When my sons were born we named them Brooks Robinson Andrews and James Palmer Andrews. A few months after they were born I received an envelope addressed to me by Brooks Robinson and it contained a wonderful inscribed photo and note. My aunt had sent a small clipping to him via his office at Crown Oil that had appeared in the Baseball Weekly newspaper that mentioned their birth.
I've related my Frank Robinson story previously but I guess it's appropriate here:
In 1969 I went with a buddy, also an Oriole fan, to see the O's play at Yankee Stadium on a mid-week afternoon. We'd decided that we'd make a couple of banners to support our club. We set to work dividing an old bed sheet and, with orange paint and a marker, we each created a work of art. His was the number '5' for Brooks Robinson. Mine was a '20' in orange with 'RF' added on.
We missed the Orioles' batting practice session but we hung out near the third base dugout in hopes the players would see our signs when they warmed up. Then a batboy approached me and asked if I would like him to take my banner to Frank in the clubhouse and show it to him. I said 'Sure' and handed it to him not knowing if I'd see it again. Moments later here comes my banner up the dugout steps being carried by Frank Robinson himself. He asked whose it was and brought it over to me and thanked me for bringing it. He asked for my pen and signed it right in the middle on the '0'. Almost 50 years later I still have it. It's discolored and been stained a bit along the way, the orange color had darkened to a pinkish red and the autograph has faded some. But that banner still means more to me than any piece of memorabilia I own.
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