Reflections on 30 years of the Philly Show

[tedzan]

Here are a couple of interesting BB player stories at the Willow Grove show.

Featured guest at Willow Grove (circa 1990) was Gus Zernial. I gave Gus his famous 1952 Topps card to sign. Gus asked me.......
" Do you really want me to sign this card, isn't it quite valuable ? "

I told him that I had 4 more of these cards back home. He smiled and autographed it. What impressed me about Gus was....at 67
years old, Gus looked like he could go to the ballpark and hit many more HR's.








Bill Hedin, you'll appreciate this story......

Jimmy Piersall was the guest at Willow Grove in the early 1990's. I was in line to meet him and get his autograph. The guy (dealer)
in front of me presented Jimmy an egg-crate type of box containing 24 balls for Jimmy to sign. Jimmy looks up at him, and asked....
"do I have to sign all of these ?" The dealer responded...."Why yes, I paid for all of them."
Obviously, Jimmy was not that happy about this. Piersall signs the first ball, and reaches over the table and places it in one of the
slots in this 24-slot grid. Then Jim signs the 2nd ball and tosses it into this crate...."swish"....it lands in a slot. Jim appeared quite
pleased with himself. So, as he signed the remaining 22 balls, Jim would toss them into the crate. All the rest of the balls bounced
off the crate, and were rolling all over the floor. Needless to say, the dealer was very "ticked-off".....while Jimmy was laughing.


TED Z

[whitehse]

Originally Posted by tedzan

Here are a couple of interesting BB player stories at the Willow Grove show.

Featured guest at Willow Grove (circa 1990) was Gus Zernial. I gave Gus his famous 1952 Topps card to sign. Gus asked me.......
" Do you really want me to sign this card, isn't it quite valuable ? "

I told him that I had 4 more of these cards back home. He smiled and autographed it. What impressed me about Gus was....at 67
years old, Gus looked like he could go to the ballpark and hit many more HR's.








Bill Hedin, you'll appreciate this story......

Jimmy Piersall was the guest at Willow Grove in the early 1990's. I was in line to meet him and get his autograph. The guy (dealer)
in front of me presented Jimmy an egg-crate type of box containing 24 balls for Jimmy to sign. Jimmy looks up at him, and asked....
"do I have to sign all of these ?" The dealer responded...."Why yes, I paid for all of them."
Obviously, Jimmy was not that happy about this. Piersall signs the first ball, and reaches over the table and places it in one of the
slots in this 24-slot grid. Then Jim signs the 2nd ball and tosses it into this crate...."swish"....it lands in a slot. Jim appeared quite
pleased with himself. So, as he signed the remaining 22 balls, Jim would toss them into the crate. All the rest of the balls bounced
off the crate, and were rolling all over the floor. Needless to say, the dealer was very "ticked-off".....while Jimmy was laughing.


TED Z

A quick note on Jimmy Piersall.

I promoted shows in suburban Chicago back in the 80's and 90's and since Piersall lived close by I had him signing at a card show one weekend. Piersall had everyone laughing as he was telling stories about his past and about some of the players that he knew and played with. A young girl, about 16 years old came up to him and said she loved playing baseball and softball and asked if he had any advice for her. Piersall looked directly into her eyes and said, "yeah I have advice...stay outta back seats." He signed her autograph, laughed hysterically as she walked away while the rest of us were just stunned that he would say something like that!! I still shake my head at that memory!

[tedzan]

There is one thing you can bet on....that Jimmy Piersall's presence at a BB card show will be an interesting experience.

Regards,

TED Z

[tedzan]

There are many more Willow Grove stories to be told, here is one that I recall from the mid-1980's.

My table was next to John Broggi (who at that time operated two BB card shops and a monthly live auction in NJ). A guy came to
my table first with a "walk-in" of 100's of really sharp Goudey's & Play Ball cards. I went thru every card and gave him a fair market
value of his large collection.
It was a lot of $$$$, and I really didn't want to pass this collection off to someone else. So, I turned to John Broggi, and we came
to a joint agreement of an offer to this guy for his collection. The guy was happy with it. And, John and I spent the rest of the day
dividing up the cards. We haggled over the Ruth's, Gehrig's, Joe DiMaggio's, and Ted William's....but, after several hours, we arrived
at a mutually happy compromise.

Hey guys, if you have anymore fond memories of this fantastic show....please share them here with us ?


TED Z

[timzcardz]

I never went to the show, so I have no memories, but you guys are certainly painting a fine image here!

It seems like it was a lot of fun.

Thanks!

[Leon]

Originally Posted by timzcardz

I never went to the show, so I have no memories, but you guys are certainly painting a fine image here!

It seems like it was a lot of fun.

Thanks!

I have been to exactly 1 Philly show. It was about 2-3 years ago and I stayed with Ted Z and his lovely wife. I had some great lasagna she made and they were the best hosts a guest could ask for. I even got to see a lot of Teddy's collection (thanks again, Ted). I also loved, absolutely loved, that little place we went to eat breakfast. You had to have a key to get into the restaurant, everyone knew everyone else and it was like one big family. The food was absolutely great too. No matter what you order you get a big 'ole side helping of real breakfast, country potatoes. Absolutely yummy!!

As for the show, I didn't set up at it, didn't find anything to buy, but did see a lot of folks I knew so that was a plus. I would have liked to have been to it when Bob S was running it. Now, I do have one external type memory. Several years ago I got a call from Bob Schmeirer (sp?), the promoter, and he quizzed me about someone selling a table on this board. Mum was the word as it was a good friend that just couldn't make it and he wanted me to help. I hear Bob was a real stickler for his tables. I also heard he would walk around the room and say hi to the dealers and collectors and see how things were going. Maybe the new regime has a different agenda as I certainly didn't see any of that at the one show I went to. I guess the old times are a passin'? In today's new society it seems like most of the "service" is left out of "customer service".

[Cy2009]

Originally Posted by whitehse

A quick note on Jimmy Piersall.

I promoted shows in suburban Chicago back in the 80's and 90's and since Piersall lived close by I had him signing at a card show one weekend. Piersall had everyone laughing as he was telling stories about his past and about some of the players that he knew and played with. A young girl, about 16 years old came up to him and said she loved playing baseball and softball and asked if he had any advice for her. Piersall looked directly into her eyes and said, "yeah I have advice...stay outta back seats." He signed her autograph, laughed hysterically as she walked away while the rest of us were just stunned that he would say something like that!! I still shake my head at that memory!

As you did Ted, I find this moment to be reprehensible. I have two teenage daughters. If he would have made that remark to one of my girls, I would have laid into him hard.

This action reminds me of two memories in my past. I went to Penn State and played a lot of pick-up basketball with some football players. When talk would turn to Joe Paterno, I remember one player telling me this. Joe told them that whenever a person stops to talk or ask you for an autograph, stop and be very cordial. To you it may not be a big deal. To them, it may be the biggest deal that he or she could ever want. Piersall should have heard this.

Also, I had the pleasure of talking with Kenny Stabler at the Chantilly show. He stopped, saw my name tag and addressed me by name and chatted with me for 10-15 minutes. The next time he came to Chantilly, I went up to him and told him the story and thanked him for being so nice. The Snake grabbed my arm and, in his southern drawl, said, "It isn't difficult to be nice." Jimmy Piersall should have done the same.

I am sad to hear the Piersall story because so many other people have been wonderful. Brooks Robinson, Stan Musial and others come to mind. These are the people that I will recall in my memories.

Cy

[1880nonsports]

1) missing Bob Bostoff for the laughs and a couple of friends I met there.
2) miss the assortment of good cards (pre-1920) and obscure baseball "stuff".

There are quite a few people from those days still involved in the hobby - some of whom are respected today .....

It was after not sleeping for 24 hours I drove myself to the show to consign an allen and ginter Indians banner (still one of the few items I haven't been able to replace) to Lifson. I carried another banner with me of Ginter's world decorations that I subsequently decided to give myself as a present instead of consigning. When I went outside I started to talk to someone and left the FRAMED banner on my trunk (quite a large sign). As I pulled out of the lot I heard a noise - turned around - didn't see anything and drove back to Brooklyn. No-one turned it in :-(