Which players made you work for the autograph?

[theshleps]

Spending 3 weeks each spring in spring training the list is way too long on players who promised and never signed. Then there were gems like Freddie Lewis who signed and purposely ran his hand over it to smear it. I don't blame players when there are lots of folks that bring stacks of the same card and want to player to sign 10+ of the exact same card.
I know some players well and it is interesting on getting their take on autograph collectors. I try to educate them and give them a positive spin

[RichardSimon]

I was a very young child and I was at the Polo Grounds, Robin Roberts was pitching for the opposition Phillies and he was knocked out early. When the game ended my dad and I saw him standing completely alone outside the stadium. My very first time that I asked for an autograph. I thrust my scorecard and pencil towards him and asked, very politely, for his autograph. He shot me down . And I was a cute, little kid .

[w7imel]

I had a pit pass to a phoenix Indy race in the 90's and had purchased a Indycar tire that was on Emerson Fittipaldi's car the year before and had a grand idea of getting it signed at this race and making a end table for my rec room out of it. I lugged this heavy SOB all day in 94 degree weather and waited patiently by his trailer after his first practice session. He passed by the whole crowd waiting for an autograph and went iside until everyone was gone except me. At this point I had drove 800 miles thru snow and mountains lugged this tire at least a mile in the heat I was going to wait it out to get one of my racing heroes autographs!!! When he did come out he was as nice as I had hoped. He graceously signed my tire and talked to me for a bit. I then carried tire back to car and enjoyed the rest of the weekend. To this day the tire still sits in my house with a nice glass top on it. I truly worked for that one!

[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!

[Bigdaddy]

On my first trip to Spring Training with my dad, we were at a Reds ST game and I really wanted a Pete Rose auto. I decided to try to get him going into the clubhouse, but my dad, with a bit more knowledge of what makes this world go around, handed the security guard a program and a 5 dollar bill. The guard disappeared around the corner and came back with a nicely signed Pete Rose on the cover of the program.

[egri]

I haven't been collecting for very long, so my story isn't as impressive as some of these others, but every year Dunkin' Donuts puts out a 30-card set of the Pawtucket Red Sox. The cards are not available in stores; the only way to get them is to go to the game that they are given away at. I'd estimate the total print run is about 10,000, give or take a little.

I am trying to get every card in the 2007 set signed, and so when I went to Red Sox spring training in 2009 as a 14th birthday present, I spent all three of my days there trying to get those cards signed by the guys who were still there who I needed. At the time, I think there were six: Clay Buchholz, Jacoby Ellsbury, Jon Lester, Javier Lopez, George Kottaras, and Manny Delcarmen. I got plenty of autographs there, including Josh Beckett on a ROMLB, but none of the six I needed. Lester shot me down when I was the only one nearby. I was dispirited by it, but a couple weeks after I got back, I saw a return from Buchholz on one of the internet forums. I knew he had a shoddy track record TTM, but figured 'what the hey' and sent to him. It came back about a week and a half later, signed. He started it with a dying Sharpie, but other than that it looks fine. As it turned out, there was about a 2 1/2- 3 week window that spring where he signed TTM, and I haven't seen any from him since. Lopez and Delcarmen also signed TTM for me that spring, and last year I bit the bullet and paid $150 for a Lester signing with Steiner. That made 25/30 (seen here), which I think will be it for a while, as none of the remaining five sign TTM, and I haven't done IP graphing in years.

Then about two months after getting the Buchholz, I wrote to Abe Alvarez, who at the time was playing for an Italian team. I wrote to him in Italy, and included an IRC with my request. When the season over there ended, and I hadn't received anything back, I wrote it off. Fast forward to July of 2010 (15 months after sending the request to Italy) I get a return postmarked from Los Angeles. I opened it, and Alvarez had signed both of my cards, and returned the unused (now expired) IRC with it.

In all my years collecting the set, I have only seen a few instances where cards from it have come up for sale, and none where the cards were signed. As far as I know, I'm the only person collecting that set.

[Scott Garner]

Originally Posted by egri

I haven't been collecting for very long, so my story isn't as impressive as some of these others, but every year Dunkin' Donuts puts out a 30-card set of the Pawtucket Red Sox. The cards are not available in stores; the only way to get them is to go to the game that they are given away at. I'd estimate the total print run is about 10,000, give or take a little.

I am trying to get every card in the 2007 set signed, and so when I went to Red Sox spring training in 2009 as a 14th birthday present, I spent all three of my days there trying to get those cards signed by the guys who were still there who I needed. At the time, I think there were six: Clay Buchholz, Jacoby Ellsbury, Jon Lester, Javier Lopez, George Kottaras, and Manny Delcarmen. I got plenty of autographs there, including Josh Beckett on a ROMLB, but none of the six I needed. Lester shot me down when I was the only one nearby. I was dispirited by it, but a couple weeks after I got back, I saw a return from Buchholz on one of the internet forums. I knew he had a shoddy track record TTM, but figured 'what the hey' and sent to him. It came back about a week and a half later, signed. He started it with a dying Sharpie, but other than that it looks fine. As it turned out, there was about a 2 1/2- 3 week window that spring where he signed TTM, and I haven't seen any from him since. Lopez and Delcarmen also signed TTM for me that spring, and last year I bit the bullet and paid $150 for a Lester signing with Steiner. That made 25/30 (seen here), which I think will be it for a while, as none of the remaining five sign TTM, and I haven't done IP graphing in years.

Then about two months after getting the Buchholz, I wrote to Abe Alvarez, who at the time was playing for an Italian team. I wrote to him in Italy, and included an IRC with my request. When the season over there ended, and I hadn't received anything back, I wrote it off. Fast forward to July of 2010 (15 months after sending the request to Italy) I get a return postmarked from Los Angeles. I opened it, and Alvarez had signed both of my cards, and returned the unused (now expired) IRC with it.

In all my years collecting the set, I have only seen a few instances where cards from it have come up for sale, and none where the cards were signed. As far as I know, I'm the only person collecting that set.

Scott,
Great story and cool set to have autographed

[egri]

Originally Posted by Scott Garner

Scott,
Great story and cool set to have autographed

Thanks Scott! (And by the way, nice name) What I think is really interesting in this day and age is that I was able to get 24 of the 25 players I have through the mail, for free.

[djson1]

Originally Posted by Scott Garner

...
During HOF Rod Carew's stint as the batting coach for the Angels....he made a quick announcement that he wouldn't be signing any others. Sweet!

This is a great story, Scott. I think that was pretty cool of Rod.
Another Angel that was a rocky request was Reggie. I remember hanging out after the games and he would get into one of his classic cars and yell at these little kids for getting too close to his car. He did sign for kids, but on those days, his signature was basically a horrible "RJ"...not worth even getting. I remember thinking what a jerk he was for yelling at the kids like that. I also remember one time an adult stuck his hand in front of Reggie to congratulate him on his homer that day and Reggie yelled at him saying "Don't stick your hand in my face! Can't you see I'm signing autographs!?". I never bothered to ask him for his autograph as I thought his attitude was so rude.

[Scott Garner]

Originally Posted by djson1

This is a great story, Scott. I think that was pretty cool of Rod.
Another Angel that was a rocky request was Reggie. I remember hanging out after the games and he would get into one of his classic cars and yell at these little kids for getting too close to his car. He did sign for kids, but on those days, his signature was basically a horrible "RJ"...not worth even getting. I remember thinking what a jerk he was for yelling at the kids like that. I also remember one time an adult stuck his hand in front of Reggie to congratulate him on his homer that day and Reggie yelled at him saying "Don't stick your hand in my face! Can't you see I'm signing autographs!?". I never bothered to ask him for his autograph as I thought his attitude was so rude.

Thanks Jason! Yeah, that was definitely a nice gesture by Carew. At the time I was really pleasantly surprised.

During Reggie's era with the Angels, several friends and I sat out by the right field foul pole at Anaheim Stadium. We would talk to him over the railing a fair amount. Reggie did sign for me a few times through the years in various settings. All the sigs were his better, more complete autograph. With Reggie, as well as other players, I am certain that timing and approach are critical in terms of getting his autograph. Reggie was never rude or off-putting with me IP, but I was respectful and engaged him in dialogue other than just asking for his autograph before asking him to sign. Maybe the approach made the difference?

[theshleps]

Two years ago I was at an A's minor league spring training game and Rickey Henderson was there. I a few months earlier had gotten a great deal on one of his minor league rovers spring training jerseys on milb.com. I called my wife and asked her to drive up to the field and bring the jersey. Meanwhile all the dealers waiting for him said that Rickey never signs jerseys. The game ends and Rickey comes off the field and the dealers stepped back while my 60 year old wife wearing the jersey walked up to him and asked him to sign it. He comes unglued and starts yelling at my wife "Where did you get that jersey. They are not supposed to sell those, etc etc in quite a loud voice" She had no idea where I got it and was pretty intimidated. Suddenly he took the sharpie and signed it, walked on and didn't sign for anyone else.

[7nohitter]

These stories are awesome!

[kmac32]

I took autographs to a whole different level at Cubs Spring training. I had been to Cubs Fantasy camp that year and with camp you get a full dress Cubs uniform to keep. I decided to wear mine to a spring training game. I was talking with a friend in the stands and two really obnoxious kids started hounding me for my autograph. They were so rude with no hint of politeness that I happily took their balls with many Cub autographs on them that I complied with their request and signed my name right next to Kerry Wood's autograph on the balls.

If they had been polite instead of interrupting the conversation, I would have gladly told them that I was a fan, not a player. Can only imagine these kids looking up Ken McMillan in a baseball encyclopedia and saying who is this player. Can imagine my name encased in a plastic case for all eternity.

Same day also had a group of about 50 women celebrating a birthday and they wanted a picture of me in the middle of the group for their friends that could'nt attend the event. They knew that I was not a player but wanted something to show off to their friends at home. All in good fun.