Brian "Cheesecake" McCann

[hoosjon]

I posted this on the Fantasy Baseball board, but I thought I'd share and ask y'all about your brushes with fame.

I've been a Braves fan all my life. I watched Glenn Hubbard and Dale Murphy when they were the only bright spots on the team. I have an autographed Rick Mahler ball that is still the only autographed baseball I've ever gotten (I guess I USED to be a cute kid, huh?)

Twice my friends have traveled from Virginia to Atlanta without me and seen a Brave in public, once Lemke running up the Marta escalator and once Glavine was on the phone next to a friend of mine, back in the days before cell phones were everywhere.

So a buddy of mine and I went to the 2nd two games up in Baltimore ... yeah, the losses.

After the Sat Nite game, we were hurrying to the ESPNzone, in order to see my beloved Cavaliers vs. the hated Bayou Bengals.

On the way there, my buddy smacks me in the arm and nods behind us. Brian McCann and a friend of his were right behind us. First time I've really had a brush with fame like this, so I sorta froze. I don't know why I was sure that he was headed to ESPNzone (probably the LAST place you want to go after a loss in an opponents' town) ... but I was shocked as all hell that he quickly ducked into the Cheesecake Factory. I never even had a chance to figure out what I would say.

My buddy and I still contend that he was loaded down with all that cheesecake and therefore couldn't get out of his crouch fast enough to pick off the first base-stealer on Sunday ... and then was replaced by David Ross. Let this be a lesson to y'all! (Don't eat cheesecake late at night before a day game!)

I'm sure y'all have TONS of stories way more interesting than mine, I was just curious about your brushes with Braves "in real life."

[Lauren T.]

I shared some of this on the old board, but I don't mind repeating if y'all don't mind re-hearing. I volunteered for over 10 years for a local charity that does a lot of work for the Braves. Two autumns ago, I was working a golf tournament and had the most live one-on-one time with players and coaches that I'd ever had in the past.

I was assigned to the hole-in-one contest hole on the course (hole #3, if you care). If you got a hole-in-one on #3 you won a little roadster-looking golf cart. It was pretty cute! So here are some of the people there that day...

John Schuerholz -- He was very friendly! Read my name tag, said, "Hi Lauren, I'm John Schuerholz. Thanks for being here." and shook my hand. Of course, I had to thank HIM for being there and bringing in so much $$ for the charity.

Charlie Liebrandt -- Standoffish. Had a GPS thingie that he used to estimate how far away the pin was. Much taller than I expected.

Joe Simpson -- Also standoffish and taller than expected (probably 6'3" or taller). Has extraordinarily long, thin legs.

Alejandro Pena -- Friendly, could tell I recognized him.

Gerald Perry -- Funny, very nice, wore a backwards newsboy cap instead of a baseball cap.

Ron Gant -- Simply adorable! Great smile, great build (his arms are totally cut), wearing a pretty light periwinkle golf shirt. Got friendlier as the team teed off, so by the end we were having a nice little chat.

Bobby Cox! -- Looks more like a bulldog in real life than on TV, if you can believe it. Good golfer, very nice. I told him I was sorry to see his 15-year streak of winning seasons end that year, and he looked very surprised that I knew that off the top of my head. He thanked me and said, "we'll do better next year." He has TERRIBLE teeth.

Chris Chambliss -- Neither nice nor standoffish -- just didn't seem to see us or care that we were standing there, but not in an "I'm actively ignoring you" way like Charlie Liebrandt and Joe Simpson.

Jeff Francoeur! -- Ultra friendly, very handsome in person. I took a picture of him with the other volunteer with me, and I thought she was going to die because when she sat beside him in the golf cart, he hugged her really close and she put her hand on his knee. She asked him about getting married (he said the plans were for next off-season) and I congratulated him on having such a good year. I saw him and Mac drive up in a burgundy Honda Accord. Stylin'! They came in together, almost an hour after registration started, and F literally looked like he rolled out of bed and drove up there! The first thing he asked when he was finished registering is if there was any food! Ha, he's such a boy.

Glenn Hubbard -- Ignored me on the course, but smiled and waved and smiled at me at the cart return area. Weird.

Brian McCann! -- (I'm cutting out all the description of his clothes, since y'all don't care. Except, he was wearing Georgia State University cap -- that was funny, since that's just a local state school and he's never been to college.) As he approached the tee box, the HoG photographer asked him if he could get a picture of Mac with "the volunteers". Mac said, "Of course," and walked over to me (making eye contact the whole way -- eeeee! Eye contact!) and held out his hand and said, "Hi, I'm Brian". (Of course you are!) Not bad hands -- smoother than I'd expect, but not like they'd been manicured, either. I introduced myself, shook his hand, and he turned a little to the other lady, shook her hand and just said, "Nice to meet you," then turned around and put his arm around me and pulled me in a little closer for the picture. I put my arm around his waist, and holy crap, did he smell nice. He put his other arm around the other lady, but she didn't reciprocate. He played with the prize golf cart a little too, and told us to "tell Jeff he can't fit in this...you know, Jeff Francoeur?". The end of that kind of trailed off a little, because the other lady became That Girl who's all, "Oh yes trust me I know Jeff Francoeur he's my favorite player and he should be coming up in two turns he's so handsome!!!!11!!!1!" (Which was funny, because she went a little bonkers and also funny that Mac would tell us to say that to Frenchy, since they were practically the same size at the time.) In between players, I told him, "You had an amazing season," and he looked a little embarrassed and thanked me, so I didn't say anything else. I wanted to say something about the Silver Slugger, but didn't want to be That Obnoxious Girl Who Wouldn't Stop Talking And Staring. His shot was the second-closest to the pin, and was the best at this point in the day (Frenchy came up after him). Also, he started at hole #16. How fitting!

Greg McMichael -- Smiled patronizingly at us, then ignored us.

Ernie Johnson, Sr. -- Recognized his voice but didn't recognize his face. He was just a friendly old man who was hitting on my counterpart.

Kyle Davies -- TV is good to him. He's not as handsome in person, and he was dipping. He actually spit just a few inches from my foot. Not cool. Just as standoffish as Charlie and Joe.

Terry Pendleton -- Filled in for a no-show and was an absolutely hilarious guy! He has HUGE arms (got a 2XL shirt and needed it!) and is shorter than I thought (probably 5'7"?). He made a lot of small talk with me (the other volunteer wasn't there yet) and when he asked what he had to do to win the little roadster, I told him that it was really based on my word and that I was taking bribes, with a little wink. He clapped really loud, laughed, and asked who had bribed me the most so far. I told him Schuerholz, and...I can't remember the next part of the conversation, but somehow we got to the point where he said that Schuerholz had better offer him a lot of money the next week! Then he said something about needing character references, and I told him I'd been watching him for a long time and he should have Schuerholz call me. He cracked up at that too, pointed at me and said to a teammate, "I like this girl." Really, such a nice man.

That's all from that day. Who's next? Anyone want to talk about their run-in with Yunie?

[Hillbilly]

Originally Posted by Lauren T.

That's all from that day. Who's next? Anyone want to talk about their run-in with Yunie?

Not really, but here goes:

I was in Houston for a week long training course. My hotel was a couple of blocks from the mall and I would go there and drink beer at the Fox Sports Grill everyday after class. It was Thursday (an off day) and the Braves had just flew in from Philadelphia I believe, for the last series of the 2008 season.

I had joked with my wife over the phone that I was going to find some of the players and party with them that night. Lo and behold, as I'm walking through the mall headed back to the hotel, I pass by Yunel Escobar and some other short, stocky, bowed up looking dude that I didn't recognize. YE was talking on his cell phone and gave me a head nod when he realized that I had recognized him. I waived and kept walking, but after thinking about it a little more, decided I'd better go back and see if he would sign something for me. My 6 year old daughter is a huge Escobar fan for some reason, and I knew I'd never live it down if I didn't at least try.

So for her sake, I went into the Hallmark Strore and asked for a pen and a piece of paper. The clerk looked at me funny and I told him there was a ball player outside and I was going to ask him for an autograph. He handed me a Post-It-Note and said "Wow is it Shaquille O'Neal?"

Stunned (at the Shaquille O'Neal thing), I shook my head and tracked them down again in a clothing store. I approached Yunel and said, "Excuse me Mr. Escobar?" (and yes I'm his elder, but it never hurts to be nice.)

His reply was, "Yes, but I'm not signing that." I turned around and walked out. Went to another sports bar and grill for more beer and saw him wandering through again, a little while later browsing around a couple of those little booths set up outside the stores. No one else ever approached him, so evidently I was the only one who knew who he was. It seemed like he wanted to keep it that way, too.

[CanadaBravesFan]

I have met a few of the guys in Montreal at the old Olympic Stadium. I made a nice catch on a BP HR from Javy Lopez and John Smoltz starts yelling at Andruw that the Braves are going to sign me and that he has to step up his play. I chatted with Smoltz and Remlinger and they were both great.

I also chatted with Leo and Glavine. Leo has an odd sense of humor. Glavine was very serious as if nobody existed.

The nicest Braves player that I met, HANDS DOWN, was John Rocker. He was very polite, said thank you to everyone who talked to him, and was a funny guy.

In the late 80's I was able to meet all of the Expos and the 2 nicest guys were actually future Braves. Dennis Martinez and Andres Galarraga were amazing! I chatted with them for close to 10 minutes about where I was from and the fact that they were going on a fishing trip up there when the season ended.

[Lauren T.]

Originally Posted by CanadaBravesFan

The nicest Braves player that I met, HANDS DOWN, was John Rocker. He was very polite, said thank you to everyone who talked to him, and was a funny guy.

Everyone I know who's met Rocker says the same thing. Good to know he was the same to you.

[BigWorm]

I've been to Spring Training numerous times, I've posted some pics in the past showing some of the autographs I've got. I have to say the nicest guy ever to sign an autograph for me was Mike Gonzalez. He was super cool and talked to us for a good couple of minutes before moving on to sign some more. Will Ohman was funny of course, when I asked him if he liked playing in Atlanta he said "yeah I look great in blue". Funny dude. The most awkward experience happened this year at the Autograph Fest at Turner Field this year. Poor Buddy Carlyle had a booth set up and there was no line. So I stepped up to give him some business, and I was searching to come up with something cool to say to him, so I went with "you working on anything new this year Buddy?" He looked at me like I just pooped in cheerios. His expression said it all, "what you think I need to?" if he would have asked me that, I would have said yes.

Peter Moylan always seemed nice, I've got his autograph a couple of times.
Tommy Hanson was at the Autograph Fest and was talking jovially to everyone.

My best friend caddies at one of the nicest golf clubs in Atlanta, he told me the worst experience he's ever had with someone famous was Kelly Johnson. He basically barked orders the whole time and didn't talk to him at all, my friend also said he was a lousy tipper. No dreamapalooza I didn't make that up.

[bravos4evr]

I once sucked out a two outer playing poker with Rocker in New Orleans. He was gracious.... But then again, he had called me down twice when I had the nuts so he pretty much knew I wasn't a slack player. He was a very cool guy for the 6 + hours we played hold em together.....

[sdp]

I met Marty Clary once. Yeah... it was pretty unexciting.