No winners in lame autograph spat between ex-Twin Neshek, Greinke
Do you enjoy weird arguments between professional athletes in which neither person looks good?
Not really, right? It’s kind of uncomfortable.
And yet here we are with this story:
*Former Twins pitcher Pat Neshek, who went to high school at suburban Park Center and has been an autograph collector for quite some time, apparently has been trying for a while to get some memorabilia signed by star pitcher Zack Greinke.
*Both pitchers were All-Stars this season, and Neshek says he asked Greinke at that game if he would sign some stuff. Neshek said Greinke agreed to do it, but when their teams met later — Neshek is with the Rockies and Greinke is with the Diamondbacks, teams that could meet in the postseason by the way — Greinke said he wasn’t going to sign cards for Neshek.
On an open forum for card collectors, Neshek wrote that after getting the no message he, 1) waited around for Greinke during batting practice to ask him why and that Greinke denied having the conversation with him at the ASG. 2) Confronted Greinke a couple minutes later and “told him what I thought of him.” On the forum, Neshek also called Greinke a “turd” as well as an unflattering term for a body part from which a turd might depart.
Greinke at one point apparently told Neshek that he wouldn’t even sign if it was Neshek’s kid who asked for the autograph — a pretty lame comeback and a particularly awful choice of words, even if unintentionally so, given Neshek had a newborn son who died in 2012.
Neshek wrote of Greinke, “being the socially awkward guy he is ran back to the dugout and went inside.” Greinke has had a well-chronicled battle with social anxiety disorder, so calling him a “socially awkward guy” is decidedly uncool.
Basically: Nobody should have to sign anything for Neshek, but it’s a cool hobby. If Greinke said he would and then didn’t, I can see why it would irk a collector.
But man … just stop there and take the loss instead of badgering the guy and publicizing this dumb argument — and leaving us with no sympathy for either pitcher in the process.