I was saddened to hear of Andy's passing a few days ago. I had the opportunity to meet and work with him a number of times when I brought him to four of my mall card shows in the '90's. He was a prince of a man and we stayed in contact for a number of years after that, exchanging letters and phone calls on occasion.
I remember at one of the shows a twenty-something brought in a decent 1952 Topps #1 for him to sign. There was a great deal of discussion over this card and Andy stared at it for several minutes and tried to talk the customer out of having him sign it. Most in the crowd didn't want to see it get signed but despite Andy's protest the man was adamant about getting the card autographed. Andy shook his head and put Sharpie to the card and you could hear an audible gasp as those around couldn't believe he would actually sign the card.
At the same show I paired him up with Chicago area favorite Billy Pierce. It was a huge thrill to sit between these two and hear the stories that they were telling back and forth. For some reason I didn't realize that these two played on opposite teams in the last World Series played at Wrigley Field. I had forgotten that Mr. Pierce had started his career with the Tigers and certainly rubbed it into Mr. Pafko that he was on the winning team for that series.
Baseball is going to miss that man.
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