A couple more run-in's with HOF's left me with positive and negative memories.
The two negative memories are as follows....Willie Stargell was signing at Gibraltor in Detroit a few years before his passing and from what I remember, there wasn't an additional cost for an inscription, so I politely asked him if he could write his 'HOF year' under his signature. To my surprise, he was extremely rude and gave me a hard time about it. He eventually inscribed it then did his best Willie Mays impression by rolling the ball back to me across the table. Thanks Willie for the great memory! (On a side note, I sold the ball on ebay a year or so after his passing and it went for a whopping $263
.....the ball was snow white with a perfect sig.)
Next, I was at a Cardinals spring training game in about 2004 and I brought my Bob Gibson '59 topps rookie to possibly get it signed. Gibson accessed the field in the right field corner before the game and he came over to sign for a few people standing there. He reached for my card, then changed his mind and said "I'm not signing that". I asked why not? He said, "That's card show stuff, catch me at a show". Thanks Bob. (Sorry about the '68 WS).
On a positive note, I used to attend a lot of Indy Car races in the mid '90's and to my surprise, Walter Payton showed up at the Detroit Grand Prix on a Friday morning as he was a partial team owner with Dale Coyne (they were known as Payton-Coyne Racing). A few people recognized him as he was just hanging out by his team's transporter in the paddock and he motioned for me to come over. He wasn't super thrilled people were noticing him and I was probably the last autograph he signed that morning, but he wasn't rude and gave me a great signature. On a side note regarding other celebs that hung around the Indy Car series, Paul Newman and Joe Montana were impossible autographs back then. I never saw either one sign a single autograph over several years.
Matt