Act of Kindness from a Hall of Famer

[canjond]

I have lots of stories of kindness players showed me as a kid that used to hang around the show circuit, but one moment especially comes to mind. I was at a show where Jim Palmer was signing, and I was hanging around him and chatting him up as best as a 12 year old kid could do. He asked me if I played little league, and I told him that not only did I play, but I was also a pitcher like he was. He looked at me and said "oh really, want to show me what you got?" I looked at him a little bewildered - which he clearly could see - and said "come on - I need a break anyway. I happen to have my glove with me so let's go see what you got." So, to the back parking lot I went with Jim Palmer his glove, and a newly unboxed baseball. He crouched down and had me fire it in at him. For a good 5 or 10 minutes we played catch in the back lot. And after our warm up was done, he spent the next 5 minutes showing me grips on the ball while an assistant at the show grabbed the glove to catch. That 15 minutes playing catch with an HOF'er will be a memory I won't soon forget.

[LeftHandedDane]

As a kid growing up my favorite player was Rod Carew. I managed to talk my Dad into taking me to a White Sox game against the Twins so I could see my favorite player in person. But I also desperately wanted to get his autograph. So I brought his latest card with me (71 Topps) and a marker and after the game we went over to where the players exited the stadium to get on the bus to go back to their hotel.

There were a few other people hanging around looking for autographs as well, and we waited patiently for about 20 or 30 minutes, and then the players came out. Unfortunately, the security people hustled them right onto the bus without allowing them to interact with the fans at all. I was super disappointed and my Dad was already starting to console me by trying to come up with other ideas for how to get Rod's autograph, when I happened to look up at the bus, and there was Rod sitting at the window pretty much right above my head. So I pounded on the bus to get his attention and held up his card.

Rod saw the card, and promptly got up, went up to the front and had the bus driver open the door so he could get off and come over to sign my card, as well as sign for the other people who were still there. This act only strengthened my fandom for Rod Carew, and that card, while kind of beat up now, remains one of my favorites in my collection.