Willie Mays at Philly

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Posted By: Chris Counts

The Mays story reminds me of the good old days of autograph collecting. When I was about 11 (in 1972), I went to a spring training game in Palm Springs, California. At one point, I looked up and Mays was standing just a few feet from me, Suddenly panicking, I realized I didn't have anything for him to sign. So I picked a crumpled up piece of a peanut bag off the ground and handed it to him to sign, which he did, very graciously. I still have it somewhere ...

When I was about 12, I was walking through the parking lot before an old-timer's game at Anaheim Stadium and I looked up and there was Joe DiMaggio. I had brought a stack of 3x5s to get signed by the old timers, and I handed him the whole stack so he's have something stable to write on. The parking lot was empty ... it was just me and Joe. And he started signing ... and he kept on signing. By the time he had signed about a dozen 3x5s, I started feeling guilty about my ever-increasing collection of Yankee Clipper signatures, and I simply thanked him and held my hand out. He smiled, placed the stack back in my hands, and walked toward the ballpark ...

When I was about 14, I saw Dock Ellis in a hotel lobby in Anaheim. As myself and another autograph collector walked up to him, a security guard intercepted us very aggressively and began to escort us out of the hotel. Dock grabbed the guard (he towered over him), backed him up against a wall and said, "These guys are my friends ... leave them alone." The same day, I saw Billy Martin in the lobby with a cast on his left wrist, apparently the result of punching somebody or some thing. I felt guilty asking him for his autograph under the circumstances, but he walked right up to me and asked if I wanted his signature on a ball I held in my hand. He somehow managed to pin the thing under his chin and sign it, all with a great big smile ...

When I was about 15, I met Duke Snider at a card show in Fallbrook, California. He was very friendly, so I asked him if he would sign an 8x10 photo with the following inscription, "To Chris, the greatest pitcher I ever faced, long live Ebbets Field, your friend, Duke Snider." He laughed, and he signed the photo with the exact inscription ...

Ah, the good old days ...