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Old 01-01-2018, 03:37 PM
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rats60 rats60 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Exhibitman View Post

I had the Mays cards until I was in my twenties. I soured on Mays later in life, once I met the man at a show. I was very excited to meet him, of course, a boyhood idol and all, so I carefully rehearsed what I was going to say when I was finally in the presence of the great man. I said my piece, Mays didn't even acknowledge me, just rolled my baseball across the table to the handler like he was shooing a cockroach from his dinner plate. I was so disappointed in that non-interaction that I sold off my entire Mays collection, 1952-1973, including the autographed ball [which I'd had Mantle and Snider sign too]. For years I refused to own a Mays card. I've made peace with the 'Say Nothing' Kid since then--you gotta have Mays in a baseball card collection--but the idolization was dead the moment I left his presence.
I had a similar experience with Mickey Mantle. Of all the players I met during the 80s, he was the worst. When I was putting together the 1952 Topps set, that was the last card I bought and I never would have bought it if I wasn't doing a Topps set run.
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