Got Johnny Bench Ball. It's real :-)

[scmavl]

That is such a great story! Love it.

I had a similar-but-not-as-cool experience a couple of years ago. I grew up in Georgia, and Dale Murphy was my favorite player (early 80s). I, like you, got a Dale Murphy model Rawlings glove as my first "real" glove when I was 9 or 10. I'd always wanted to meet him, and in 2010 the local minor league team had Dale coming to the game to sign autographs as a promotion so I was going to have him sign my glove. But I ended up having to fill in as drummer in a friend's band for a two week summer tour... which of course is when Dale was coming.
Fast-forward to about 3 years ago and I was in the GM's office of the local minor league team (I was a season ticket holder and friend) and I told him that story. He reached into his desk and gave me this:




I know it's not a valuable ball, but that's not the point. It's that Dale signed it THAT DAY, the day I should've been there, so this was the next best thing. So nice of the GM to do that, too. It's a lifetime keeper for me. It represents both childhood fascination and adult friendship. Both very important things.