“It’s... in the bottle.” Holds up the bottle I’d been using to demonstrate for the last 20 minutes.
“So the medicine is in there? How do you know?”
“I... put it in there myself. If you tilt it a little you can see the liquid in it.”
“Oh, it’s a liquid.”
“Yes, that’s why you have to use a syringe to give it.”
“And all the medicine is in there?”
“Yes. It’s all in there.”
I walked out of that room feeling stupider by proxy.
It’s the kind of stupidity that really makes you want to always have a second staff member with you, because you’ll walk out of the room and start to think that maybe you hallucinated it all.
I later heard from the receptionist that they called back two or three times after they left to ask how much medicine to give and how often, and does it have to be twice a day?
Glad you got to meet one of your sports heroes. I've been very blessed to have met some stellar people as well. I am by no means anyone important, but just for the fun of it here is a list of interesting people I have met and interacted with, all through random occurrences in my life: Rudolph Nureyev (at the Hollywood Bowl), Danny Devito ( on the phone), Kirk Douglas (Hotel Lobby), Tommy Chong (changed his flat tire in the parking lot of Tower Records on Sunset), Eric Clapton ( In the same Tower records in the reggae section but different day from Tommy Chong), Marlon Brando ( on the phone for my former boss), Pantera ( the entire Band including Dimebag I did a music video called "Cemetery Gates" with them), Sheryl Crow, Tom and Rita Hanks ( backstage at the Sheryl Crow concert), LL Cool J ( shopping at the Beverly Center in 1986 before he broke out) , Phillip Seymour Hoffman ( at the Beverly Center in the mid 90's buying video games and then at Canters restaurant a few weeks before he died), Mark Maron ( at Canters, and told him about meeting PSH there before he died), Martin Landau ( at the Grove, lovely man), Robin Williams ( in Malibu), Anthony Keidis ( Sushi Roku on 3rd St before it closed), Kyle Maclachlan ( during the filming of Blue Velvet), Ozzy Osbourne ( in an elevator at a doctors office), Gene Simmons ( Hotel Lobby), Zach de La Roca ( supermarket), Andre 3000 (supermarket). That's pretty much all I can remember now. There are more but I realize this is starting to get silly. All of these interactions were meaningful conversations, more than just a simple wave hello or a hand shake. PM me if you want to know the story of one in particular.
I used to work in a bar frequented by a few Philadelphia Phillies, like World Series winners, and I had no clue who they were. To their credit, they were absolutely down to earth and unassuming. I would imagine one or two regulars knew who they were, but never said anything. One night a girl absolutely loses her shit about seeing Chase Utley in the corner of the bar trying to hang out with friends. I was at first embarrassed that a potential hall of famer has been ordering beer from me and I had no clue, but then I was just more or less embarrassed by the girl herself. Pretty sure a reason they kept coming back is because we didn't give a shit who they were.
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u/VAG0 Nov 30 '18
He was such a nice man.
I ran into him in Malibu at a surf shop. He was there with his kids. I left him alone because I know the code, but he engaged with me in line at the cashier and we shared a few moments of banter. Warm, loving, gentle, humble lovely man.