I feel the same as Alex.
There are a couple of reasons that stick out to my mind. Let’s start with the bigger one.
When I was younger (12 or 13, I forget), I lived in New England, 45 minutes or so from Boston. We went to a Yankees and Red Sox game at Fenway (it was an evening game). We were there earlier in the day and we went to this shopping area (I’m thinking it was Copley Place, maybe, or something like that) and we’re walking around when a guy goes past us and my Dad says… I think that was David Wells.
I wanted to get his autograph. So, I turned around and walked after him, made sure it was him (“Are you David Wells?” :) I was just a kid here, a huge Yankee fan and a foot away from a professional baseball player – what do you expect?) and I asked if he could sign my hat (I had a pen). I was polite. I believe I asked as we were both walking (my parents and brother a way behind). He said yeah and that he just had to go upstairs (by this time were in a big room off of the main shopping area with elevators – no closed doors, it was wide open – I didn’t follow him into any area I shouldn’t have been), so we waited. He never came back. I think we waited 2 or 3 hours before it was time to see the game and we left. Guess who was pitching that night?
The thing is, people make mistakes and that’s cool, I understand. He probably forgot 2 seconds after he said it. Keep in mind that there were no other people, there was no crowds. I mean, we’re not talking about some superstar here, no one even recognized him besides us. It was just us. He could have stopped for 30 seconds and signed my hat (and maybe my 7 or 8 year old brothers hat) and then gone upstairs. But, no, he had to say that he would be back down to do it. Heck, telling me that he was sorry, but he had to do something right away would have been better than saying that he’d be back down. I imagine he didn’t give it a second thought and it isn’t a big deal, but after seeing what Alex wrote, I thought I’d go ahead and get this down in writing here.
The other reason is his attitude. I mean, last year I read that he stopped throwing between starts and that didn’t please Torre and Stottlemyre. Later, before his start in the World Series, he’s talking about how he doesn’t need to train like Pettitte and Clemens – he has a rubber arm. Guess what he does in his start, a World Series start, where we need good, reliable pitching? 1 IP. Hurt back. Gah.
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