What a day. I went back to the Chicago Sports Spectacular today and nailed some of the $10 guests they were having today.
First, I got Denny McLain on two of his four covers. I'll need the other SI from 1968 with Al Kaline, and the special 1993 edition with Bob Gibson. I saw some others in line with SIs for him. Ironically, one person had the 1993 cover and another with the other 1968 cover.
Even at a sports convention, people seem drawn to Sports Illustrateds. I was holding them out after I got them signed and walking away and people wanted to take a look. One person is another SI collector and has the 1968 cover I got signed, but not the 1970 one.
His logic was he didn't want to remind McLain of that, but I know athletes can and do reserve their right to reject items to sign at shows. If McLain doesn't object to signing it, I don't object to getting it signed. It wasn't anything personal or more than I simply want to get as many SIs signed as possible.
McLain took a while and had built a crowd.
Leon Durham was originally supposed to appear at 2:30, but then the show announced when I was waiting for McLain he'd been moved ahead to 12:30. I got my hand stamped and went out for a bit. I came back at noon, and he was at his table because he'd been moved ahead to 11:30. There was only one or two people ahead of me in line, and I was able to add his cover.
Having archived all of my SIs in chronological order, I now have 83 covers signed between 1955 and 2020.
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