January of 2005. Family was flying back from Dallas to San Diego when i noticed a very tall guy across the aisle from me. Nudged my brother and said “yo is that Chris Young!?” We both thought no way hes in the back of the plane with us.
Then he whipped out a book titled something like “the art of pitching” and we both were like “it HAS to be him!”
I never like to bug celebrities or athletes so i waited until we landed to ask him if he was Chris Young. He was super nice and said “yeah! Are you guys Padres fans!?” I thought itd be cool if he signed my boarding pass and he was totally down for it.
Anyone else got any cool stories meeting a Padre? I also apparently met and got an autograph from Dave Winfield at SeaWorld but i was too young to remember that one haha.
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I grew up in the same general area where Tony Gwynn lived in Poway. My sister and I got his autograph three times at the same gas station, all on school notebook paper. All still live in photo family albums. He was truly the best.
I have a Lolita’s burrito tray signed by Wil Myers. My mom used to be the manager there and he always came in before games.
Got one from Mark McGwire after batting practice in ’98, I think it was the day he hit #53 or somewhere around there. I was 11 and brought his rookie card to the game in case the opportunity came. I was up in the stands on the third base side and he made a bee line for the section I was in so I started hopping over seats and squirming through crowds shamelessly to get to the front. He only signed about 5 autographs before walking away and I happened to be one. Never selling that shit.
Got Lou Piniella’s in a spring training game ’99. He had a reputation for being a mean guy so it was unexpected and he was super cool about it. My friend and I got about 30 that day but none of the stars signed anything so that was about the only notable one.
Tony Gwynn Fleer rookie card by the dugout mid game somewhere in the 96-99 era, he vehemently denied that the picture was of him