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Posted By: Jon Canfield

Jay - wait - I may have read that wrong but Double Duty said he wouldn't do an autograph request, but still took your money that you offered for him to sign something? Now that's the first I have heard at that. "Sorry Jay, I won't give you my autograph but I'll gladly take the $$$ you offered me to give it to you!". On a lighter note, my father used to promote autograph guests a little while back - some big names from Mantle, DiMaggio, etc, to little guys like Enos Slaughter, etc. One time, we had a small Negro League Reunion in Cooperstown - about 7 players in total. All the Negro Leaguers came to my house for a BBQ. I was about 11 years old at the time and we went out to my front yard (which is large) and I got to play catch with Double Duty, Casey Jones, Lester Lockett, Joe Barnes, Buck O'Neil and Bobby Robinson. They were all great guys. I should mention that Double Duty was in a wheel chair but when he saw the other guys tossing slightly, he insisted on having a glove and being wheeled to the grass. I'll dig out some photos and post later!