Your experiences with HOF'ers

[7nohitter]

Originally Posted by Scott Garner

On the flipside, I sat next to Frank Robinson at Anaheim Stadium when he was the GM of the Orioles. Several people attempted to get his autograph to no avail over the course of the game. I did get a chance to talk baseball with him though. He was very cordial and seemed to genuinely enjoy our conversation. In this particular instance I chose not to ask him for an autograph. The conversation is a memory that I will always cherish.

Not baseball, but I had chance encounters with two of my favorite all-time HOF basketball players at baggage claim areas at the airport: Magic Johnson in Detroit and Julius Erving (Dr. J) at Orange County, John Wayne airport.

Both were no longer active players at the time, but the conversations with each were awesome!

My conversation with Dr. J was about his love of golf. He had just flown into John Wayne airport to play in the Don Drysdale Memorial Golf Tournament in Newport Beach. Dr. J looked "game ready" and looked like he could still take it to the hole!

One morning I was picking up my luggage in Detroit and looked over to my right and Magic Johnson is standing right next to me. Yikes!!

I grew up in So Cal and was always a huge LA Laker fan, especially during the "Showtime era" featuring Magic, Worthy, Michael Cooper, Kareem, Byron Scott and company. I finally got up the nerve to go over and say hi.

I let him know what a huge fan I was when I lived in So. Cal. He asked me where I lived (now in the Midwest), and he made a point of reminding me that those were his roots also, growing up in Lansing, MI. I asked him what he was doing in town, and he let me know that he was picking up his mom because he was getting inducted into the Basketball HOF the following day. Unbelievable!! He spent 15 minutes asking me questions about me and my family, how I had enjoyed living in the midwest, etc. The topic of children came up and he asked if I had any and did I have any pictures? My wife had recently made me one of those calendars with photos in them. He complimented me on the photo of my young son Sam, pulled out a Sharpie and signed the photo with this inscription: "To Sam, Have a great life! All the best, Magic Johnson # 32". I was absolutely speechless...

Let me tell you, Magic Johnson has to be one of the nicest, most down to earth great athletes you will ever meet, bar none!

Scott,
Awesome encounter with Magic. We must be about the same age as I grew up during the same era except in Boston...huge Larry Bird fan. Never met him, but boy did I hate those '80's Lakers teams...in retrospect I realize that what the 10-yr-old version of me 'hated' was actually respect and admiration for the one team in the NBA (save the Sixers on occasion) who could actually handle the Celtics!

[Scott Garner]

Originally Posted by 7nohitter

Scott,
Awesome encounter with Magic. We must be about the same age as I grew up during the same era except in Boston...huge Larry Bird fan. Never met him, but boy did I hate those '80's Lakers teams...in retrospect I realize that what the 10-yr-old version of me 'hated' was actually respect and admiration for the one team in the NBA (save the Sixers on occasion) who could actually handle the Celtics!

Andrew,

Thanks! The Lakers/Celtics rivalry of the 1980's was really one of the greatest of all time. Your boy Larry Bird is another guy I would like to have had an opportunity to meet. If you ever meet him, I hope that your encounter is as nice as the one that I had with Magic.

[scooter729]

Originally Posted by Scott Garner

Andrew,

Thanks! The Lakers/Celtics rivalry of the 1980's was really one of the greatest of all time. Your boy Larry Bird is another guy I would like to have had an opportunity to meet. If you ever meet him, I hope that your encounter is as nice as the one that I had with Magic.

I was lucky enough to get to meet up with Larry many times during his playing days. He was never super talkative, but most of the time would stop and sign an autograph. He often would sign just "Bird" or sometimes "L Bird", but usually was good for some sort of autograph.

Here's a pic I have of me with Larry Legend, circa 1992 I think. (I look pretty foolish here, esp. wearing "Jordan 23" shorts for the picture with Larry!) The 8x10 in my hand signed by Bird and Red Auerbach is still hanging on my sports room wall!

[thebigtrain]

I met Chris "Mad Dog" Russo at the US Open a couple years ago. He was doing a live broadcast from the concourse, and of course none of the yuppies there had any idea who he was- I think they thought he was a salesman or something.

So my buddy and I waited until he went to commerical, and he tossed his headphones down and got up to walk around for a minute. I ran up to him and saud "Hey Chris, can I get a photo?"

He said "Sure!" and seemed thrilled that someone knew who he was! I still have the photo on my old phone, need to figure out how to download it.

[GKreindler]

Ohhh, Mad Dog...I still really miss him on WFAN.

[frankbmd]

Alston, Walter
Ashburn, Richie
Campanella, Roy
Doby, Larry
Herzog, Whitey
Killebrew, Harmon
Snider, Duke
Stengel, Casey

Personally obtained autographs from the 8 HOFers above during 1957 spring training in Clearwater, Florida. The Dodgers were the most difficult, but ultimately came through.

In 1977 worked at Wrigley Field for a day game and drove to Milwaukee for a night game against the Yankees. At the old County Stadium sat in front of Warren Spahn, and we were not in box seats.

Around 1990, when my daughter was 6, I took her to a movie ("Ghost Dad" with Bill Cosby) and we were sitting in front of Magic Johnson. I told her not to stare. She didn't. She didn't think it was him. After the film, when he stood up, she still wasn't convinced. I respected his privacy, but would have asked for an autograph on my daughter's behalf if she had been a believer.

[2dueces]

I guess as the players got more famous it went to their heads. I saw Bench play with the Bisons as a young kid. I got 2 autographed balls from him. My father said, hang on to them he's going to be great in the majors. Both were signed during games passed down from the stands and he never hesitated to sign them. Only autographs I ever got in person from a baseball player. Got a Hulk Hogan on an airplane for a friend of mines kid that was a wrestling fan. No interaction, just passed it to him and he signed it.

[7nohitter]

keep the momentum going!!

[Hot Springs Bathers]

Has anyone had a positvie experience with Aaron, Koufax or Seaver in recent years?

I have never encountered any of them at shows through the years nor do I have their signatures.

[Mr. Zipper]

Originally Posted by Hot Springs Bathers

Has anyone had a positvie experience with Aaron, Koufax or Seaver in recent years?

I have never encountered any of them at shows through the years nor do I have their signatures.

I've met Seaver at a card show. Not very friendly. Signs with his head down, doesn't look up and mumbles. I've heard similar stories from others, so I don't think I just ran into him on a bad day.

[Scott Garner]

Originally Posted by Hot Springs Bathers

Has anyone had a positvie experience with Aaron, Koufax or Seaver in recent years?

I have never encountered any of them at shows through the years nor do I have their signatures.

Mike,

I actually had an awesome experience with Tom Seaver at a big MAB Sports event in NJ about 3 years ago. The event was called "Pitcher Perfect" and featured over 30 different pitchers that threw a no-hitter or perfect game. This was an awesome opportunity to speak to a ton of no-hit pitchers, which is a central focus of my personal collection.

Tom Terrific was sitting with his catcher, Don Werner, from his no-hitter vs. St. Louis on June 16th, 1978. I presented a full, unused ticket to Seaver to have him sign it in blue Sharpie. He looked at the ticket and said "Cool! Don, check out this full ticket to our no-hitter game!". Werner leaned over and looked at the ticket and smiled. Seaver stated that he had never seen a full ticket to this game.

I mentioned that I collect tickets to no-hitter games dating back to the early 1900's.
He asked how many no-hit games did I have a ticket to? My response at the time was about 140 different games (now 178). He did a double take and said "What??" Then he asked me what was my oldest? At the time it was Jess Haines' no-hitter in 1924. He told me "that was unbelievable and to keep working on that collecting theme".

When he finally got up from signing at the end of the session, he got a huge round of applause from all the NY/NJ patrons in attendance. As he was leaving he actally veered off his path to the exit to come over and talk to me again. What he told me was "that he is a huge fan of early baseball history and that he found my collecting theme to be both unique and unbelievably cool." He encouraged me again to keep collecting this theme. I've got to tell you that as a collector, Seaver taking an interest in my collection was really awesome! It made me very happy and proud to have gone after this collecting niche...

I can also tell you that Seaver is a huge wine nut like I am. Perhaps some of you know that he has a winery in Napa Valley. I've always found that this to be an interesting topic to him when I've had him sign items through the years.
He likes to test collector's knowledge of games and events in baseball history when he's in a good mood, FYI....

[Hot Springs Bathers]

Thanks to both Scotts! I too was/am a huge Meredith fan. I ran into him on a Dallas trip and found him to be very personable! I just wish I had a photo signed by him in my office. He was second only to Bart Starr in the pantheon of stars from my youth.

The Seaver story was wonderful, I actually was a little down after reading so many negative experiences in this thread.

Scott, my wife enjoys researching wines so I asked her last year to find a bottle of Seaver's Cabernet. After a little work she came back to my sports room and informed me that I could not afford it! His Studio 42 interview with Costas on MLB Network was very enjoyable. He talked at length about his wine venture, you could tell he was happy with that life style.