When he played a game in Detroit my wife and son had an encounter with him. They call him Pete the Jerk.
Paine changed later on. He became pretty nice. It took a while for the players and volunteers to trust him.
Phil Mickelson is adored by fans, and distinctly disliked by golf professionals.
His nickname on the tour is supposedly FIGJAM, standing for Fuck I’m Great, Just Ask Me.
Not really. Long before the steroid fiasco and the Piazza incident, Clemens had the reputation for having a short fuse. That was one reason why despite his on-filed success he never became as marketable figure for MLB as, for example, Derek Jeter. Also, Boston Red Sox fans place Roger Clemens is in the same category as Judas and Benedict Arnold after allegedly dogging it during his last few seasons in Boston and signing with the hated Yankees a few years later.
I met him at a charity event a few years ago. Seemed as civil as anyone, and he was indeed donating his time.
I’d suspect he may have a form of Asperger’s were he not so physically gifted. He’s very socially awkward, yet very evenhanded. I’ve never really gotten the jerk vibe from him–more the “leave me alone” thing.
He certainly was in his youth, by his own admission. He grew up so poor in Houston’s 5th Ward that he’d go to school hungry and find an empty greasy paper bag on the way so he could pretend that he’d already eaten his lunch. Growing up in hunger and poverty made him angry and mean as hell so that he took to brawling, and by age 14 he was mugging and robbing as well. In his early career he wasn’t the beloved “Big George” he is now; he was a scary, firebreathing mankiller from the streets. Age and wealth have supposedly softened him into a pretty nice guy now.
Ah, hence the grill that bears his name. Full circle and all that. Nice.
I don’t think people did love him that much. I don’t think I’ve heard any player be booed as loudly and as often as Rose was, except maybe Reggie Jackson.
Seriously. A lot of that bio was from an NPR interview where they were asking him about how he felt about his grill being a tool for the homeless to cook for themselves, and he was touched and inspired to tell his interviewers about how much that meant to him because of his experiences growing up hungry and deeply angry as a child. It’s odd to hear - I guess you don’t realize that a child could actually grow up in the U.S missing most of their meals for the day in elementary school, but that’s what happpened. It was really, really sad to hear him talking about growing up missing meals and hungry and full of hatred. The interview is on NPR if anyone wants to search.
I believe you, I just find it odd and sort of amusing that he would turn his rage into a multimillion dollar enterprise selling indoor grills. I recall the commercials, I don’t think he was marketing the grill to the needy. I do have to say though that short of a real outside kind of grill, those things were pretty versatile for cooking indoors.
I believe as a transplanted outsider Cincinnatian looking inside lo these hoary 20 years that more and more people are less and less overwhelmed by the legend of Pete Rose and more and more aware of the douchebaggery that is now his legacy.
'Course, the Reds being a joke for about 20 years has something to do with that too, along with Marge Schott, etcetera.
That guy is an unrepentant asshole. Fuck him.
Absolutely - don’t get me wrong, I’m not excusing anything Foreman has ever done, I’m just passing the story along. The man and the grill are what they are.
I wouldn’t know. But I met him a couple of years ago and I can tell you he does a fine impersonation of a friendly, humble, all-around classy guy.
At some point after the Rumble in the Jungle, didn’t GF find God and become a minister of some kind?
But back at the time, he was considered little more than an illiterate violent thug with superhuman punching power. Folk were concerned that he would seriously injure Ali.
Tiger Woods definitely had the cleanest image and therefore fell the hardest.
I’m not familiar with such information…you can count me among those who always heard that Puckett was a good guy. Please elaborate.
Yeah, just one man in baseball can’t simply WILL his team to a title. They throw the ball, he hits it, period. Maybe makes a catch or two. What’s a brother gonna do other than that, to make his team win?
But yeah, a prick. Even here in SF, people think he’s a prick, just our prick.
Joe
Scroll down to “controversy.” Maybe there’s more, but this is what I remember being prickish.
Joe
Bobby Hull is his playing days was loved as a guy who would delay the team bus so he could sign autographs yet was a wife-beater at home (which was not made public).
Manduck:
Interesting, I recall Reggie being so beloved that even after he left the Yankees, he was cheered as a visitor in Yankee Stadium.
But maybe he was booed in cities where he never played for the home team?