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Joe DiMaggio signed items for me and a number of others in a hotel lobby in 1986 when he was in DC for the Cracker Jack Old Timer's game. He was pleasant to everyone.
Frank Howard definitely the nicest former player I've ever met. |
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I posted this a while back but thought I would share it again. When Tacoma was the Twins AAA affiliate I played whiffle ball with Lyman Bostock in the parking lot of Cheney Stadium. I was 11 and he was very friendly and left a lasting impression. I was crushed when he was murdered.
Although it is not a baseball story it is still fun nonetheless. I took my son to an Oakland A’s spring training game about eleven years ago. During the game Mohammed Ali made a surprise appearance. When he entered the ball park you could hear a pin drop. It was surreal. The game stopped and the players applauded him. The crowd chanted Ali, Ali! He sat a few rows away from us and an autograph line quickly formed. He signed between innings. Those in line knelt to avoid obstructing the view of others during the game. My son asked why people were kneeling. My wife smiled and told him you do that before royalty. I told my son that this was an autograph opportunity he should not miss. At that time he was painfully timid but with a bit of coaxing he stood in line by himself for two innings. When it was his turn to receive an autograph play resumed forcing him to kneel and wait. Ali looked over at him and motioned to him. My son approached Ali rather nervously. He told my son to sit next to him in a vacant seat. He then opened a bag and pulled out a large oatmeal cookie broke it in half and handed half to my son. He sat with Ali eating that cookie for a half inning. At the end of the inning Ali smiled at him and threw a quick jab his way. He then signed the autograph and thanked my son for sitting with him. When we returned home my shy son shocked us with the announcement that he wanted to be a boxer. My wife and I cringed but he was persistent so we relented. He boxed for a few years and although he was an average boxer the sport changed him in a positive manner. He became assertive, disciplined, and extremely confident. He is in law school and has grown into a young man I am very proud of. I have to attribute some of that to boxing and his fifteen minutes with Ali.
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1971 Pirates Ticket Quest: 98 of 153 regular season stubs (64%), 14 of 14 1971 ALCS, NLCS , and World Series stubs (100%) If you have any 1971 Pirate regular season game stubs (home or away games) please let me know what have! 1971 Pirates Game used bats Collection 18/18 (100%) |
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Great story, Mike! Well told and the picture almost puts you in the moment.
Speaking of nice guys, I have never met him but have always heard Bob Feller was great at shows. Any Feller tales? |
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One day in Spring Training in Winter Haven my friend and I were outside the Indians minor league clubhouse. We were the only two around because the big league team was away and only the minor leaguers were there. A car pulled up to the curb and an old man popped out. He walked by and asked how we were doing, then talked about what a nice day it was for baseball. It wasn't until he walked into the clubhouse that we realized it was Feller. We just didn't expect a HOFer to drive up in a Cutlass and walk around like he wasn't anything special. He came back out a few minutes later and happily signed three or four cards for each of us. We talked for another few minutes and he wished us well and drove away.
Another instance with Feller was at a AAA game where he had been brought in to sign. Standing in line about 30 people back, and realized we were standing FOREVER. When we got to the front of the line we quickly realized what was taking so long. Feller would talk about every image on every card and photo that he was signing, telling us where the picture was taken and different facts about that season or even that day. I truly believe that he remembered every single thing that happened throughout his remarkable career. He took as much time as anyone wanted, saying he was in no rush and would stay until the lights turned off if he had to in order to accommodate everyone. Feller was a truly first class man in every sense of the word. Last edited by dgo71; 06-13-2015 at 01:54 AM. |
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My dad grew up near Cleveland and as a kid all I heard about was Bob Feller and Larry Doby. I too had a couple of really nice experiences with Feller. I never met a man who enjoyed being himself more than Bob Feller. He was a class act from a generation that knew many. Although his generation is silently fading away that man lived out loud. What a life! The man was pitching and dominating in the majors at age 17. He was toeing the rubber at Municipal Stadium when his peers were playing high school ball. If his teenage years played out in front of today's media and cable sports TV can you imagine the stir he would have caused? Just thinking of such a precocious talent makes me smile and shake my head in disbelief.
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1971 Pirates Ticket Quest: 98 of 153 regular season stubs (64%), 14 of 14 1971 ALCS, NLCS , and World Series stubs (100%) If you have any 1971 Pirate regular season game stubs (home or away games) please let me know what have! 1971 Pirates Game used bats Collection 18/18 (100%) |
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Great Feller stories, Derek and Mike! Thanks for sharing.
Good one about Boggs, too, Drew. |
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I don't do autographs often at all, I think maybe about eight total in person.
But they've all been really good. A couple were average because of the show setup or the size of the crowd. Orr, Rice, Evans. The others have all been great Especially Feller. Dad took me to see him pitch a home run derby between games of a AAA doubleheader. Pretty amazing since he was a bit older, late 50's and still had a lot of speed. During the second game he came out into the stands with a big stack of printed pictures with some career highlights on the back and started signing them. Being a bit shy I hung back and was one of the last lids in line. Got a couple pictures and a scrap of paper for dads autograph album. He asked if I played and what position. When I said I wanted to pitch but my league didn't allow pitching if you were over 12 (They went to being T ball a year or two after I became too old.) He started explaining what the pitcher in the game was doing and why apparently the guy in the game had some speed but not great even for the mid 70's so he mixed his pitches a lot. during all this kids kept coming up for more pictures but they were making paper planes out of them! I asked if that bothered him and he said "they're kids, it's what they do" I must have been there about two innings getting a lesson in pitching from one of the best before he said it was fun talking but he had to leave. That never really sunk in until I was telling someone about it maybe 20 years later. It didn't help my pitching, which was hampered by a serious lack of raw talent, but it did very much improve my understanding of the game. Brooks Robinson was also fantastic. The other two really good ones were Neil Gaiman, and Chris Hadfield (Graphic novel author and Astronaut respectively) Hadfields book signing schedule was pretty insane, having already done one about 3 hours away earlier in the day but he gave a nice talk answered questions and was really pleasant. We had a nice exchange since the two books I was getting were for my daughters and he remarked that the names didn't seem like mine. I mentioned them and that one of the great things was having made a part for the space station and being able to watch it go over with them and telling them that light was a spaceship that daddy made a piece of. Nowhere near as cool as going there, but as close as I'll likely ever get. I was surprised that after so long a day he asked what piece and when I told him he apologized for not recalling it. When I said I wasn't surprised because they had thousands of bits of equipment he just smiled and said yes we do. Steve B |
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Last edited by w7imel; 06-14-2015 at 02:23 PM. |
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I also have an Ali story, actually two part, but only part of it pertains to this thread. Many, many years ago at a Tri-Star show in Houston I was set up, and Ali among all of the biggest names in all genre's of sports was signing. First part of the story I walk into the restroom and could not figure out why it was so quiet(this was pre 2000 and the show was packed), I look next to me and I am side by side with Ali. I walk out and his security detail are freaked out how I am in the room when it was supposed to be closed and Ali only. It had a double entrance and I happened to come it at the exact time they shut it down. So long story short I pee'd next to Muhammad Ali. Now for the real point of this post, there were probably 5-6 HOFers from various sports signing on the main stage all at one time, Bobby announced that Muhammad Ali would be taking the stage to sign, you could have heard a pin drop and the most impressive show of respect occured, Joe Namath who was signing, abruptly stopped his signing, stood up and led the crown in a standing ovation for Ali.
Last edited by sb1; 06-16-2015 at 06:03 PM. |
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Another signing story, a bad signing
Although I don't collect autographs( the only one's I used to were Maris and Nellie Fox, no idea why), I used to do a lot of shows. One of the worst signing reactions I observed was at a small local show where a lot of Negro leaguers were signing(I think Dennis Biddle organized them), included many stars of the 1940 and 1950's. Also signing were a few ex MLer's mostly HOFers. So they announce the arrival of the Negro leaguers, they walk in a nice procession, the dealers and crowd all stands, claps and gives them their due. Gibson is seated at a table signing, does not get up, never even looks up, many of the honored Negro league signers were less than impressed and declared without them, he would not be setting where he was signing for much more than they. I believe they were signing for free, but paid by the promoter, where as Gibson was getting carte blanche, first class accommodations and getting paid to sign.
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yes, Bob Gibson.
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Huge man, huge heart. |
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