I have two Mays stories I can share:
In 2008, I decided to pay for Mays' IP signature at Mickey's Place in Cooperstown. His price in Cooperstown was always considerably cheaper, cash only, and supposedly went to a charity. In 2007 the price was $100, and I decided to pass. In 2008, I decided to plunk down the money, although it did go up to $125. I was collecting HOF baseballs at the time, so I was in line to get a baseball signed (sidestory: I knew I could pick up a signed Mays baseball cheaper than $125, but I honestly wanted to meet the legend in person. I had heard horror stories of him IP, but I still wanted to be able to say that I had met Mays one day).
So I am in line, and turns out that he was only signing baseballs with sharpie....not something I was interested in. I got out of line, and purchased a Willie Mays "the catch" 8x10. Again, I knew I could get one of these cheaper than $125. I wound up getting it framed and it hangs very nicely in my office, but in hindsight I kind of wish I had gone with a vintage card. And I have since done a very nice multisigned HOF piece I would have liked to have added him to (which are another subset of Mays horror stories-multisigned pieces). I digress.
A guy about 10 people in front of me had a TON of items to sign. Must have been at least 10; jerseys, bats, balls, etc. I hope he was doing a consignment...or that he had a lot of money. Another gentleman in front of me had a Mays model glove. He had purchased an equipment ticket, but Mays would not sign it. Mays does not sign game used items, and Mays claims that this was a game used item. The guy who had the glove was claiming that it was his childhood glove from when he was growing up. The scene was pretty comical. I am pretty sure that the guy who had the glove is either a poster here or on the PSA boards, as I am pretty sure I have seen this story retold on a message board.
I got up there with my 8x10, and said "It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Mays". I had graphed IP for years growing up, and can say the only two people I have ever been nervous in front of were Mays and Ted Williams. When I said that, he didnt even ackowlege me, and I was thinking "here we go....". He then signed my 8x10, and put it extremely close to his eyes....within an inch or two. He then said "I am just checking to make sure I signed it ok, as if I didnt, I was going to sign another one for you." which I thought was incredibly cool. In hindsight, I kind of wish he had screwed it up, as then I might have been able to get two autos out of it, had I been able to keep the one that was messed up. So that's my story of meeting him in person the one and only time. I found it to be a good experience given his history.
My second story involves a guy I know, who volunteered at the Hall of Fame every induction weekend. In fact, his job is every one of our dream jobs. The HOF would give him 8 dozen baseballs, and he would set up shop at the Otesaga Hotel and have every HOFer sign each ball. At the end of the weekend, each HOFer would receive one of the baseballs as a keepsake. I asked him if he was able to keep one every year and he said "oh yeah!" and then I asked if he was able to bring other things in to get signed himself and he said yes. I have never seen his collection in person, but apparently he has quite a collection, as he got a really good rapport with these players (and sometimes wives and families) throughout the years. He has great stories, both good and bad, from HOFers. He says he really loved "the old timers", guys like Pee Wee Reese, and Billy Herman, who he claims were real gentleman.
Apparently Mays would always be difficult about signing the baseballs. This guy would set up shop in the lobby of the hotel, and Mays said "bring them up to my room and I will sign them". So this guy carts all these baseballs up to his room, and Mays says "leave them there and I will sign them." This guy wasnt leaving all of these baseballs, which already had a ton of HOF signatures on them, in Mays room. So apparently they went back and forth on it, and the guy leaves with the baseballs without Mays signing them. I asked if he "got in trouble" for having everyone's signature but Mays on them that year, but he said "No, the guy I was working for knew how Mays was."
Two other quick stories about this:
In 1988 (Stargell's induction year), he said that he knew things were changing. Dick Gordon was in the hotel and said "I am not sure if my client is going to sign those next year"-his client being Yaz. This guy explained that this is a long standing tradition, the guys getting inducted that year were always the highlight of the ball, etc. In 1989 he was expecting Bench to be incredibly accomodating (based upon seeing him on TV), and Yaz to be incedibly difficult based on his agent. He said it couldnt have been any more different, as Yaz was great and Bench was consisently a jerk year after year.
The other story involves (shocker) Tom Seaver. He said out of the 8 dozen or so baseballs he would have, each HOFer would sit down and sign them all at once. With the exception of Seaver. Seaver would do a couple of dozen at a time, and this guy is convinced that Seaver did this to make his guy's job harder, as he would have to always track which stack of balls had Seaver's signature, and which one didn't.
Sorry for the long post.
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