Who's the earliest HOF you met in person?

[peterb69]

I went to Ted Williams Baseball Camp in the mid 70's. My friend and I were walking back from a game to our bunk house and Ted was strolling across the field by himself straight towards us. My friend had a ball in his glove, I only had some paper, but Ted signed both. When the other kids saw Ted signing, they came running over but Ted told them sorry, no more autographs today.

I still have the piece of paper with his signature.

[SteveMitchell]

Visiting Earl Averill at his Snohomish, Washington home for the purpose of interviewing him for a Sports Scoop magazine article in January 1973 was my first meeting of a Hall of Famer - though he was not yet elected to the Hall of Fame.

At Earl's 1975 Hall of Fame induction a variety of older HoF'ers were met and/or spoken with (briefly) including: Edd Roush, Burleigh Grimes and Rube Marquard, among others.

A 1977 Washington State Sports Collectors Association show featured Earl Averill (HOF 1975), Johnny Mize (1981) and Indian Bob Johnson (20??) signing free autographs. And a 1982 Connecticut show headlined Ted Williams (reportedly his first-ever show) but Duke Snider stopped by to see Ted and should-be HoF'er Smoky Joe Wood was brought to the show by his son to visit with Ted.

Ah... the memories.

[CurtisFlood]

Bob Feller, Whitey Ford, Gaylord Perry, Fergie Jenkins. Might be missing a couple of guys.

[MVSNYC]

Whitey Ford, Lou Brock

[Mark]

Wow: Clark Griffith and Edd Roush!! Who here knew Tim Keefe and Bid McPhee? Earliest I can do is Pie Traynor, who used to be at a lot of games during the last days of Forbes and the first days of 3 Rivers Stadium. He was as approachable and friendly as could be.

[tachyonbb]

In the mid 50's I was allowed to tag along with my big brothers baseball team to go watch Creighton play. They played at Fontenelle park. Bob Gibson was pitching and struck out at least 2 guys every inning. My brothers coach knew Creighton's coach so after the game we were allowed on the field. I went up to Bob, shook his hand and congratulated him on a great game.

In the early 90's my wife (a doctor) was helping to organize a Diabetes awareness/education conference. She asked me to go pick up a Mr. Hunter and chauffeur him to his hotel and to the conference. I assumed it was some doctor. It was Jim "Catfish" Hunter. We talked about family and hunting. I took him to the airport the next morning and he gave me a signed baseball.

[BruceinGa]

Joe DiMaggio in or around 1961. He was doing a promotional tour for the Air Force Commissaries and visited our Little League association at Columbus Air Force Base, Mississippi. He autographed my first baseman's mitt as well as a drawing of him in my copy of "Big Time Baseball".
He then wanted to hit a home run on our Little League field. The fence was 220' and his first swing was a ground ball down the first base line. His next swing was a hr.
Great memories!!

[commishbob]

Early 60s...Yogi Berra at his bowling alley in Clifton, NJ. It was a promotional event of some sort and my father took me. He signed Yoo Hoo promo cards. I wish I knew where mine was.

Slightly OT:

In football, I was up-close-and-personal with a bunch of the Baltimore Colts during training camp a few times. Unitas, Berry, John Mackey..but I can't say I really 'met' any of them.

My only real extended encounter with a Hall of Famer was with one of my favorites.... Here is the abridged version of my 'brush with (somewhat drunken) greatness' in the person of Kenny Stabler. My wife and I attended Nolan Ryan's Houston Astros' debut game in 1980. Ryan went six and walked that many but homered and the game lasted 17 innings with the Dodgers winning, 6-5. We left early as we were going to Gilley's Club in Pasadena east of Houston for a show.

We were sitting at one of those 'picnic-style' tables near the front waiting for the show to start. Then a guy came up and asked us if we'd mind sharing our table with Kenny Stabler (he was the Oilers qb back then) and his group. Hell, why not?!?! And so he sat down with a couple of other people and introduced himself and said thanks for letting them sit there.

Stabler bought a couple of rounds of beer as I recall and had a guy fending off autograph requests while the live show was going on. He signed during the break and he signed an Astros cap my wife was wearing and a Gilley's bumper sticker I dug up. We felt like big shots. LOL

[pclpads]

Mine was Lefty Gomez. It was 1958. I was in LL. He came to a sporting goods store in Lemon Grove, Ca., east of San Diego, on a product promo appearance. Lefty then was a rep for Wilson Sporting Goods. He signed a ball for me which is gone. At the time, no idea who he was, other than just an old BB player. What I do recall is unlike now, there were only about 10 kids present.