Griffey Jr. HOF Postcards

[ballparks]

I have not seen a single one of these for sale anywhere. Does anyone know if Griffey has signed any of the yellow plaque postcards or is this something he is not planning on doing?

[bender07]

Also hasn't signed any baseballs with HOF year inscription. Not sure what his story is.

[MacDice]

His story is he hates signing autographs and doesn't need the money thus no incentstives to sign

[dgo71]

For the last couple years Kevin Keating has done signings with the new inductees. He was able to get Piazza to agree to a signing but couldn't get Griffey locked down. I shudder to think what the price is going to be if and when Junior finally breaks down and decides to sign them.

[Lordstan]

Good to know. Looks like I won't be buying anything of his. Someone who hates signing for the fans so much doesn't need to be in my collection. Players seem to forget who made them able to make all that money. Doesn't mean he needs to be Feller, but some appreciation would be nice. His right to do so for sure. My right to not collect his stuff as well.

[theshleps]

The only time I met Griffey was at mariners spring training. He was visiting maybe 3 years ago. He stood next to us outside one of the fields for about 30 minutes and talked about every subject you could think of, especially his kids. There were emaybe 50 of us graphers there anxiously awaiting him to sign and he knew it. After literally 30 minutes someone asked him to sign and he grabbed their item and signed it and also a konami card I had of his. Then he walked away. I have seen Frank Robinson do the same- talk to people for long periods and then not sign or sign very limited. Ball players think we all are going to flip the autographs. Even when you hand him a card with virtually no value they think so. They do not know how to differentiate fan from dealer. I know lots of players personally and they all tell me the same. After over 10 years I have chosen to give up in person graphing at fall league and spring training. Too many dealers and often they bring small kids as players will sign for the kids. The kids often are rude and push us away. Some dealers are nice but all of us old timers agree it isn't fun like it used to be. Players as a generalization are more jaded or egotistical too tho many are still nice. Once Bryce Harper at JUCO ignored me 3x in one day when we were one on one and he was still in college, incidents like that make me lose my desire. My son and I are chiropractors and work on some mlb players and we have a great reputation for rehabbing them and increasing performance. When I go to autograph I look more like a cross between a fan and a homeless guy. When players want me to treat them- if they are players that treat fans poorly- I turn them down as I don't want to help those guys. Have enough others who are nice that I can help.

[rctaylor]

I have heard that Griffey turned down a huge chunk of money to sign some baseballs with HOF inscription & some HOF plaques. He told everyone that he was there that weekend to enjoy his time with his family.
I know a former Yankee pitcher that was teammate of his dad. He asked him to sign a couple baseballs his last year in the league & Junior asked him what he was going to do with them. My friend told him remember my two little boys that you use to babysit for me when I played with your dad, I'm giving them to them. He said Junior was really pissy about signing the two baseballs for him. I sent in a Upper Deck rookie card & the Next Generation poster of Junior & his dad to a card show signing in Seattle back in 1989 & got Junior to sign the rookie & him & his dad on the poster. It cost me about $60 to get them signed back then. I have a baseball & a Griffey Jr. signed bat that I purchased from Scoreboard back in the 1990's when they were doing a lot of autographed stuff & I have Junior on a 1991 Studio card. I would love to have a signed HOF postcard for my collection but if it doesn't happen then it's not going to kill me. I have a lot more that I do not have signed so missing his is not going to be a problem. The one thing that gets me is I know these guys made a lot of money playing baseball & they do not need the money so they do not sign autographs for anyone but they could sure help a lot a charities out there that do need the money by just taking a couple hours out of their day to sign a few items & let them sell them to raise money for their favorite charity. No telling how much money Junior could make fora charity if he agreed to sign a few plaques & baseballs with his HOF inscription on them!

[jbhofmann]

Originally Posted by rctaylor

I have heard that Griffey turned down a huge chunk of money to sign some baseballs with HOF inscription & some HOF plaques. He told everyone that he was there that weekend to enjoy his time with his family.
I know a former Yankee pitcher that was teammate of his dad. He asked him to sign a couple baseballs his last year in the league & Junior asked him what he was going to do with them. My friend told him remember my two little boys that you use to babysit for me when I played with your dad, I'm giving them to them. He said Junior was really pissy about signing the two baseballs for him. I sent in a Upper Deck rookie card & the Next Generation poster of Junior & his dad to a card show signing in Seattle back in 1989 & got Junior to sign the rookie & him & his dad on the poster. It cost me about $60 to get them signed back then. I have a baseball & a Griffey Jr. signed bat that I purchased from Scoreboard back in the 1990's when they were doing a lot of autographed stuff & I have Junior on a 1991 Studio card. I would love to have a signed HOF postcard for my collection but if it doesn't happen then it's not going to kill me. I have a lot more that I do not have signed so missing his is not going to be a problem. The one thing that gets me is I know these guys made a lot of money playing baseball & they do not need the money so they do not sign autographs for anyone but they could sure help a lot a charities out there that do need the money by just taking a couple hours out of their day to sign a few items & let them sell them to raise money for their favorite charity. No telling how much money Junior could make fora charity if he agreed to sign a few plaques & baseballs with his HOF inscription on them!

People will always find something to complain about. When LeBron James held "The Decision" it raised over $1million dollars for Boys and Girls Club of Akron. He was bashed.

Pete Rose gets criticized for signing everything in front of him. Yet a guy like Griffey is criticized for not signing.

In my opinion there are a ton of Griffey signatures out there, he doesnt owe anyone a thing.

[dgo71]

It's still pretty silly though. Millionaires don't want to sign autographs because they think someone will make a hundred bucks or two? Sure, nobody is obligated to sign, but at the end of the day it's a pretty simple thing to do. The real irony is the more they sign, the less the signature is worth, so signing more would greatly reduce the opportunity for people to sell their signature. If that's really what they're worried about they should learn the basics of supply and demand.

My biggest problem is just the attitude Griffey has about it. There are ways to politely deny autograph requests and still treat the fans like people, but all too often these guys are rude, accusational and just downright nasty about saying no. There's no call for that. Guess that's why they say to not meet your heroes.