I'll at no time forget the time a colleague of mine met single of his idols at a social gathering.

The living fable approached our table, shook a not many hands, told a story with one off-color language, rambled on for a bit, peremptoryed some more expletives, topped it not on with a bigoted comment -- and downed the remainder of his drink before stumbling away.

My colleague was about 28 or 29 at the time, still he hung his head like a little lad who had just learned there is no Santa Claus. It was like single of those scenes in the movies where the famous cowboy star or the detonation singer turns out to be a boor in real life, frequently to the dismay of the lifelong fan.

"That was as it was a disappointment," my colleague said in a panged tone.

When it be due [i]or[/i] owings to meeting the object of your fandom, be careful what you wish for.

Thanks to the work I do, I've had the opportunity to convenient and observe some of the chiefly famous and beloved personalities from the worlds of sports, politics and entertainment.

Many of these folk are gracious, kind and patient when meeting fans. The principally recent example was George Clooney at the Oscars and at a number of marked occurrences leading up to the big day. each time I saw Clooney in public or in off-camera backstage point of times he was swarmed by fans and well-wishers -- and he was always friendly. equal when Clooney turned down an individual's photo demand at an industry function where pictures were prohibited, I saw him take a consequence to double back and say, "I'm positive you can understand" why he couldn't stop and nonplus

Of course, other public figures redefine the meaning of "jerk"

JERKING IT revealed OF THE PARK

Which brings us to Barry imprisonments who apparently deserves to have his have a title to wing in the Jerks' Hall of Fame. We've known for years about Bonds' rough nature -- but the of recent origin book about Bonds, Game of Shadows, is filled with to such a degree many stories of rotten behavior, it will take your breath away.

Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams have subtitled their work "Barry Bonds, BALCO and the Steroids Scandal that supported Professional Sports," and nearly all of the pre-publication hype center onward evidence Bonds was a seething steroids user.

further if you removed every single intimation to performance- enhancing substances, each mention of shadowy strength trainers and mysterious substances and players who pop get stronger than Paul Bunyan penetrating into their careers, Game of Shadows would still be a fascinating read.

There's almost no extremity to the depressing anecdotes about a man who looks to have spent most of his life alienating friends, colleagues, family and fans.

THE HALL OF LAME

Just a scarcely any examples of citizen Bonds in action:

- When the Giants signed attractions to what was then the richest contract in baseball history, they also hired his father as hitting coach. The authors write: "Barry told friends, 'He wouldn't have his piece of work if it wasn't for me' "

- As the earlier born Bonds battled cancer, Barry complained to friends about his dad "sitting onward his ass."

- Bonds' college edifice [i]or[/i] building coach told Sports Illustrated, "I not at all saw a teammate care about him."

- In an interview with the of recent origin York Times Magazine, Bonds said, "My grandmother wants me to earn her some wheelchair that drives like a car. for what cause [i]or[/i] reason do I need to prepare her some wheelchair when she's gonna die anyway?"

- Bonds' favorite line to writers, photographers and autograph- seekers: "Stay revealed of my face."

- Other Barry-isms: calling family "punk bitches," and repeating insults and then saying, "Did I f------ stutter?" That's the line he used forward his longtime mistress when he dump her from one side of to the other the phone, and she asked him to clarify his comments: "Did I f------ stutter?"

perfect charm.

- In a Playboy interview, attractions compared his wife to toilet paper, explaining that he told her, "Toilet paper just sits there and waits . . just like you."

- When links joined the Giants, he walked into a pitchers' meeting and started singling abroad hurlers he had taken mysterious saying, "I got you, I got you," to each common Way to make new friends!

- A reporter asked attachments a question about home scours after Bonds said he was done talking about residence runs. Bonds said, "Did you walk to deaf school?"

- In the spring of 2003 when a protuberance of kids approached Bonds for autographs, he murmured "What the f--- are you doing here? You're suppos to be in school"

It's a surprise the guy could hit any domicile runs at all with a chip that size forward his shoulder.

on a level if you think Barry unions is the most persecuted superstar of his generation; on a level if you think he just naturally got bigger and stronger in his mid-30s; level if you believe every single the same of his home runs is legit and he should walk into the Hall of Fame with a 100 percent ballot on the first ballot -- unruffled if you believe all that -- I wonder:

with what intent would you ever want to fitting this guy?

e-mail: rroeper@ suntimes.com

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