Baseball players who aren't friendly signers

[witster]

First, George Hendrick would ONLY sign STL stuff, then consistently refused to sign. So, F*** him. His not being on a 51s team ball is no biggie.

Very hard to get autographs as an adult at a MLB game, or even a crowded MiLB All Star game. Naturally, kids get first crack, and every adult is viewed as someone looking to sell their autographs. Witster

[mcgwirecom]

I always get a kick out of players who only sign for kids. McGwire would do that a lot also. If you sat back and watched the kids would take the signed ball and run up in the stands and a guy would hand them cash for it. Then they would run back to get another signed. In the long run all those balls signed for kids wind up in some adults collection.

[Scott Garner]

By far the worst autograph signing experience that I ever had was with Albert "Don't call me Joey" Belle.
I had heard that Belle was a notoriously nasty signer. I decided to take him on as a challenge and approached him outside of the Doubletree Hotel in Anaheim, CA in the mid 1990's while he was with Cleveland.
The Doubletree was frequently used by visiting teams that were in town to play the Angels.

I timed it so that I had him one on one out in front of the hotel and politely asked him to sign a ball that I had brought with me. He literally told me to get the f**k away from him and threatened me. Nice! The word is out on what a scumbag he really is these days. No surprise for me...

Ricky Henderson would always tell you that he would sign in the stadium, but would never sign for anyone except for black children in all the times that I watched him.

Randy Johnson was always nasty/surly and would literally growl at people that asked him for his autograph. That and 6' 10" of big ugly unit made for a near impossible autograph. In a paid signing though, he comes off as a decent guy.

Eddie Murray would never sign for me, but he was always very polite in his refusal. On Father's Day he singled me out outside of the stadium and gave me his wrist band with his uniform number on it.

[witster]

Originally Posted by Scott Garner

By far the worst autograph signing experience that I ever had was with Albert "Don't call me Joey" Belle.
I had heard that Belle was a notoriously nasty signer. I decided to take him on as a challenge and approached him outside of the Doubletree Hotel in Anaheim, CA in the mid 1990's while he was with Cleveland.
The Doubletree was frequently used by visiting teams that were in town to play the Angels.

I timed it so that I had him one on one out in front of the hotel and politely asked him to sign a ball that I had brought with me. He literally told me to get the f**k away from him and threatened me. Nice! The word is out on what a scumbag he really is these days. No surprise for me...

Ricky Henderson would always tell you that he would sign in the stadium, but would never sign for anyone except for black children in all the times that I watched him.

Randy Johnson was always nasty/surly and would literally growl at people that asked him for his autograph. That and 6' 10" of big ugly unit made for a near impossible autograph. In a paid signing though, he comes off as a decent guy.

Eddie Murray would never sign for me, but he was always very polite in his refusal. On Father's Day he singled me out outside of the stadium and gave me his wrist band with his uniform number on it.

All of your examples were not successful for me, either many years ago. Belle was going thru the Albert/Joey thing. Some players were jerks, while some auto hounds were jerks who made it worse for everyone else out there.
Sandberg wasn't good at signing either.

I imagine a player being in a hurry or dealing with the pressures of playing, just aren't always the right recipe to approach a guy for an autograph. Sometimes, they're just having a bad day. Some guys sign for who they choose to. I suppose that is their right. Witster

[sreader3]

My worst signing experience ever was with Dillon Tate, an early 2015 first round pick of the Rangers who's now in AA in the Yankees organization.

I took my son and my nephew on a Sally League tour in the summer of 2016 and, in advance, bought a few dozen Bowman Chrome cards of highly rated Sally League prospects for them to get signed. One of them was Tate.

We showed up 90 minutes before a game between Tate's team, the Hickory Crawdads, and the Kannapolis Intimidators. Tate isn't even pitching that day, and is soft tossing in shallow right field along the first base line. My son, who is the ONLY person there, politely waits for Tate to finish throwing and then asks him if he can sign the card. Tate says, "I can't help you" and walks off.

What a tool.

[commishbob]

Cardinal pitcher Ray Washburn told my two younger brothers to 'go to hell' when they called out his name from the Astrodome's pavillion seats at a day game way back when. He had just finished his running along the warning track.
I've never forgotten that.

Back when I was in college I had a Dodger fan friend visiting for a LA-Houston series. I took him to the old Shamrock Hilton hotel where most teams stayed in Houston at the time. Davey Lopes came out of the elevator carrying a garment bag with his name emblazoned in two foot tall script and then proceeded to dress my friend down for approaching him with a baseball.

This won't surprise anyone but I worked a show for a promoter friend and watched Willie Mays sign for two hours seemingly without looking up once. Yes, the stories of him rolling the ball he just signed back to the collector are true.

[Sladge34]

I know it's off topic, but on the great side Of autograph collecting... Mr. Aaron Judge signs before almost every Yankee game in the right field ball boy area. Not to mention he throws his warmup balls while playing right field into the stands every time, which is cool, I was lucky enough to catch one during the Alcs last year.. game 5, 4th inning... was offered 500 and still kept the ball

[Johnny630]

All of these horror stories about baseball players make me thankful I only had one in person autograph requests from golfers.... well and one football player. Very Positive!

I was spoiled as a young kid in the early 90’s. I had the great pleasure of meeting and receiving signatures of two of my all time favorite golfers. Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer! After hitting their tee shots on one of the holes I called for them to come over so I could shake their hands. I had a lot of guts right ? There had to be no more then 10 people around. It was a super humid July afternoon in Md. Both were gracious, saying hi, shook my hand and signed the program I had picked up from the first tee. After Arnold signed my program he said, “Son I think you may want the guy walking down the fairway behind me. I said who is he ? He said it’s Golden Arm son. I said ok who is that !! Haha how naive was I. Anyway I said hey golden arm come here and sign my program haha I was brave. He came right over kindly smiled and signed my program along with shaking my hand. When I came home and showed my pop he educated me on who golden arm was.

[parker1b2]

Originally Posted by Scott Garner

By far the worst autograph signing experience that I ever had was with Albert "Don't call me Joey" Belle.
I had heard that Belle was a notoriously nasty signer. I decided to take him on as a challenge and approached him outside of the Doubletree Hotel in Anaheim, CA in the mid 1990's while he was with Cleveland.
The Doubletree was frequently used by visiting teams that were in town to play the Angels.

I timed it so that I had him one on one out in front of the hotel and politely asked him to sign a ball that I had brought with me. He literally told me to get the f**k away from him and threatened me. Nice! The word is out on what a scumbag he really is these days. No surprise for me...

Ricky Henderson would always tell you that he would sign in the stadium, but would never sign for anyone except for black children in all the times that I watched him.

Randy Johnson was always nasty/surly and would literally growl at people that asked him for his autograph. That and 6' 10" of big ugly unit made for a near impossible autograph. In a paid signing though, he comes off as a decent guy.

Eddie Murray would never sign for me, but he was always very polite in his refusal. On Father's Day he singled me out outside of the stadium and gave me his wrist band with his uniform number on it.

It is funny, I hear so many horror stories about Albert Belle, and don't doubt them for a second, but he was one of the best autograph experiences I had. I believe it was 1993 and my family took a trip to Toronto and we stayed at the Skydome. We had tickets to a game, and my father found out that you could stand outside the stadium after the game and try and get autographs. Many Indians players came out a signed a few autographs. Albert came out, and he was the star at the time and everyone surrounded him. He said I will sign just give me some room. He had to be out there for about 45 minutes or so and he signed for everyone. I got him 2 times, my brother got him twice also. He got mad one time because half way through everyone was really crowding him. He got mad and said if you do not give me some space I am leaving. Everyone backed up and he signed for a good 20 minutes more. Maybe we just caught him on a good day?

[parker1b2]

Had a ba experience with Ken Griffey Jr one time. It was 1988 and I was in 6th grade and staying with friends for a week in Vermont. We went to a Vermont Mariners game, I didn't know who Ken Griffey Je was but my friend said he was a big star there. After the game we were standing out by parking lot to get autographs. Griffey comes out and everyone surrounds him. He keeps walking, there was maybe 10-15 people, mostly kids trying, and he gets in his BMW and leaves. We had to walk with him for a good 100 feet or so from stadium to his car, he didn't sign one autograph.

[Gary Dunaier]

Originally Posted by witster

Very hard to get autographs as an adult at a MLB game, or even a crowded MiLB All Star game. Naturally, kids get first crack, and every adult is viewed as someone looking to sell their autographs.

Originally Posted by mcgwirecom

I always get a kick out of players who only sign for kids.

So, all of these players who only sign for kids. The kid gets an autograph, is happy, and he wants to go to more games and get more autographs. Which he does. And the players continue to sign for him because he's a kid. So the kid develops an interest in collecting autographs.

Then one day the kid is no longer a kid. Goes up to a player and asks for an autograph. The player is, like, "Sorry pal, I only sign for kids." Is the kid supposed to lose interest in autographs the moment he turns 18? Just stop, cold turkey?

For all we know, getting autographs may have been a highlight of going to games. If he can't get them any more, he may decide that a big part of the ballpark experience is now closed off to him - and stop going to games altogether.

Meanwhile, what is he expected to do with the autographs he already has? The guy might decide that if the players aren't going to sign for him any more because he's "too old," he no longer wants the autographs he has. So he takes what could have been the foundation of a wonderful lifelong collection... and sells them.

The irony is that he might sell them to a middle-aged adult who the player wouldn't sign for... a middle-aged adult who might have appreciated getting his autograph in person more than a kid would, if for no other reason than he's older and has the maturity to appreciate and understand baseball in general than a kid can have.

[theshleps]

In spring training in AZ most kids say 8 or under "collecting autographs" were children whose fathers were dealers and they brought them along knowing they would sign. Often they brought multiple children. There were tho not that many players who would only sign for children. Women did as well or better than children

[sicollector1954]

By far the worst person that I ever encounter for signing was Dimaggio. In 1995, in Chicago he signed at the Sun Times Show but had a list of things he would also not sign. I took a 1949 "Life magazine size Sports Illustrated...He was on the cover...I also took a regular 90's one as well as a backup.. He was charging $175.00 for a flat item if I remember correctly. He came out wearing glasses like for when you eyes are dilated. Apparently the flashes from cameras bothered him. He told my mother who went with me (big Yankee fan) to hurry up and finish the pictures she was taking as she was holding up the line....(before extra fees for photos)
However, the kicker was the guy in front of me. He had paid his money...waited in line...and had a baseball signed by Ted Williams and Mickey Mantle which he had gotten signed previously. When he got to the front of the line...Dimaggio looked at the baseball and said...."Not signing that.....don't sign anything Mantle signed ahead of me!" The guy had to get out of line and buy a regular baseball and just get that signed instead...
By far however the highlight of the day was a person who had a framed picture with a cut out area to have signed...Dimaggio signed it....the guy was elated...and later opened the frame to reveal a first issue of Playboy with Marilyn on the cover and unknowingly---Dimaggio had signed it in the cut out area.

[Johnny630]

That’s why Dimaggio was prob a jerk because of that last sleazy dealer/collector who would stoope that low to get a piece signed. Unreal how cruddy people can be in this industry. To top it off he brags about, low, very low.

[dgo71]

Ted Simmons, Pete Vuckovich, John Denny, Ron Reed and Jim Rice all make this list for me.

[chalupacollects]

Originally Posted by theshleps

In spring training in AZ most kids say 8 or under "collecting autographs" were children whose fathers were dealers and they brought them along knowing they would sign. Often they brought multiple children. There were tho not that many players who would only sign for children. Women did as well or better than children

Women do much better! We were at Saints/Colts Super Bowl back in 2010, lucky enough to sit in Legends box where my wife was able to get every player she asked to sign a football where I eventually gave up and just pointed people out for her.. She even had it passed around the next box which belonged to the Dolphins... Great fun!