I have to say conclusively that the ultimate moment at any sporting event is to make a personal connection to one of the athletes. Have one toss you a ball, give a wave or a wink. To have one of the players acknowledge you, maybe even an autograph. Every kid hopes for the ball and lines for autographs and photos support my opinion.
Personally, I prefer photos with people I meet. You can buy autographs (while I’m not a fan of profiteering from this) but you can’t buy a legitimate photograph with someone. (Ok, yeah some folks charge for that and I think it’s deplorable unless benefitting a charity)
Now we have social media. Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, email, websites. I use them. Some of you use them. If you are reading this, yes you are using one form of social media too. Professional athletes use social media as well. Try “friending” one on Facebook. Good luck. Most reserve Facebook for family and friends but you do have the occasional athlete who is willing to accept new folks into their life. Some athletes blog, some post video journals on Youtube.
Then there’s Twitter. Twitter has become a mecca for athletes to communicate with their fans. “Hey you’re my favorite! How about a retweet!” Then the thrill when Jimmy Rollins retweets what you sent him. These folks post up to date information on their status, their lives and the teams.
Here is a more humor filled interaction between Green Bay Packer Clay Matthews and a very upset fan. Original article.
Clay Matthew sees this video and posts on Twitter, “D_mn you Megan and your sparkles!!” along with a link to the video.
I’m sure her sister, who posted the video, didn’t expect the video to be viewed close to 1 million times. She was probably still unhappy until she found that one of her favorite players agreed with her stance on sparkles.
The internet generation has a wonderful resource here. My generation stuffed envelopes with prized sports cards, a self addressed stamped envelope and the slim hope that our favorite athletes would take the time to sign our card and return it. (I sent out dozens of cards. Nolan Ryan, Gary Carter and Ken Griffey Sr. were the only to return them with an autograph.) Although being a kid in this generation gets you closer to the athletes we follow, I’d still rather share another beer with Andy Tracy than get a retweet. (Take that under 21 crowd 🙂
noisenation.mlblogs.com 
Here, Here!! Nothing like the good old days before all this techno babble!!! I’d rather have that beer with Andy Tracy or my pic taken with my fav. athlete as well.
I don’t understand the culture of hero worship, especially with minor leage baseball players. I enjoy and respect the talents that athletes have an display on their respective fields of play, but where is the fascination with these guys off the field coming from? With kids it’s easy to justify as their lives are ahead of them and they look to athletes as role models and people that they will aspire to be like. They don’t understand that their father most likely makes more money than a minor league journeyman. They see professional athletes and say “I want to be him someday”, so there will obviously be a lot of excitement when there is an interaction.
When you’re 40 or even 20 for that matter, this becomes an entirely different scenario. I would like to put it right out there that the retweeting craze is ridiculous. If I ask Jimmy Rollins for a retweet, what am I really asking for? It is a one-way interaction. He would not know who I am, not would he care. He would not say anything to me, rather he would just be echoing whatever I said in order to get the retweet. To me, this is just as exciting as my hotdog wrapper accidentally blowing onto the field and having him pick it up to throw away.
The need for adults to have immensely superficial and shallow “connections” with professional athletes is problematic, and I would argue symptomatic of a lack of self esteem. While kids look at professional athletes and say “I want to be like him”, adults instead convey a message of “I wish I could have been like him”. It is sad to see people de-value themselves like this.
I am not making the argument that there are no intriguing aspects of professional athletes. To have the opportunity to sit down with Ryno and hear about his long and storied playing career would be absolutely fascinating. There is something to be taken away from an experience like that. But to see grown adulta get a rise out of just basic human acknowledgement from professional athletes is very saddening to me.
Well put, Nathan, Dan and JimmyT.
At it’s best, Twitter offers a peek behind the curtain on the life of a professional athlete: the work they put in, the challenges and the ups and downs of their careers and personal lives. At the worst, it’s a playground for random retweets from tweeps trying to get “famous” through twitter, and vitriol from “fans” who think that sort of thing helps or hurts the athlete personally. Finally, many “official” twitter acounts are managed by the athlete’s PR/representative and not the person himself, at all (on the major-league level).
The role model issue is interesting as well. My boys certainly have plenty of real-life role models: parents, uncles, pastors, etc. However, they still look up to the players (on a personal level, NOT on Twitter). To them, they are larger than life. In some ways, literally as some of the players are BIG guys. They also appreciate that the players are lucky enough to play a game for a living, and that is impressive. Whatever reason, they relish the opportunity to have that interaction: be it an autograph, or a ball, or a picture, or a high-five or a few kind words or whatever. Most of the players realize this, but some don’t–which is a shame. In any case, it’s also been a good teaching point with regards to players who sometimes make bad plays (but are still good PEOPLE) and the fact that the players ARE just people, like anybody else, to be treated with respect and decency.
I could have been clearer in my original thought. When saying,
“the ultimate moment at any sporting event is to make a personal connection to one of the athletes”
I should have emphasized “at any sporting event.” My intentions were not to show the Hero status that some give professional athletes. I feel the media passes the word Hero around way too generously.
Thanks for commenting and appreciate your feedback!