Sports Illustrated?

[Topps206]

Rarely do I shell out for a single autograph, let alone two of them, but bit the bullet for both Patrick Ewing and Reggie Jackson, my first time attending a National since 2005. I didn't like the service or the way it was ran back then. Today wasn't exactly quick, but it didn't drag on the way it felt like 2005 did.

All these years of collecting autographs, more than 20 years, never got Reggie on anything. It's my first autograph of his. I've heard stuff about Reggie being a jerk, that he isn't always congenial, but if he is a jerk, I saw no signs of it today. He was smiling, seemed to be friendly with me and others.

Reggie has a lot of good covers, and there are ones I like even better than the one I ultimately got signed. I bit the bullet for Reggie because at 79, he's not getting much younger and a lot of SI cover subjects before 1970 have left us. Most of my SI collection features covers from the '70s and '80s, and with this being his only '60s cover, I went with it. If this cover didn't exist, I'd have had an even tougher decision than before. It's awesome to have this one, and I could just easily be happy with a few others. I'd say pre-1970 covers are especially important at the moment for me. I do remember feeling somewhat regretful not long ago not getting Pete Rose's 1968 cover done, though I really like his one from 1974 that I went with.

Patrick Ewing wasn't a jerk, but his handlers said no pictures with him. I figured he's such a rare, tough signature, hardly ever does public signings, I had to get it done, this one being my favorite of his.

And I also added John Cangelosi to this cover from 1994, which I previously got signed last year by Charlie O'Brien. Cangelosi was very nice, too.