Your experiences with HOF'ers

[whitehse]

The players know the value of their game used equipment and how much more the item is worth if they sign it. Many know they can get some extra money for signing game used and I am sure thats probably what Rickey was thinking. (Yes, it is a bit cynical)

[sycks22]

I just thought of another experience with a HOFer. I was helping out at a MN Twins youth baseball clinic a couple years back and Molitor was there for half a day. He signed for everyone and I almost missed him and caught him just before he was pulling away and he signed 2 bats and 2 balls for me while he was in his car and shook my hand. He still looks in playing shape. Molitor was amazing to everyone at the clinic.

ps. Carew was at another clinic and the kid in front of me asked Rod to sign the butt of his dirty pants that he wasn't wearing at the time. He was confused, but did it anyways.

[Kzoo]

Originally Posted by whitehse

The players know the value of their game used equipment and how much more the item is worth if they sign it. Many know they can get some extra money for signing game used and I am sure thats probably what Rickey was thinking.

Andrew.........That's a spot on explanation in most cases. In Rickey's world, I'm sure Rickey didn't want Rickey getting the short end of the deal.....or something like that

[johnmh71]

When I was in the Army in the early 90's in NC, I met Harmon Killebrew at a signing at a new department store in the local mall. He was very nice, chatted a little with everyone, and offered to personalize the autograph any way you wanted it. Even with all the problems he had after he retired, he was a total class act.

I also had a chance to meet a non-HOF, Chuck Tanner, around 15 years ago after he spoke at my college. Great guy. You could tell after being with him for 5 minutes that he truly loved the game of baseball.

[Exhibitman]

I think it is safe to say that the pre-big business encounters with athletes were more satisfying. The old timers were happy to be making a decent but modest fee for being at shows and were nicer than the assembly line stuff that goes on today.

My absolute favorite baseball player encounters were with Sandy Koufax and Luke Appling. I went to a show when I was in school where Koufax was signing for about $6 or so--probably around 1988 or 1989. I didn't want an autograph but a co-worker at my summer job had a card [1966 Topps] he'd saved from when he was a kid and wanted it signed. I told Koufax I was getting the card for a friend and said that I just wanted to shake his hand...and I got to shake hands with Sandy Koufax. Another Koufax story: in 2005 he came to L.A. for a 50th anniversary of the Brooklyn Dodgers. A client of mine was a friend of his from the old days and asked me if I wanted Koufax to sign something when he had lunch with Koufax. I gave him a ball that Nolan Ryan had signed for me and asked for the same inscription and personalization. The client called me back later and said that Koufax looked at the ball and said "WTF do I want to be on a ball with Ryan for?" Of course Koufax was joking and I have a nice, inscribed and personalized Ryan-Koufax dual signed ball. I had Luke Appling sign an exhibit card at a local show. Not only was he personalizing signatures but he took a look at my card and told me chapter and verse about how miserable it was to play in the dark colored heavy felt uniform that was shown on the card. Chuck Connors was cool too, talked a mile a minute with the fans, very gregarious guy.

Boxers have been the nicest ex-athletes I've encountered. Some of them are genuinely pleased and surprised just to be remembered. Joltin' Jeff Chandler, a HOFer, told me that at a World Boxing HOF event here in L.A. Terrible Terry Norris had his 12 year old daughter with him at that event. I overheard her saying that she had all of her father's cards so I asked her if she had one that I had doubles of, she said no, so I gave it to her. Norris then asked me for the other card, asked my name, and personalized it for me, no charge or anything. I had a long conversation with Brian Mitchell, a South African HOFer, about the miserable time he had dealing with pro sports as a South African during the apartheid era. Carlos Ortiz was hilarious. I told him that I had a card of his that I forgot to bring and he said "you F***ed up, my friend." Emile Griffith was really nice; he was actually worried about whether I would like the signature on the card I handed him. Ken Norton was cool, and I was actually pretty nervous to meet him, I mean he's the guy who broke Ali's jaw. HOF trainer Emanuel Steward was doing a publicity event with Lennox Lewis here in L.A. years ago and I noticed that he was alone in the ring after Lewis took the crowd over to the stage, so I asked him to sign a card for me. He not only agreed, he corrected all of the typos on the card while he was signing it.

I ran into Jim Brown in the hallway at the hotel in Cleveland a few Nationals ago when he was doing the show and also going to Canton for the FB HOF. I bumped into him and looked up and said "Hey, you're Jim Brown, but you probably know that already." He cracked up and wished me a good morning. Still built like a Mack truck, BTW.

[thenavarro]

I've met a ton of HOF'ers in different sports over the years, celebrities in other fields, Presidents, etc, but Ali has been my favorite. I met him on a few different occasions from a couple different card shows, to bumping into him at Notre Dame a time or two. My favorite time was meeting him at a show circa 18 years ago. While waiting to meet him, they had video monitors up playing highlights of his legendary boxing career with sound bytes. I signed up for a photo op, so that was first. When I first met him, I was kind of sad as he moved pretty slow and talked real soft, however, he was a showman when we were taking pictures, and we took a couple different poses, much different than the hurried photo ops that the promoters push you through today. One of the poses was him punching me on the chin and me looking like I was recoiling in pain, very cool. One thing I asked him was how it felt to be "The Greatest". He smiled and bent down in my ear and spoke in classic Ali, "It feels good", very neat moment for me. This is my autographed photo from that photo op:



After the photo op, we had to wait in another line to get autographs on our other items. As I approached in line, I would watch him sign and move pretty slow, but every now and then, a young kid would approach and Ali would throw out several fast shadow punches, or do a magic trick or something. Very cool and highly entertaining. I got up there to get my glove signed, and he signed it "Muhammad Ali AKA Cassius Clay" for me, and then he stood up in front of me, started leaning toward me, and he started writing on my chest. He was autographing the shirt you see me wearing in the picture above while I was wearing it (you can't see it in the pic as it wasn't signed for the photo op) very cool experience.

[Mr. Zipper]

Very nice, Mike. What a great encounter.

[CharleyBrown]

Haven't seen Whitey Ford mentioned in the thread yet.

Found out Whitey Ford was signing at the Long Island national last year, and decided to go. My grandfather was a childhood friend of Whitey, and I had always wanted to meet him.

Anyhow, he signed my item, and chatted with me for a good five minutes about his childhood. After walking around the show with my 2 year old son and wife, I mentioned to one of the dealers that I wished I asked Whitey for a photo to show my grandfather. They were kind enough to walk me back over with my son, and Whitey was more than happy to pose for a photo with my son and I. After he was done signing, Whitey ran into my son and I as he was heading out, and stopped for a few minutes to play with my son. My son got a few laughs, and Whitey shook my hand and patted my son on the head before he went on his way.

I met Juan Marichal at the White Plains show... his line was virtually empty (where as Lenny Dykstra's extended forever). My father-in-law grew up in the Dominican Republic, and idolized Marichal. Marichal had a nice conversation with us, and posed for a photo with my son and my father-in-law.

[Scott Garner]

Originally Posted by thenavarro

I've met a ton of HOF'ers in different sports over the years, celebrities in other fields, Presidents, etc, but Ali has been my favorite. I met him on a few different occasions from a couple different card shows, to bumping into him at Notre Dame a time or two. My favorite time was meeting him at a show circa 18 years ago. While waiting to meet him, they had video monitors up playing highlights of his legendary boxing career with sound bytes. I signed up for a photo op, so that was first. When I first met him, I was kind of sad as he moved pretty slow and talked real soft, however, he was a showman when we were taking pictures, and we took a couple different poses, much different than the hurried photo ops that the promoters push you through today. One of the poses was him punching me on the chin and me looking like I was recoiling in pain, very cool. One thing I asked him was how it felt to be "The Greatest". He smiled and bent down in my ear and spoke in classic Ali, "It feels good", very neat moment for me. This is my autographed photo from that photo op:



After the photo op, we had to wait in another line to get autographs on our other items. As I approached in line, I would watch him sign and move pretty slow, but every now and then, a young kid would approach and Ali would throw out several fast shadow punches, or do a magic trick or something. Very cool and highly entertaining. I got up there to get my glove signed, and he signed it "Muhammad Ali AKA Cassius Clay" for me, and then he stood up in front of me, started leaning toward me, and he started writing on my chest. He was autographing the shirt you see me wearing in the picture above while I was wearing it (you can't see it in the pic as it wasn't signed for the photo op) very cool experience.

Awesome Ali story, Mike!!