Who's the earliest HOF you met in person?

[mrmopar]

Found this old thread via a search and thought I would revive it.

The first and earliest HOFer I met was Bob Feller, who was signing at Pacific Trading Cards in Edmonds. I think it was 1984 or so.

I "met" a few others at Mariner games in the 80s as well when I was chasing autographs, although all were still active except Yogi Berra, who was a Yankee coach or manager at the time. he was walking to the team bus after the game. Guys like Dave Winfield, Jim Palmer, Gaylord Perry, Tony Perez, Carl Yastrzemski and Eddie Murray all signed something for me at M's games. That was more seeing him close and in person vs. actually meeting him. I also got a bunch of signatures (maybe 1-2 HOFers, but I'd need to see the program to remember) at one of the Equitable Old Timers Game in Seattle.

I then met a few more at the Seattle Fan Fest in 2001, including Bob Gibson, Jim Rice, Orlando Cepeda & Enos Slaughter.

Lastly, I was able to meet a couple at Everett Aqua Sox games when they were signature guests before the games. Rollie Fingers, Gaylord Perry and Fergie Jenkins (I guess they like 60s-80s pitchers!). It was fun too be able too get a number of items signed by each, an opportunity you don't typically get in card show settings, as they were there for 2 hours each and there were really only so many fans interested in standing in line more than once.