So did any of you guys read the article on how Ken Griffey Jr. handled a heckler when they were playing the Los Angeles Dodgers over the weekend?

Basically as the story goes a Dodgers fan was sitting near the Reds dugout, and felt the need to heckle and yell and Griffey every chance that he could get. Having fun with it, Griffey started to fire back at the fan, who was larger in size with “Shouldn’t you be wearing a support bra?”. Then during the 6th inning Griffey sent somebody into the clubhouse to get the largest jock strap they had.

The Dodger fan was having a good time with it, and started twirling it around like a helicopter or a stripper, what ever trips your trigger. After a few more innings and some exchanged smiles, when Griffey came back in, the fan apologized to him and was telling him what he really thought of him. It pretty much boiled down to Griffey still having the prettiest swings in the majors, of which he still does.

See now this is what pro athletes should be all about. A good major of them will not give fans the time of day besides maybe signing a few autographs and posing for some pictures before and after a game. This still proves why Griffey is still in the league after all of his injuries. He still loves the game of baseball. He turned an opposing fan who was heckling the entire game into a life long fan with a simple joke.

Griffey is just one of those rare class acts still in professional sports today. A lot of players would have either ignored the fan and gone about their business and/or made some sort of obscene gesture towards the fan. The story did give me a good little chuckle when I read it earlier this week.

* EDIT *

So I was just reading another article about MLB possibly playing some exhibition games in China, and Bob DuPuy, MLB’s Chief Operating Officer had comments about player/heckler interation.

He also spoke out against player interaction with heckling fans during games. Thus far this season, Cincinnati’s Ken Griffey Jr. autographed an athletic supporter and threw it at a fan in Los Angeles, and Toronto’s Vernon Wells threw an autographed ball with a message to a fan in Cleveland.

“It’s inappropriate and won’t be condoned,” DuPuy said.

Seriously, as long as the players are being obscene and both parties are having a good time with it, is it that big of a deal?