Other thoughts
My brother and I used to get autographs on cards at the hotels and ballpark in Philly in the late 70s to 83. At one point we had over 10,000 autographs. We never asked any player or former player to sign a duplicate card. Ever. We felt that even then, it would be obvious what we would do with the dupes. The former players (from the 40's to mid 70's) loved being paid for their signatures as the new guys then were making a lot more than they ever made. But most of them all signed for free and were very nice about it. We have soooo many memories. But these guys owe us nothing. The do NOT have to sign. We always felt if you approached them with respect, called them only Mr. Whomever and acted polite, they would almost always sign for you. There were always some that were hard or impossible. In 1978 or 79 the two hardest on the Phil's were Ron Reed and Steve Carlton. After a while, we stopped asking. They wouldn't sign even if we got to the vet early and we were the ONLY two people there when they went inside to get ready. Nada.
So, we asked Jim Kaat, who was such a great guy, who we have given him some cards from his early career he didn't have, was willing to do us a favor. He got the entire folder we made up of Carlton and reed entire career in cards all signed. He brought it out to us after a game. We freaked. It was like hitting the lottery! Not sure if I would like getting autos today. It's probably wayyyyy different now. It was fun back then.
|