Ever talk to a ballplayer ?

[Archive]

Posted By: Joe

I was able to spend about 30 minutes talking to Bobby Doerr and Yaz at an event before the All Star Game at Fenway a few years ago.
Doerr was great and talked a bit about playing in the All-Star Game and how he wished he'd hit better in the games he was in. He talked about fishing - a lot. This was before I started collecting pre-war cards, but I did have a reprint of Doerr's card - the series with the giant heads. His face lit up when I pulled the card out and he was happy to sign it. He said he hadn't seen one in years and remembered when the card came out and how he thought it was a pretty dumb-looking card.
Yaz, on the other hand, gave a lot of one-word answers and kind of ignored me - might have been the Yankees hat I was wearing. I jokingly told him that he was so popular I couldn't find one of his cards for him to sign. He didn't laugh, and said he wouldn't have signed it anyway.
I also breifly talked with Rollie Fingers, Gaylord Perry and Goose Gossage. They were all great and happy to talk baseball.