Colorado Rockies pitcher Pat Neshek can identify with fans and collectors who collect autographs.
He’s a collector, too.
Since his college days, Neshek has collected vintage cards, autographs and memorabilia and after spending several years in the big leagues himself, he’s accumulated thousands of signed cards. He’ll even trade with fans who have duplicates and posts his mailing address on social media, always signing for fans who send a self-addressed, stamped envelope. He says he’ll pass his collection on to his children when they’re older.
You’d think being a player means he’d have no trouble getting autos from every other guy in uniform—and for the most part, it’s true.
Zach Grienke is one exception to the rule.
Neshek posted a recent interaction with the Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher on the SportsCollectors.Net forum and his story about a not-so-pleasant encounter with his pitching colleague has gotten a lot of attention.
Never one to shy away, Neshek has been responding to a few collectors on Twitter who’ve asked about the incident, indicating that while he’s been turned down before and has no issue with players who won’t sign for him or anyone else, his main beef is that Grienke acted as if Neshek was lying to him about that meeting at the All-Star Game earlier this year.
He also posted Wednesday morning about some other notoriously difficult players and indicated fellow pitcher/collector Brad Ziegler has also gotten the shaft from Greinke, whose reputation apparently isn’t the best among the workaday folks in the clubhouse.
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