[Exhibitman]

I think it is safe to say that the pre-big business encounters with athletes were more satisfying. The old timers were happy to be making a decent but modest fee for being at shows and were nicer than the assembly line stuff that goes on today.

My absolute favorite baseball player encounters were with Sandy Koufax and Luke Appling. I went to a show when I was in school where Koufax was signing for about $6 or so--probably around 1988 or 1989. I didn't want an autograph but a co-worker at my summer job had a card [1966 Topps] he'd saved from when he was a kid and wanted it signed. I told Koufax I was getting the card for a friend and said that I just wanted to shake his hand...and I got to shake hands with Sandy Koufax. Another Koufax story: in 2005 he came to L.A. for a 50th anniversary of the Brooklyn Dodgers. A client of mine was a friend of his from the old days and asked me if I wanted Koufax to sign something when he had lunch with Koufax. I gave him a ball that Nolan Ryan had signed for me and asked for the same inscription and personalization. The client called me back later and said that Koufax looked at the ball and said "WTF do I want to be on a ball with Ryan for?" Of course Koufax was joking and I have a nice, inscribed and personalized Ryan-Koufax dual signed ball. I had Luke Appling sign an exhibit card at a local show. Not only was he personalizing signatures but he took a look at my card and told me chapter and verse about how miserable it was to play in the dark colored heavy felt uniform that was shown on the card. Chuck Connors was cool too, talked a mile a minute with the fans, very gregarious guy.

Boxers have been the nicest ex-athletes I've encountered. Some of them are genuinely pleased and surprised just to be remembered. Joltin' Jeff Chandler, a HOFer, told me that at a World Boxing HOF event here in L.A. Terrible Terry Norris had his 12 year old daughter with him at that event. I overheard her saying that she had all of her father's cards so I asked her if she had one that I had doubles of, she said no, so I gave it to her. Norris then asked me for the other card, asked my name, and personalized it for me, no charge or anything. I had a long conversation with Brian Mitchell, a South African HOFer, about the miserable time he had dealing with pro sports as a South African during the apartheid era. Carlos Ortiz was hilarious. I told him that I had a card of his that I forgot to bring and he said "you F***ed up, my friend." Emile Griffith was really nice; he was actually worried about whether I would like the signature on the card I handed him. Ken Norton was cool, and I was actually pretty nervous to meet him, I mean he's the guy who broke Ali's jaw. HOF trainer Emanuel Steward was doing a publicity event with Lennox Lewis here in L.A. years ago and I noticed that he was alone in the ring after Lewis took the crowd over to the stage, so I asked him to sign a card for me. He not only agreed, he corrected all of the typos on the card while he was signing it.

I ran into Jim Brown in the hallway at the hotel in Cleveland a few Nationals ago when he was doing the show and also going to Canton for the FB HOF. I bumped into him and looked up and said "Hey, you're Jim Brown, but you probably know that already." He cracked up and wished me a good morning. Still built like a Mack truck, BTW.