Originally Posted by SteveG34

Sorry you had a bad experience with Cepeda.

I've met him 3 times over the years--all in NY at various BAT Dinner functions.

The first time I met him, he was cranky, but signed.

Then this spring rolled around.....a friend and I went to dinner with him--just the three of us. I was able to ask him questions during dinner and try to open him up--he was funny, engaging and interesting. (He let me wear his HOF ring during dinner--which was pretty cool.) One of the conversations that came up was signing autopgraphs. Long story short--he's SICK of it. He hates it. He's 70 years old and has been doing this for 30+ years and is just flat out sick of signing. He told me that right after we finished eating, he had to go back to his hotel room to sign stickers for UD which would be placed on cards in packs. He had to do over 1000 for them, and said that his fingers were actually hurting.

The next day--he spotted me in a room with 1000+ people, smiled, waved me over and said that he wishes that we could go right now back to the restaurant from the night before for a quiet, terrific meal. He's a great guy deep down, but I fear his patience with the public is shot.

We also talked about his travel schedule--he's all over the place. Most people at his age are home, retired with a calm schedule. He's on a plane several times a month doing stuff.

On another note--right after I left that dinner, I had to drive my car back to the hotel....while Cepeda and my friend took a cab back. By the time I got there, they were already back. My buddy said that some guy got in the elevator with them as they were going to their rooms and begged Cepeda to sign a ball because he was in the Puerto Rican Armed Forces and some other long story. My buddy said the guy would NOT stop begging Cepeda to sign, so he finally grabbed the ball and scribbled on it and then went to his room. Cepeda told my buddy that it'd be easier for him to just sign something on the ball to get him to go away, than to have the guy bang on his door while he was sleeping for an autograph.

Seriously fellas--this is what its come to. If this is what goes on with Orlando Cepeda, can you imagine what ARod, Jeter or David Wright go through on a daily basis?

While I am not defending his cranky behavior by any means, I'm just trying to show another side to the story. Lots of these guys are just flat out burnt out with signing, and dealing with clowns who follow them around their hotel, etc.

SG