[canjond]

I've also been pretty lucky to meet many HOF'ers and other athletes in my time, especially when I was younger and working for a show promoter and then agent.

One of my favorite stories, however, was with Reggie Jackson. As a kid, I would spend my summers in Cooperstown. One day, when I was maybe 12, I was walking past the golf course when I saw Reggie on the green. I always carried a baseball and pen with me so I waited for Reggie to sink his put. He must have nailed a 20 footer and was pretty happy about it because he was one of the nicest players I ever interacted with. Reggie signed my baseball and spent at least 5 minutes with me asking me what position I played, who I wanted to play for when I hit the major leagues, and so on, before finally excusing himself to go onto the next hole. A very a-typical Reggie day, but I will never have anything but good things to say about him.

Another interesting story happened with Yogi and Scooter. I was working an autograph appearance when I was probably 16 or 17. I was sitting between Yogi and Scooter. One of the personal items I had to get signed was a "best position players" book for kids from the early 1950's that featured the best player of each position and tips as to how to emulate the stars. Yogi was in the book at catcher, and Phil as a bunter. However, Yogi's name was featured in the book as Lawrence "Yogi" Berra. So, I asked Yogi if we would mind signing his page "Lawrence 'Yogi' Berra" and he politely agreed and did so. I then turned to Phil, who was featured in the book as "Phil Rizzuto" and asked if he would mind signing Phil Rizzuto. Phil gave me this look of disappointment and asked me if he could sign the book "Phillip Francis 'Scooter' Rizzuto" since quote "Yogi got to write his full name"! I, of course, agreed!