[russyurk]

Like many I've met dozens of hall of famers at various shows over the years, some good some not so good. I work in sports and when I was finishing grad school I interned at the Major League Baseball Players Alumni Association (MLBPAA) marketing office when it was in Pittsburgh. Over the course of my six months I had three notable interactions that I treasure to this day.

The first was finding out they need one more person to drive over to Bob Feller’s home near Cleveland and have Bob sign 2,000 lithographs for a program we were doing with Campbell’s. We arrived mid-afternoon after Bob had already made an appearance somewhere else that day. We found the prickly guy that is often discussed. This was in 1994 so he wasn’t exactly young even then and you could tell he was tired. I was pretty uptight as he signed in near silence and was relieved when we wrapped for the night. We arrived back the next morning to complete the signing and found a rested, engaging Bob. We chatted easily while he signed, talked about his time in the bigs, how the clubhouse guy could sign everybody’s name but most of all his time in World War II. He had a large wall size world map and he took us over and showed where the USS Alabama was a various point while he was aboard. We completed the signing and he was off to another appointment but he made sure his wife Anne gave us a full tour of his home. We ended up in his private office where he had a number of model John Deere tractors and one of the coolest signed baseball I’ve ever seen. When he was 10 or so Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig’s Bustin' Babes-Larrupin' Lous barnstorming tour passed through Iowa. He attended the game and got a baseball signed by Ruth and Gehrig and then added his own “Robert Feller” in your standard child’s cursive. It was truly a one of a kind piece.

My second interaction was similar, I had to drive to Bill Mazeroski’s home outside of Pittsburgh and have him sign a few things, as I recall it was mostly pictures and a few dozen balls. Bill was a super nice man and his wife was as well. She was scurrying around the house cleaning and eventually shows up with a MLBPAA sweater vest in her hands that was way too small for Bill and asked me if I wanted it. Of course I took it and still have it somewhere packed in a box.

My final interaction was with Fergie Jenkins. The MLBPAA assembled a team that participated in a barnstorming tour through Ontario, 13 games in 12 days as I recall. As a native of Chatham, Ontario Fergie was a huge hit and definitely was the most popular player along with Ernie Whitt. Fergie was a cool guy, pulling pranks on everyone including me. One stop I had to wait for Fergie at the hotel with the team going ahead. He was very easy to talk to and even let me hold his Hall of Fame ring to get a closer look.

It was a fantastic experience and even though it was an unpaid internship I was well compensated in autographed balls and experiences that I will never forget.