If you’ve ever been credentialed to cover a sporting event of any kind you know the basic rule of sports journalism is simple: don’t ask the athletes for an autograph. It says it on most credentials, and almost every email you exchange with a PR person for a pro team will include some kind of warning against doing so.
Being an athlete bears no such restrictions, though, and in baseball it’s fairly common that players ask other players for autographs. It’s a quaint tradition, and baseball memorabilia is a special art of the game for many. One Major League pitcher, Pat Neshek, is a huge autograph hound. And he’s red and mad and nude online.
Turns out Neshek is a frequent poster on SportsCollectors.net, and he took to the boards to complain about an autograph signing with Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Zack Grinkie that went all wrong.
https://twitter.com/LONG_DRIVE/status/910189180185128960
“Greinke stiffed me once again,” the post began. “I asked him at the All-Star game if he would sign for me and he said he would… soon a couple weeks ago we played them and I sent over the cards I needed signed… basically three league leaders cards with (Clayton) Kershaw and (Adam) Wainwright already done and 2 from 2015 to complete the set. He said no.”
Neshek went up to Greinke personally during batting practice and the D-Backs pitcher shrugged him off, saying he wears him out, so to speak, or that he asks him to sign things too often. But Neshek claims he’s never gotten Greinke to sign anything.
“This is the only ahole in Major League Baseball that has been a turd to me,” Neshek wrote.
He also said he’s “done” with Grenkie and will trade with members of the collectors board to get the cards he needs.
Neshek took to Twitter with a bit of wit once he realized that his post on the forum had caused a bit of a stir outside of its membership.
https://twitter.com/PatNeshek/status/910527860116353024
The best part is, he quickly followed it up with an offer to sign some stuff of his own.
https://twitter.com/PatNeshek/status/910529266562899968
It’s a nice little bit of karma Neshek is putting out into the universe. Maybe someone will send him a Grinkie at some point and make things right.
(via AZ Central)
