[Scott Garner]

In 1997 when HOF Eddie Murray was an Anaheim Angel, I attempted to get his autograph coming in to the stadium at least 10 times. He always said "Thank you for asking, but I don't have time to sign". He never did sign for me, but on Fathers Day he came out of the stadium, winked at me and handed me his game used Fila sweat band that had his uniform # embroidered on it.

HOF Rickey Henderson also played briefly for the Angels. He never signed outside, but promised to sign inside many, many times. I never did see him sign inside, period...

During HOF Rod Carew's stint as the batting coach for the Angels, he was hounded like crazy to sign outside the stadium. After not signing for quite a while, some over-aggressive autograph hounds key-scratched his car. His days of signing for any of these guys was definitely over.
I always took the low key approach with him, but continued to ask him politely for his autograph coming in the stadium. One day he walked past the throng of autograph seekers and walked ahead. Mostly all of the hounds took off when Carew was out of sight. Mr. Carew turned around and came back to where I was standing by the fence. He asked me what I had for him to sign. I let him know that I had a full ticket to his 3,000th hit from 1985. He signed it in blue Sharpie. When all of the autograph hounds started running back to try to get his autograph , he made a quick announcement that he wouldn't be signing any others. Sweet!