Autographs- Do you collect? Do your care?

[Scott Garner]

No doubt, I have always been an autograph hawk (stalker). I primarily have collected baseball players that I liked through the years, and each has a great story that accompanies it. Too many of these to list here. Nolan Ryan and Cal Ripken were great signers and always personable. Albert "don't call me Joey" Belle was the all-time biggest tool without a doubt! That's a story that isn't fit to print.

BTW, I've also been fortunate to have gotten the autograph of quite a few of my favorite golfers (Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Tom Watson, Lee Trevino, Greg Norman, Fred Couples, Corey Pavin, Johnny Miller, Tiger Woods, Bruce Lietzke, Ricky Fowler (current young gun on the PGA), Nancy Lopez, Annika Sorenstam, etc.). I'm not a huge basketball fan, but I did enjoy the LA Lakers for many years. I managed to catch Jerry West, Magic Johnson and James Worthy one-on-one and each were nice enough to sign for me. Magic Johnson was one of my favorite autograph experiences of all time. Julius Erving was another awesome experience.

These days my major autograph pursuit is trying to get the signature of every pitcher that ever threw a perfect game since 1893 (the year that they moved the mound distance to the modern standard of 60' 6"). I have personally gotten the signature of about 106 living no-hit pitchers. Additionally, I own the sig of another 140 that are no longer alive. Several of these I got in person. In order to complete my goal I still am looking for about 18 more early names. It's a brutally hard challenge, but I love it.

Collect what you like!