Talk about YOUR meetings with an MLB'er

[Scott Garner]

A store grand opening in my area offered up HOF and no-hit pitcher Gaylord Perry as a free signer today.

You've gotta love getting the opportunity to meet a HOF player, get to talk baseball with him for a minute, and also get a photo op for FREE!!

I brought a ticket stub from Perry's 300th career win for him to sign. I also had an opportunity to ask him what pitches he featured in his historic no-hitter on September 17th, 1968.

For the record, he no-hit Bob Gibson and the St. Louis Cards throwing fastballs, sliders and a fork ball. No foreign substances were applied...
The following day, Ray Washburn of the visiting Cards returned the favor and no-hit the hometown SF Giants.

Here is a photo of me and Mr. Perry, my 300th win ticket that he signed as well as a picture that he also signed for free. Pretty cool!

BTW, not a MLB player, but I did sit next to hockey HOF'er Gordie Howe at a dance competition last weekend. Gordie's high school senior grandson Sean Howe and my 10 year old daughter both dance for the same dance school. Grandpa Gordie must be exceedingly proud of Sean because he just got accepted into the famous Julliard School of Dance. He really is an amazing dancer and deserves all the accolades that he receives.

Here is a picture of my daughter from last weekend. I'm a proud father as well!

I was in line at Bi-Mart with a bag of birdseed in one hand and box of buckshot in the other when the voice of my childhood, Mariners play-by-play legend Dave Niehaus, pipes up behind me.

"Are you looking to shoot your dinner?"

I hesitated to explain myself, "NO, NO. These purchases are unrelated". He rolled his eyes and gave me a good ribbing about "you really should have bought a magnet to get the shot out", "you shouldn't shoot in city limits", etc. and continued to give me a hard time out to my truck. There, he signed the butt of my winchester XTR1500 "HAPPY HUNTING, DAVE NIEHAUS" with a sharpie he said "he always kept in his pocket for the fans".

Just a real gentleman, his baritone will always be remembered as the voice of the Mariners.

[GKreindler]

AMAZING stories, guys.

Fred, I'd LOVE to hear more about Henrich. He was always one of my favorites from those late-30s teams.

Graig

[GoldenAge50s]

Well, for one thing there was nothing in the least bit pretentious about him--he was as personable & down-to-earth as your best friend would be. He was very easy to talk to and really warmed up when I told him my very 1st World Series thrill was Game 1 of the 1949 WS when he hit a lead0ff HR in the bottom of the 9th off Don Newcombe for a walk-off 1-0 Yankee victory!

He was very impressed I remembered all the details and from there he just kept right on going for the next close to 2 hrs! I asked him about seeing Mantle for the 1st time and he just shook his head in amazement as he said he had never seen a player w/ the speed & raw power---knew right off the "kid" was "gonna' be a good one"!

I just sat there mesmerized, bought him a beer or 2 and had the experience of my life w/ a true Yankee Star.

[drc]

My dad was a science professor and met a few Nobel Prize winners over the years. One of his favorite stories was meeting Neils Bohr, Danish nuclear physicist ranked on the order of Einstein. Bohr had such a thick Danish accent my dad didn't understand a word he said.

[mr2686]

Neils Bohr was the answer (or question) on Jeopardy the other night. Kinda weird how you've never heard of someone and then you hear about them twice in a few days.

[shelly]

I have a Warren Spahn story. Bill Alsburg who used to run showes in Orange County set up a private signing with Warren. He sat down wrote on a ball his name backwards and said look in the mirrior. He then preceded to talk about baseball. Half way into his telling me about his life story he turns to Bill as asked him if was German. Bill said yes and Warren told him what a great job they did on the Jews. I looked at him like he was out of his mind. He then started to talk about Jackie Robinson and how he ruined baseball. I asked him why and he said the blacks are to good and they made the white man look slow. I then was in total shock when he then said he hated Hank Aaronn more because he did not have the balls to fight back when his teamates called him Nigg. I just left. Bill called me latter and said that Warren was drunk and he did not mean it.

[drc]

You know a nuclear physicist must be big when his name appears on a game show.

[Duluth Eskimo]

Originally Posted by shelly

I have a Warren Spahn story. Bill Alsburg who used to run showes in Orange County set up a private signing with Warren. He sat down wrote on a ball his name backwards and said look in the mirrior. He then preceded to talk about baseball. Half way into his telling me about his life story he turns to Bill as asked him if was German. Bill said yes and Warren told him what a great job they did on the Jews. I looked at him like he was out of his mind. He then started to talk about Jackie Robinson and how he ruined baseball. I asked him why and he said the blacks are to good and they made the white man look slow. I then was in total shock when he then said he hated Hank Aaronn more because he did not have the balls to fight back when his teamates called him Nigg. I just left. Bill called me latter and said that Warren was drunk and he did not mean it.

He must have been pretty drunk. I picked him up at the airport and spent a couple of hours with him and never got that impression. I did hear many racist stories from a few of the guys from that generation. Spahn did tell some great stories about his times and how weak pitchers are today. He echoed the sentiments about how pitchers don't own the plate anymore and said if he had someone try to show him up he would have just hit him in the head. I gained a lot of respect for the hitters of that generation by listening to stories the pitchers told.

Eddie Mathews had some great stories as well and when I met him I was about 16 yrs old. We were getting stuff signed in a hotel room about 9am and had three drinks delivered to the room to get his day started. Mathews told a story about how he and Spahn and Atwo others would take separate cabs from the airport in a town, tear a $100 bill in half and tell the cab driver he could have the other half if he got to the hotel first. $100 was big money for the 50's and he said the cab drivers would drive on sidewalks about 50 miles and hour to get that other half of the bill.

A separate story from a 60's Twins pitcher related was how they would bring women back to their hotel rooms and drink, etc. one time he said he and another player were hitting golf balls off of her pub** hair with full golf swings. He stated they were so drunk he couldn't believe they even hit the ball. That was probably the craziest story I heard, but there were many that rivaled it.

The biggest thing I remember is how these guys described how little money they actually made and how many, even stars had to get jobs in the off season to earn extra money. Can you imagine walking into a car dealership and seeing your favorite player trying to sell you a car. Hard to relate to today's saleries.

[shelly]

Just a little excerpt from a book about Aaron.

Aaron also stayed distant from his teammates. He did not go out drinking, and he steered clear of racist teammates, including Warren Spahn, the undisputed team leader.

[GKreindler]

That's amazing, Fred.

It's amazing to think how much Henrich saw in his day. Basically bridged the gaps between Gehrig, DiMaggio and Mantle. Not a bad bunch of guys to be playing with.

But seriously, there was always something about him that really interested me. It might have been all of those great moments that he had been a part of (the '49 WS homer, the '41 Mickey Owens gaffe), or it might have just been because of hearing him in interviews. He always seemed so affable and his eyes just lit up when he would talk about the old days.

I was VERY sad when he passed.

Graig