It has been brought to my attention that one of your members who goes by the name of BeanTownJim has been spreading rumors about the two of us having some kind of standing coffee date on Thursday mornings at a Starbucks here in Boston. Gimme me a break.
I don?t know if any of you guys have ever had the misfortune of actually meeting BeanTownJim but I can tell you from first hand experience that it is not something that I would recommend. The first time I ran into Jimbo, I was standing at a news stand in South Boston picking up a copy of the Globe when this creep with hair all over his body approached me to ask for an autograph. This creature was drunk and literally slobbering on my coat sleeve while his companion (a Russian man I think) was doing his best to hold him up without dropping the bottle of vodka the two of them were sharing. I quickly scribbled an autograph on a scrap of paper and hurried along without any further conversation. As I ran away from this pair, I heard the first guy screaming after me ?I love you Peter, I love ALL PETERS!" It was a scary to incident to say the least.
Not long after this initial encounter, I was at the Starbucks on State Street enjoying my bottomless cup of coffee when this BeanTownJim character plops down in the seat next to me at my table and starts blabbering about old times like we had known each other since childhood. While I did remember our first meeting (who could forget this guy with all of the hair poking out of the back of his collar) I finally got him to slow down long enough to get a word in. I explained that while I was glad to see him again
, I had to leave for an appointment that I was late for.
At this point, BeanTownJim insisted on introduced himself to me and pulled out a picture of me which he had cut from Sports Illustrated. You guys are not going to believe this but BeanTownJim had taken the autographed scrap that I had previously given him and glued it to this magazine cut-out. At least I think it was glue as the picture was covered with some type of sticky substance and he told me that he slept with it under the covers every night. :scared He went on to tell me that he had this ?autographed picture? up on EBay and that he was trying to auction it off for $5,000.00 and he wanted to know if I would autograph a few more and went on and on about how we were going to get rich, and how we could get a condo together, and did I know how much he loved me, and so on until I was scared to death!
Fellas, as you might imagine, by this time I was ready to get away from this freak and it took all four of the Starbucks? employees to hold BeanTownJim back so that I could escape. Since that day, BeanTownJim has stalked me to five other Starbucks and every time I walk into one of these places, I have to case the joint to be sure he is not lurking in the corner waiting to pounce. I think I am going to start having my coffee at Einstein?s from now on.
The last straw with this idiot occurred on what was supposed to be one of the greatest days of my life. For those of you who don?t know, on July 31st of this year, I was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. Despite all of the awards I have earned over my 35 years of journalism, this was without a doubt the biggest honor ever bestowed on me. As I made my way to the Hall that morning, lo and behold, there is BeanTownJim on a street corner in downtown Cooperstown, with a make-shift booth halking Xerox copies of my ?autographed? picture. He had this huge banner tied up to the streetlamp posts that said ?I GRIN WHEN PETER GETS IN?. Well, I turned tail and ran as fast as I could and as far as I could away from this embarrassing sight and it took my friends and family all morning to track me down and drag me to the ceremony.
While I am sure that you guys here at Mad Jack?s have many stories about BeanTownJim?s exploits, I only hope that he has not developed the same type of sick infatuation with any of you that I have experienced and I just pray to God this nut doesn?t crash the set of Sports Center some night and force the security guards to put him out of his misery.
Your fellow MJ?er,
Peter Gammons
P.S. If any of the rest of you guys would like a REAL autographed picture, just drop me an email at PeterG@CascadeSportsbook.com and I?ll have Lenny get them right out.
I don?t know if any of you guys have ever had the misfortune of actually meeting BeanTownJim but I can tell you from first hand experience that it is not something that I would recommend. The first time I ran into Jimbo, I was standing at a news stand in South Boston picking up a copy of the Globe when this creep with hair all over his body approached me to ask for an autograph. This creature was drunk and literally slobbering on my coat sleeve while his companion (a Russian man I think) was doing his best to hold him up without dropping the bottle of vodka the two of them were sharing. I quickly scribbled an autograph on a scrap of paper and hurried along without any further conversation. As I ran away from this pair, I heard the first guy screaming after me ?I love you Peter, I love ALL PETERS!" It was a scary to incident to say the least.
Not long after this initial encounter, I was at the Starbucks on State Street enjoying my bottomless cup of coffee when this BeanTownJim character plops down in the seat next to me at my table and starts blabbering about old times like we had known each other since childhood. While I did remember our first meeting (who could forget this guy with all of the hair poking out of the back of his collar) I finally got him to slow down long enough to get a word in. I explained that while I was glad to see him again
, I had to leave for an appointment that I was late for.At this point, BeanTownJim insisted on introduced himself to me and pulled out a picture of me which he had cut from Sports Illustrated. You guys are not going to believe this but BeanTownJim had taken the autographed scrap that I had previously given him and glued it to this magazine cut-out. At least I think it was glue as the picture was covered with some type of sticky substance and he told me that he slept with it under the covers every night. :scared He went on to tell me that he had this ?autographed picture? up on EBay and that he was trying to auction it off for $5,000.00 and he wanted to know if I would autograph a few more and went on and on about how we were going to get rich, and how we could get a condo together, and did I know how much he loved me, and so on until I was scared to death!
Fellas, as you might imagine, by this time I was ready to get away from this freak and it took all four of the Starbucks? employees to hold BeanTownJim back so that I could escape. Since that day, BeanTownJim has stalked me to five other Starbucks and every time I walk into one of these places, I have to case the joint to be sure he is not lurking in the corner waiting to pounce. I think I am going to start having my coffee at Einstein?s from now on.
The last straw with this idiot occurred on what was supposed to be one of the greatest days of my life. For those of you who don?t know, on July 31st of this year, I was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. Despite all of the awards I have earned over my 35 years of journalism, this was without a doubt the biggest honor ever bestowed on me. As I made my way to the Hall that morning, lo and behold, there is BeanTownJim on a street corner in downtown Cooperstown, with a make-shift booth halking Xerox copies of my ?autographed? picture. He had this huge banner tied up to the streetlamp posts that said ?I GRIN WHEN PETER GETS IN?. Well, I turned tail and ran as fast as I could and as far as I could away from this embarrassing sight and it took my friends and family all morning to track me down and drag me to the ceremony.
While I am sure that you guys here at Mad Jack?s have many stories about BeanTownJim?s exploits, I only hope that he has not developed the same type of sick infatuation with any of you that I have experienced and I just pray to God this nut doesn?t crash the set of Sports Center some night and force the security guards to put him out of his misery.
Your fellow MJ?er,
Peter Gammons
P.S. If any of the rest of you guys would like a REAL autographed picture, just drop me an email at PeterG@CascadeSportsbook.com and I?ll have Lenny get them right out.
