We've all heard the stories of big leaguers too "busy" to sign autographs, or too "important" to be in a photo, or too, well, "Big League" to chat with normal people.

And until we have evidence to the contrary, those are the stories we tell ourselves about guys in The Show. We've heard so many stories about how the Barry Bonds or Jeff Kents treat fans that it's easy to believe that all Big Leaugers are jerks.

Easy to believe until you meet Kevin Kouzmanoff.

By at least 3 or 4 degrees of separation of a camper this week (Grandfather's friend's Aunt's nephew or something like that), Kevin found his way to our fields around 2pm yesterday.

Honestly, I thought it was a little strange that a guy in the MLB (he currently is on the DL for back surgery he had 4 days ago) would want to hang out at a baseball camp full of kids he didn't know, when he had no obligation to be there.

But within 30 seconds of meeting him, I could tell why he was there; he simply LOVES baseball. And if you LOVE baseball and you're on the DL (forced to be away from the game), there's really only one place you want to be.

Kevin watched about 20 minutes of our afternoon game while he and I chatted about baseball (turns out we played against each other as rookies in A ball), and then I asked him if he wouldn't mind talking to the kids for a minute.

He jumped at the opportunity and a minute later he was sitting in the 1st base dugout of RHLL answering questions from the kids.

(Fun Kevin Kouzmanoff fact: he's one of only 4 Major Leaguers EVER to hit a Grand Slam on the first pitch he saw during his Major League debut!)

(Toughest pitcher he's ever faced? Felix Hernandez.)

(His general hitting philosophy? Look for the fastball because it's the easiest pitch to hit.) ***Sound familiar lesson students???***

After 20 minutes in the dugout, I announced that the kids could ask him one more question, to which he immediately turned to me and said, "No man, it's cool, I got more time."

So after another 10 minutes of questions, the boys asked if they could have autographs and after signing for every single kid, he then posed for pictures with everyone who wanted one, getting stopped every 3 steps on the way back to his car, happily taking his sunglasses off and smiling in every photo.

Before leaving, he turned to me and said, "That was a lot of fun; I'd love to come back if I can." I said, "You're absolutely welcome anytime, and next time, we can get you out on the field to do some coaching."

His response, with a genuinely big smile on his face?

"Man, that would be awesome."

Yes. Yes it would.