Brewmaniac

With sports stars making millions, being convicted of assault, possesssion, dui and the whole steroid controversy.

Kids and adults still look up to these sports hero's wanting to believe they are the answer to their sports fantasy. Where the good guys(insert your team here) always win and you are lucky enough to catch the game winning ball!

But back to reality, I thought this was a nice goodwill article!

http://www.poststar.com/articles/200...9576203678.txt

Hockey with a heart: Team stops bus after boy misses out on getting autographs

By WARREN ALBER, alber@poststar.com
Wednesday, October 4, 2006 6:20 AM EDT

LAKE GEORGE -- Ayden Murphy thought making up a story about why he was absent from Mrs. Wykes' third-grade class at Hudson Falls Primary School on Tuesday might be necessary, because the truth, he said, is unbelievable.

Murphy, an 8-year-old hockey fan who roots for the New York Rangers, went to the Lake George Forum on Tuesday with his mom, Jessica, to watch their favorite team practice.

Jessica had thought ahead and washed Ayden's authentic New York Rangers jersey, which Ayden had worn during his Adirondack Youth Hockey Association team practices, hoping Ayden might be able to get an autograph, any autograph, on it.

They waited in the lobby when the players filed by going into practice, but he was not able to get a signature.

They waited in a cluster of fans near the player exits, and got lost in the shuffle of other autograph seekers.

In one last-ditch effort, they scrambled out to the parking lot, and Ayden waited with his mom near the team bus.

After he finally made it to the front of the line, Ayden's hopes were dashed when the doors closed and the bus started pulling away. His jersey didn't even have a scribble on it.

"We just wanted to get one autograph," Jessica Murphy said. "He would have been happy with one."

Jessica was trying to console her son, his head on her shoulder, when suddenly the bus stopped, and New York Rangers head coach Tom Renney stepped out.

"He came off the bus and he was like, 'Young man, come here,' and he was looking right at Ayden," Jessica Murphy said. "I told Ayden, 'Go,' and he took him right on the bus."

"I thought they were going to take me to New York City, and I was ready to go," Ayden said.

Once inside, Ayden walked down the aisle of the bus, and each and every player on the team signed his jersey.

"I saw the bus stop," Lake George Forum Hockey and Ice Program Manager Tara McMillen said, "and then a bunch of people came in saying, 'You wouldn't believe what the Rangers just did.' But I believe it.

"That organization's wonderful. If they weren't Rangers fans, they are now."

The Murphys are Rangers fans, and Ayden has a keepsake -- and a story to tell his classmates that he could not make up.

"We're going to go out and get a frame for it, and I'm going to hang it in my room," Ayden said. "And tomorrow, when I get to school, I'm going to tell everybody just what I did -- I got on the bus and got everybody's autograph."

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"That's a joke... I say, that's a joke, son"

Toaster126

Cute story. I think the issue is just an individual thing. Sometimes people are good about that sort of thing, sometimes they aren't. Not to mention they can have good and bad days just like everyone else.

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"The question isn't who is going to let me, it's who is going to stop me." (Ayn Rand)
"The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers." (M. Scott Peck)

Brewmaniac

That's very true, I'm sure a player or team is less likely to sign autographs if they just go beaten badly!

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"That's a joke... I say, that's a joke, son"

jorgelito

Thanks Brew, it's nice to hear stories like this.

streak_56

Definately a nice story... nice to hear that every million dollar player or even the hundred thousand player are not as big as dicks as some might be seen as!

spectre

That's an awesome story. I like hearing stuff like that.
That's very true. I've met several players from the Bears before, and some are better about it than others. There are two in particular that stand out, one current and one former (but was on the team at the time). Alex Brown and Jerry Azumah. Alex Brown was at a place to have photos taken with fans, once it was done, his wife was there with their baby and it was pretty obvious she wanted to leave. He stood there and signed anything and everything anyone put in front of him. I'd swear, after that he was hunting people down so he could sign more stuff. It doesn't surprise me though since I once saw him on Jim Rome is Burning and he talked about meeting LT back when he was a teen, and LT bitched him out for asking for an autograph, he said he would never do the same. Jerry Azumah was equally cool. He was at the same place, but the next day and was looking around some of the shops. There were a bunch of security guys around him and they were blocking the entrance to the place. They asked him to go out the back way to avoid the crowd and his response was, "we're going out the front and we're waiting until they're done with me." Two very cool guys who understand that it's the fans that make them such icons.

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"Fuck these chains
No goddamn slave
I will be different" ~ Machine Head

Borla

I think it is individual by individual. I was at a Cubs-Cardinals game late in the year that McGwire hit 70 HRs. Towards the end of batting practice he was near the dugout, and he signed dozens of autographs, almost all for people with kids, or for the kids themselves. I thought it was very classy.

Also, at a couple of Bulls games early in his career, I was fortunate enough to have floor seats and see Elton Brand take time to sign autographs for many kids. Once, between the early shootaround and the time the teams came out to the bench, he stood in an entranceway and signed autograph after autograph at the edge of the stands, always looking for the smallest face to reach for what they were holding. To me, that was a sign of a good guy.

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Coimhéad fearg fhear na foighde!!!!

Aro23

that's a nice gesture from players to give something like that to the kid.