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Silver King(Cut and pasted from my response to Sean's thread) My earliest "significant" memory was 1976 and I was 10 years old. I went to the Oakland A's game and in the 9th inning Willie McCovey stepped up to the plate and hit a foul ball straight back behind home plate. I was still wearing my glove and reached up and caught the ball on a line drive. The crowd erupted in cheers and I got my first standing ovation. After the game we stood around waiting for autographs and Willie McCovey came out and got in his car. When I asked for his autograph he told me he didn't sign autographs when they lost the game, I told him I caught his foul ball and then he was more than happy to sign it for me. McCovey only played 11 games for the A's and the American league so it's kind of cool that I have an American League ball with his autograph on it. McCovey has since been inducted into the Hall of Fame and I feel that I have a great piece of memorabilia to show for it. I hope you catch a ball yourself some day. I have been to hundreds of games since that day and have yet to catch another ball.
And then there is the rest of the story....about 3 years after I caught the ball I came home from school and found my 7 year old brother and his friend playing catch with my McCovey ball. They practically ruined it with mud and scrapes and at the time I was devasted. My brother is now 36 years old and an avid collector and he can't believe what he did. He is forever apologetic but nowadays we both laugh about it and wonder how many other kids had their own "Sand Lot" stories.