[UKCardGuy]

Let's have your stories of childhood autograph hunting....

In 1982, I was 14 and living in Dallas. The Texas Rangers were certainly not the best team in baseball. In fact, it was pretty easy to understand why Dallas was a football town. Even with a W-L record of 64-98, I enjoyed going to the games a few times a year with my family. My father always liked to leave games early to "beat the traffic" so there was no chance that I could hang around to get autographs as the players left the ballpark.

(I must have been 20 before I saw the bottom of the 9th inning at a MLB game).

But in the summer of 1982, the traffic was in our favor and I got to Arlington Stadium early. We had pretty good seats on the 1st baseline. But the most important thing to me is that I was in touching distance of the dugout. While the players warmed up, there was a swarm of kids trying to get autographs and a set of determined security guards trying to stop us. Seeing that this wasn't going to work (and that my dad wasn't going to call me back to my seat shortly), I needed to come up with a better plan. I ran along the dugout towards home plate and then climbed on-top of the dugout itself. I managed to dangle myself over the dugout and hand my program to one of the coaching staff who passed it along the bench to get the autographs for me.

When the security guards came to get me, they had to wait until I got my program back. I still have the program. I don't think the Rangers won the game (and my dad made us leave after the 8th inning) but I was buzzing anyhow.