Fake Phillies Player Draws Crowd At FanFest

Chris Mottram is in New York City where he will be blogging from the 2008 MLB All-Star Game. Follow all of his posts throughout the week.

Cab to the Javits Center: $15. FanFest tickets for your family: $90. An official All-Star Game baseball for your son: $35. Your son's baseball after C. Yaeger signs his name on it: worthless.

Who is C. Yaeger, you ask? Well, he's the guy in the following video -- just an average dude, who happens to enjoy going to every Phillies game dressed up like a ballplayer, head-to-toe. He's tall, lean, in his 20s, so he pulls the look off. In other words, he could be easily confused for an actual ballplayer. But I can assure you, he is not. He works for a regional sports media company in Philly and never played ball beyond high school.

However, kids at the FanFest, with their underdeveloped little brains and thirst for autographs, do not know all this. So you see where this is going. Here's a taste of the feeding frenzy that occurred around Yaeger.

The video captures only a couple minutes of him defacing any and all overpriced memorabilia put in front of him, but this went on for about 15-20 minutes before the cops realized he was a fraud and finally escorted him out.

Let this be a lesson kids: This is why being a collector is stupid. I tease, I tease. But no, seriously, kids are idiots. And so are their parents. Everyone knows it's not an autograph worth getting unless you wait in line for a minimum of two hours.

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.