Alex Rios on Youtube

[Mustard_Tiger]

Not to drag this topic out, but apparantely that kid is 16, and hounds the players all year for autographs. From my source, he doesn't sound like an innocent little kid.

I'm not surprised.

[youngLion]

Not to drag this topic out, but apparantely that kid is 16, and hounds the players all year for autographs. From my source, he doesn't sound like an innocent little kid.

Since this incident stories have started to emerge about autograph dealers doing really sketchy things like paying kids to get autographs from players so that they can be resold. Obviously we don't know if this was the case for this kid but it's a definite possibility.

[YogiStewart]

Was always a Rios fan but after this I think he should be run out of town, disgusting display by not signing the autograph for the kid and them proceeding to throw f bombs while the kid stood there.

Dude can GTFO out of my country

when you say "my country", do you mean that figuratively or literally?

because I assume you mean figuratively, since I've heard worse on Canadian soil and am not sure what the country has to do with a guy being a jerk.

[YogiStewart]

i see this in a few different ways.

first, when i was a kid, i was always at the Winnipeg Arena at 5 PM in the middle of the winter just to see the players walk in from the bus. i would say hi to them and ask some of them to sign my hockey cards. why? because that's what kids do. i also asked Bob Essensa if he was going to get a shutout that night (the Oilers then scored 4 goals on the first 5 shots and I was so upset that he blamed me).

I remember the Oilers coming into the arena. Mark Messier was there and I had his rookie card. again, i was probably 14 at the time. i handed him a marker and a card and politely asked for his autograph. he took only the marker and proceeded to keep on walking. i had no idea what he was doing. so i walked with him. about 7, 8 steps later, he silently gave me an autograph. i thought that his silence and taking the marker was an incredibly jerky thing to do to a kid. and after that, his autograph meant nothing to me.

What's it to a player to give out a SIGNATURE to someone, whether a kid or adult? i assume it gets annoying when sweat-panted collectors are doing it for profit, but even so...is it that much of a big deal?

on the flip side...life would be so annoying if people hounded you every time you were out in public. pictures, autographs, strangers staring at you...it must weigh down on you after a while.

I also know that Rios is not the brightest light. my "source" (and yes, i have a damn good baseball source and hear all sorts of juice about the Jays and other teams) tells me of Rios enjoying the single life in Toronto. want to see the man in action? go to Montana's after a home game. he's known to enjoy "take out". and i am not talking about the food.

you cannot blame Rios if he was born dumb. you cannot blame him if its cultural to tell someone to F off (no idea if it is and I am not playing that card). but you would hope the team or his agent or MLB teaches guys every year how they should deal with fans and media.

finally, he was at a fundraiser. maybe he had a few drinks after playing a crap game. so perhaps it was circumstance and liquor talking, not the "real" Rios.

[Avenger]

i see this in a few different ways.

first, when i was a kid, i was always at the Winnipeg Arena at 5 PM in the middle of the winter just to see the players walk in from the bus. i would say hi to them and ask some of them to sign my hockey cards. why? because that's what kids do. i also asked Bob Essensa if he was going to get a shutout that night (the Oilers then scored 4 goals on the first 5 shots and I was so upset that he blamed me).

I remember the Oilers coming into the arena. Mark Messier was there and I had his rookie card. again, i was probably 14 at the time. i handed him a marker and a card and politely asked for his autograph. he took only the marker and proceeded to keep on walking. i had no idea what he was doing. so i walked with him. about 7, 8 steps later, he silently gave me an autograph. i thought that his silence and taking the marker was an incredibly jerky thing to do to a kid. and after that, his autograph meant nothing to me.

What's it to a player to give out a SIGNATURE to someone, whether a kid or adult? i assume it gets annoying when sweat-panted collectors are doing it for profit, but even so...is it that much of a big deal?

on the flip side...life would be so annoying if people hounded you every time you were out in public. pictures, autographs, strangers staring at you...it must weigh down on you after a while.

I also know that Rios is not the brightest light. my "source" (and yes, i have a damn good baseball source and hear all sorts of juice about the Jays and other teams) tells me of Rios enjoying the single life in Toronto. want to see the man in action? go to Montana's after a home game. he's known to enjoy "take out". and i am not talking about the food.

you cannot blame Rios if he was born dumb. you cannot blame him if its cultural to tell someone to F off (no idea if it is and I am not playing that card). but you would hope the team or his agent or MLB teaches guys every year how they should deal with fans and media.

finally, he was at a fundraiser. maybe he had a few drinks after playing a crap game. so perhaps it was circumstance and liquor talking, not the "real" Rios.

he had a bad day on the field that day, he was 0-5 with 5 strikeouts. The last thing he needed that day was to take the "you're a bum" crap from a some douchebag

[hsb]

I just find it odd the man called him a bum while Rios was entering one of the nicest cars I've seen with some hot, hot woman.

I never really understood the fascination with getting someones signature too. After a Blue Jays game at the Skydome, I went up near the field and got an autograph from someone on the other team. After I got it, I looked at it, and thought what the hell is the point of this.

Felt the same when I saw some kid at Wonderland begging Vince Carter for an autograph. I actually felt more bad for Vince trying to ignore the kid.