Act of Kindness from a Hall of Famer

[Howe’s Hunter]

At one time I was trying to get autographed baseballs of players I met in person. Bob Gibson had a charity golf tournament every year in Omaha and quite a few former players would be there year after year. One year, Robin Roberts was there and was one of the few players who went along with Gibson’s request that only the official program be signed and nothing else. When I approached him, Roberts said to contact his website, run by his son and he would send a baseball. I did, and several months passed with no ball. Contacted again and got a reply that they weren’t doing that much anymore, if I wanted a pre-signed ball I could order one at a new price list they had online. Ordered a ball with just the signature and waited. By this time almost a year had gone by and I called the number in the website. Who answered the phone but Robin. He said he remembered my request at the tournament and had a few choice words for the kid they had hired to run the website. He took my name and address and said he’d make it right. Less than a week later I had a ball with a signature, a HoF inscription, a Sporting News player of the year inscription ... in total there were twelve inscriptions on the ball. It was covered with every award he had ever won. With the sig and HoF inscription on the sweet spot. Way beyond what he would have had to do to make me a happy guy.

[bnorth]

Not a HOFer but I went to a lot of Yankee games in MSP and KC while Tino Martinez played for them. After every inning he would get the game ball and throw it up to a kid in the stands. I know that made me a big fan of his.

[savedfrommyspokes]

My wife and I were leaving old Yankee Stadium in 05 after a blowout Yankee win. We were about to cross the road that led to the player's parking lot and a car was coming from the lot. We were more than glad to wait for this one car to pass by since there were not too many other people around and no other cars leaving the lot. However, this car stopped just for us and the driver waved for us to cross.....I looked over and a smiling Marino Rivera was the one waving. I have crossed a lot of roads in my life and while most every car would just keep going ignoring pedestrians waiting to cross, Mariano did not. While this was a very simple act on his part, it was beyond a classy act on his part IMO....probably indicative as to who he really is as a person.

How many other HOFers, or even players for that matter, would have stopped?

[bbcard1]

I am guessing in 1978 or 1979 Bob Feller came to Charleston WV on behalf of the American Cancer Society. He came out in his uniform and for $2 you could hit a pitch off him. All the money went to the ACS. After pitching to heaven knows how many people, he showered and came sat in the stands with the fans and signed autographs for every person who asked for one. FTR, I blooped a single over second base, making me 1-for-1 career versus Hall of Fame pitchers.

[commishbob]

When my sons were born we named them Brooks Robinson Andrews and James Palmer Andrews. A few months after they were born I received an envelope addressed to me by Brooks Robinson and it contained a wonderful inscribed photo and note. My aunt had sent a small clipping to him via his office at Crown Oil that had appeared in the Baseball Weekly newspaper that mentioned their birth.



I've related my Frank Robinson story previously but I guess it's appropriate here:

In 1969 I went with a buddy, also an Oriole fan, to see the O's play at Yankee Stadium on a mid-week afternoon. We'd decided that we'd make a couple of banners to support our club. We set to work dividing an old bed sheet and, with orange paint and a marker, we each created a work of art. His was the number '5' for Brooks Robinson. Mine was a '20' in orange with 'RF' added on.
We missed the Orioles' batting practice session but we hung out near the third base dugout in hopes the players would see our signs when they warmed up. Then a batboy approached me and asked if I would like him to take my banner to Frank in the clubhouse and show it to him. I said 'Sure' and handed it to him not knowing if I'd see it again. Moments later here comes my banner up the dugout steps being carried by Frank Robinson himself. He asked whose it was and brought it over to me and thanked me for bringing it. He asked for my pen and signed it right in the middle on the '0'. Almost 50 years later I still have it. It's discolored and been stained a bit along the way, the orange color had darkened to a pinkish red and the autograph has faded some. But that banner still means more to me than any piece of memorabilia I own.

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