Don't I Know You?

I think one of the biggest misconceptions about sports stars is that they are constantly hounded everywhere they go. A lot of people may assume that these guys get swarmed by autograph seekers every time they go around a corner, but the reality is that most of the time pro athletes can slide in and out of places and only a handful of the most diehard fans will even recognize them. On top of that, while we hear the horror stories of people who can't go out into public because they won't be left alone, from what I have seen that only applies to the really intense (and slightly sad) super-fan, because while most people may stare they won't actually approach the person. Really, that level of super-stardom only applies to a very select group. You can tell how hard it is for most athletes to be recognized by the fact that if they are lucky enough to get a commercial, they are always wearing their uniform in it. Movie stars certainly don't need this. Tom Hanks doesn't have to be in costume from "Saving Private Ryan" to get noticed - his face is what makes him stand out from the crowd. Yet even Peyton Manning, who does more commercials than any athlete in history still has to be in uniform to be of any value to advertisers and if he isn't they always have a graphic on the screen to let people who don't watch sports know why they should care that this man wants you to buy a Buick. That certainly isn't needed for movie stars because while I couldn't tell you the last movie Brooke Shields was in I certainly recognize her face when you see it.

Obviously there are plenty of athletes who stand out from a crowd because of their physical stature. But even when you see a really tall person walking down the street you may think they play basketball but you have to be a very heavy NBA fan to know which team they play on. And for as big as most football players are they are next to impossible to recognize in everyday life because they are wearing helmets when they play. Same goes with hockey players. But if you were ranking athletes in terms of fame I would put baseball players near the very bottom of this list. They have been hit with the double-whammy in that not only do most people look totally different with a baseball hat on versus off (you laugh, but there is a reason people who rob banks still use them), you don't exactly have to have the body of a god to play their sport. If you saw most baseball players in any other setting you would just think he was a kind of in-shape guy, but not that he had the physique of a professional athlete. Even a place which claims to have the smartest fans in baseball have trouble with this, as Jimmy Fallon set out to prove. Matt Harvey is off to a great start in his first full season for the Mets. He's appearing in magazine and is probably the second-most popular player on a team in the biggest media market in America. He just started tonight's All-Star Game, so you would think he would have the entire city eating out of the palm of his hand. Apparently not.