[theshleps]

As a shy 16 year old going up to Mickey Mantle in 1967 as he was standing alone in front of the hotel he lived in while in NYC (I was the only one there) I had a Sport magazine photo already signed by Casey Stengel and I said "Mr Mantle can you please sign this" and he looked at me and spit in my face and walked off- that I will never forget .
My other horror story was going up to Hank Aaron (my hero) the same year outside the team hotel and politely asked him to sign my autograph book and he said "go play in the traffic son".
Considering I saw most teams these were my only bad stories. Eddie Mathews started up a conversation with me and was great.
After taking almost 35 years off I started doing IP collecting again in 2002 and still am though this may be my last year at it as dealers are getting too aggressive at spring training, etc and it is no longer as much fun for us "older guys". Sandberg, Brook Robinson, Billy Williams, Fergie, Santo,Ryan, Gossage, Herzog have been great (again none of these are show appearances which can give you a skewed impression since they are paid to be there).
Of present day "superstars" my least favorite has been Sammy Sosa who acted like he thought he was God when the cameras weren't on him.
Others like Frank Robinson and Griffey have been extremely tough autographs but would talk to us for long periods of time.
Lots more stories but these will do for now.