[Huck]

When, I made the switch to the dark side (autographs) of the hobby the holy grail was DiMaggio, Mantle and Williams.

In August of 1993 Upper Deck had a promotion with Triple A clubs and Mantle was to appear (with others) in Louisville, Kentucky. My girlfriend at the time and her son decided to drive from Northern Virginia for likely our only chance to see Mantle. The show was being held at the Kentucky Fair & Expo Center - West Hall. By sheer luck, we happened to be staying at the same hotel as the former MLB players. My girlfriends son had a time running around the lobby bugging ballplayers for sigs. Had I been 10 years of age, I would have been right there with him but I refrained. Imagine my surprise when there was a knock on the door and Johnny Bench is standing there inquiring as to where the hospitality room was located (just around the corner from our room)! Thinking that Mantle would sellout quickly we rose at o'dark thirty to make our way over to the fair grounds. We were second in line. Mantle was clearly hungover and frankly I believe he was miffed that he did not sell out. He was not rude, but if you have ever been hungover, you know the feeling. The cost was $50 a throw. I wish that I had the money to have Mantle sign a dozen balls that day. Alas.

In July of 1994, Upper Deck again had Mantle signing at the Tuff-Stuff Sports Classic in Richmond, Virginia. Dang, if only I had waited a year! Only 90 minutes away! The price rose to $80 a graph and Mantle sold out. I believe the show was one of Mantle's last. Mantle was in much better spirits. He was talking with just about everyone, he even asked me if I wanted to take a picture. Both items were authenticated by Upper Deck gratis but the current database does not go back that far. I called Upper Deck about the issue and Upper Decks wants a picture of the item and sticker after which they will add the item to the database. So before dropping $$ on authentication, consider what happens to the database if the company goes out of business or in the case of Upper Deck, upgrades and decides to drop older material.

In October of 1994, another road trip to the NYC to see Joe DiMaggio at the National Pastime 11th Long Island Classic at Hofstra University in Uniondale. It was my first visit to NYC and the New Yorkers were brutal when talking about Joe. As another user mentioned, Joe had a laundry list of of items of items that he would not sign. Okay, pictures with his Mom or Marilyn Monroe, I completely understand. No Perez-Steele cards because purportedly they owed him $10K? Okay. The list went on and on. One dealer said "For $150 he should sign by underwear if I put it on the table!" Those were salty words to this transplant southerner (not that NOVA can be considered the South), that is the legend JoeD you are talking about! Joe was all business and it was touch-and-go on whether he would complete the signing. He kept taking breaks. We finally got our items signed and when I thanked him, he reached out his hand for a shake. To this day, I believe saying "thank you" elicited the handshake.

I never had a problem with Mays. Mays did not talk much and you had to be on your toes because he had a tendency to grab items and sign them with the wrong pen and upside down.

Not that I am looking to make a friend, I just want the item signed but there are quite a few cordial players in the hobby - Gwynn, Brooks, Frank Howard to name a few. There are also quite a few, uh tools.