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EurekaDave
07-08-2006, 01:37 PM
We've all had them. You ask for an autograph from someone who looks like a celeb but isn't. You can't say your own name. Your pen runs dry.

Mine:
During Spring training, I went to a Phoenix jewelry store show featuring baseball players from San Francisco and the Diamondbacks. Having struck out getting autographs at the Giants ballpark, I was very, very jacked up.

When an older African-American man wearing a Hawaiian shirt walked in, I tripped all over myself to get his autograph. He looked at me and deadpanned, "You don't even know who I am, do you?"

"No I don't," I confessed.

"I'm Vida Blue."

gatorcollector
07-08-2006, 06:56 PM
This was in the early 90's, and I had not been collecting very long. I didn't have a good sense of how scarce or common certain things were. I had recently purchased a 1972 Sports Illustrated with Steve Spurrier on the cover. I brought it with me to "Gator Day", Spurrier's local stop on his summer tour of Gator booster clubs. I was sure that the Ol' Ball Coach was going to be amazed to see this relic from his past. I waited patiently in line and finally got to his table. I set the magazine in front of him and said proudly, "I bet you don't see too many of these." Without even looking up from the table, he scrawled his sig and said, "Nah, sign 'em all the time."

Vintagedeputy
07-08-2006, 10:23 PM
In 1984 I was 14 years old and was vacationing with my parents in Chicago. I went to a White Sox game and Scott Fletcher came over to the rail to sign autographs. He signed an 84 Topps card for me (which I still have) and as he moved on to another fan, I blurted out "can I buy one of your bats? I'll give you $20 !

ahuff
07-09-2006, 05:20 AM
I believe I was 17 years old. I went to my local minor league park, to watch a game and see what autographs I could get. At the time, the stadium club dome cards were pretty hot, and I tried having all of the players in my league sign theirs. Since these were a glossy card with gold trim, I took a gold paint pen for signatures. Well, I gave one of the players his card and the pen. He proceeded to start signing. (I've never had this happen before or since.) During his signing the tip of the pen fell out. Gold ink went everywhere, and he just looked dumbfounded. He was pretty cool about the whole think, because he simply rubbed the card on the ground to get the excess paint off, put the tip back in the pen, and resigned it. I was totally embarrassed, since the paint had gotten everywhere.

Eric
07-09-2006, 10:11 AM
I wasn't even there, but this I still found this slightly embarrassing.

I got a call from my mother who was in a Florida airport. She got off the phone with me because there was some commotion near here. Meaning well, she went up to a large man who was signing autographs and wanted to get one for me.

She asked him "Excuse me, are you somebody?" It was Meadowlark Lemon.

I guess if it was someone else, she might not have gotten a smile and a nice reply.

After the fact she knew that wasn't the best way to approach someone, and we still laugh about it.
Eric

staindsox
07-09-2006, 11:33 AM
Like Eric, I wasn't at my "best" moment. My mother is a flight attendant and would get autographs for me (as you can guess, Jack Morris refused to speak to any flight attendants, let alone sign his name for anyone). Anyway, a large young black man boarded the plane. She approached him and said, "You're a pretty big guy, do you play any sports?" He replied, "Why yes I do. I play basketball for my college." She asked him if you would sign an autograph for her son, who was a huge sports fan. After hearing this story from her and expecting to see a name I had never heard of, seeing Shaquille O'Neal #33 LSU signed on the page in front of me, I was shocked, excited, and embarrassed. He was extremely kind, so what can I say.

Chris

toddhead
09-19-2007, 09:27 AM
I know this is an old thread, but...

I was probably about 14 and was at an Idaho Falls Braves game. The Braves had a good player named Darryl Blanks. I really wanted his autograph on my glove so I got the attention of one of the players and I asked him if he could get "Darnell Blanks" to sign my glove. The player got this huge grin on his face and started yelling... "DARNELL BLANKS! HEY DARNELL this kid wants you to sign his glove." He walked over, signed the glove and said... "It's Darryl, not Darnell"... he was really good natured about it, but I know he got a lot of crap from the other players...

5kRunner
09-19-2007, 10:33 AM
Some of these are really funny.

Heres mine. I was 12 and my family went to a Cubs/Cardinals game in St Louis. I am a huge Cubs fan so I was excited to get to the game early and get some autographs. Of course the only thing I brought to get signed were cards. I picked out about 10 guys I was hoping would sign. So I'm hanging out by the dugout with about 20 or so other kids hoping to get Sandberg or Grace or Dawson to come over and sign. Well one player was walking off the field after taking some grounders, and someone asked if he would sign their ball. He said sure. The kid says "Thanks Mr. McClendon" thinking of course that its Lloyd McClendon. It stead of signing, the player hands the ball back and says he will sign for anyone who knows his name. No one else knew his name so I say "You're Curtis Wilkerson." He says "Hey, someone knows who I am, you get an autograph." I look at him and say "I didn't bring your card." 5 minutes later my mom comes down and says (loud enough for people to hear) your dad bought this ball for you in case someone is signing and you don't have their card.

My mom asked later why everyone was laughing after she brought the ball to me.

It wasn't a total loss. Andre Dawson did sign, and I did have his card. :D

BMH
09-19-2007, 11:07 AM
I went with our Pro rep to Cincinnati to see the Mets. He's talking to the players in the club house and I'm in the back going through the bat bags they brought testing bat hardness on different manufacturers. Anyway, a player comes over and starts talking to me. I don't know who it is but he's wearing a pair of shorts with the #21 on them. I quickly glance at the roster lists that our rep gave me and #21 was Scott Hatteberg. He asks be about what I'm doing and I explain what the test is. Satisfied, he goes back to talk to our rep and in parting I say, "Have a good game Mr. Hatteberg." The Physical therapist was standing near me and started to laugh. I asked her what was so funny and she said that isn't Scott Hatteberg, it was Carlos Delgato! Apparently when I looked at the roster I was looking at the one for Cincinnati and not New York...

Luckily Mr. Delgato had a good sense of humor about it.

skipcareyisfat
09-19-2007, 11:18 AM
As great and witty as his broadcasts are, Skip Caray can be prickly. For years the Braves used to make him and the other announcers cohost a call-in show before games. You could tell he hated doing it. Most callers were legit but you'd hear some every now and then (a few were from me) who called in just to get him going. One topic he hated getting into was his dad. Years before I started harassing him with calls about firing Bobby Cox and bringing back Chuck Tanner, I called in to see what ever happened to Ken Dayley. This was about '85 or '86 and Dayley was at that point pitching for the Cardinals. I was around 11 and had no clue. So I asked him about Dayley and his reply was "Didn't you watch the World Series?" I think I started crying as soon as I hung up the phone. So here I am 12 years later posting under the name skipcareyisfat. Clearly I'm completely over that experience. :eek:

skipcareyisfat
09-19-2007, 12:13 PM
After the Skip Caray story, I came across this:

http://www.ajc.com/sports/content/sports/braves/stories/2007/09/19/0920_skip.html

FWIW, I do like the guy and would be totally wrecked if he stopped doing games for the greatest team on earth ... okay, third best team in the NL East. :rolleyes: He's signed a number of autographs for me over the years and he's always been cool.

jboosted92
09-19-2007, 12:45 PM
After the Skip Caray story, I came across this:

http://www.ajc.com/sports/content/sports/braves/stories/2007/09/19/0920_skip.html

FWIW, I do like the guy and would be totally wrecked if he stopped doing games for the greatest team on earth ... okay, third best team in the NL East. :rolleyes: He's signed a number of autographs for me over the years and he's always been cool.


I took my wife up to a mall in massachusetts, cause David Givens ( former Patriots Wideout ) was signing...

Well , when we left, i said im getting an auto..i didnt tell her who..

Well David walked in wearing a Andre Tippett throwback jersey. Since the crowd was large, the line went in circles and even behind David. When we were standing behind me, she says ( very loudly )

"Who is signing anyway...who is this TIPPETT guy"

Needless to say, she didnt know who David was...or Andre Tippet....

eeshh

Then i began berading her..about what player do you know that would were his own jersey to the mall...even if it was TIPPETT!?!!?!?

kingjammy24
09-19-2007, 01:11 PM
i attended the 1991 all-star game and also the accompanying "fanfest" that was held in some nearby convention center. after getting tired walking around fanfest for half the day, i manage to find an empty chair to take a breather. i'm flipping through my magazines, programs, etc and some kid comes and sits down in the chair next to me. he starts asking me about stuff i've picked up. i show him some of the items and we start conversing. i asked him if he managed to get any autographs, what kind of stuff he collected, etc. he seemed pretty green to me. so as we're talking, a group of kids come up to him with some cards and ask him for his autograph. they were really young so i figured they must be mistaken in thinking that he was "someone". i already had a good joke in my head to share with him after the kids left about how long it would take the kids to figure out that he wasn't anyone. out of curiosity, i leaned over to see what cards the kids were giving him to sign. i realized he actually was the guy on the cards. craig biggio.

rudy.

toddhead
09-19-2007, 02:08 PM
i attended the 1991 all-star game and also the accompanying "fanfest" that was held in some nearby convention center. after getting tired walking around fanfest for half the day, i manage to find an empty chair to take a breather. i'm flipping through my magazines, programs, etc and some kid comes and sits down in the chair next to me. he starts asking me about stuff i've picked up. i show him some of the items and we start conversing. i asked him if he managed to get any autographs, what kind of stuff he collected, etc. he seemed pretty green to me. so as we're talking, a group of kids come up to him with some cards and ask him for his autograph. they were really young so i figured they must be mistaken in thinking that he was "someone". i already had a good joke in my head to share with him after the kids left about how long it would take the kids to figure out that he wasn't anyone. out of curiosity, i leaned over to see what cards the kids were giving him to sign. i realized he actually was the guy on the cards. craig biggio.

rudy.

Did you get his autograph?

mdube16
09-19-2007, 06:01 PM
I always travel with baseballs and a pen as I collect baseballs signed by celebrities and athletes from any sport. In airports/planes I have gotten Terry Bradshaw, Dominique Wilkins, Norm from Cheers and others. 2 years ago I was in the Toronto airport waiting for a flight to Detroit. An older couple sits in the waiting area. The man looks familiar. He had very white hair and was in good shape for his age. I stared at him for about 20 minutes and realized...that guy looks like Gordy Howe! Im thinking...why would he be on this flight...WAIT....Im in Canada going to Detroit! Its got to be him! At that moment they called for first class to board and sure enough the couple gets on the plane. I waited for my row and went to my seat. I pulled out the baseball and made my way up to first class. The man was in the window seat next to his wife. I stuck the ball and pen out and said, "Mr. Howe...would you sign my baseball? He looked a bit puzzled but that always happens when I give baseballs to the celebs to sign. I stated that "I collect baseballs autographed by non baseball players. I always travel with baseballs since you never know who you might see". He smiles and takes the baseball and signs it on the sweet spot. His wife excitedly says with a heavy accent, " Now you have a baseball from someone from Denmark!"
I took the ball, thanked them and slinked back to my seat.
The ball is now proudly displayed in my office. His name was Felix something...you cant really read the last name.

godwulf
09-19-2007, 06:17 PM
"I collect baseballs autographed by non baseball players. I always travel with baseballs since you never know who you might see".

Good to know I'm not the only one. Well, I mean, you see baseballs signed by all sorts of people for sale on eBay, but in a crowd of people getting autographs from a non-sports figure, I'm usually the only one with a baseball in my hand.

My most famous non-player signers include Arlo Guthrie, John Cleese and Gena Lee Nolin.

mdube16
09-19-2007, 06:57 PM
The best in my collection is a Frank Sinatra signed baseball I bought from the Halper collection. I see we are going OT here but there arent many of us out there

topekabob
09-19-2007, 10:56 PM
I'm going to reverse the story a bit.
This summer I was at a Japanese Fukuoka Hawks minor league game and hanging outside the park while my son got some autographs and a little Japanese girl walked up to me and asked for my autograph, thinking I was some Cecil Fielder-like foreign slugger. I was sorely tempted to sign "CJ Nitkowski", who actually is on the Hawks, but I just couldn't do it...

By the way, Japanese players do their autographs in Kanji, and it looks like a painting. The fans buy special 8X10 boards for the players to sign on and they hang them in their rooms like art work. Then there's the Bento boxes you eat during the game, and the 6th inning balloon release...I fell in love with Japanese baseball this summer...can't believe it took me 30 years to finally go.

godwulf
09-20-2007, 12:33 AM
I seriously regret that with all the six-month deployments I made to Japan while I was in the Navy, I never once went to a ballgame.

cjw
09-20-2007, 10:38 PM
I was a concierge at the Toronto SkyDome Hotel for years and got to know many of the players and their families over the years. In 1997, I got an awesome invite from Tim Johnson, the ex-manager of the Blue Jays (pls no Vietnam cracks, he is a very nice guy) to attend the Hall of Fame Game in Cooperstown. Jays vs. cal Ripken and the O's. Toured the Hall, and made my way into the offices to pick up my tickets for the game. Sitting in a waiting room in the Hall, and older gent sits down net to me and we start chatting. Turns out it's Warren Spahn!

Excellent guy, very pleasant. We talk about Canada and hockey and he gets caled into antoher room, so we say goodbye. I couldn't ask for an autograph as I was sitting there...didn't want to embarrass Tim, incase it was inappropriate to bother the HOF'ers in the inner offices of the Hall.

I picked up my tix and made my way out of the offices only to get lost. I found myself in front of a huge wooden door, so I pushed it open and it stuck a little, so I pushed a liitel more...right into Mr. Spahn, as he was in mid-interview, on camera with a ESPN! I bumped so hard that he tilted off the step he was standing on and almost tumbled into a bush. The interviewer wanted to kill me, the camera man almost tried to, but Warren took it in stride...he even said "It's my buddy from Canada...you gave my a great hockey body check" ! Class act, but I was mortified.

r_phelps
09-21-2007, 12:02 AM
I went to a New Orleans Zephyrs game when Tony Pena was the coach. I thought i would be coolo to have a few of his autographs on his pirates cards..bad idea. I guess I caught tony at the wrong time (after bp). He cussed at me so bad i could not tell if he was even serious or not. I just started laughing and he seemed to be confused that his slurs of cuss words did not scare me off so he proceded to sign one card and then run off with my sharpie like he forgot..Chad Meyers with sacramento was a 5 star jerk after telling me i needed to get a life. I dont get autographs much anymore from these altercations with these guys. Larry Sutton with Memphis was amazing how james bond type skills he had at avoiding and not hearing anyones requsts for autographs. I also got a nice taste of tommy lasorda after he got done with the bar one night at the winter baseball meetings. I saw a kid once ask curtis wilkerson if he was brad wilkersons dad and i kinda felt bad for the kid.

skipcareyisfat
09-21-2007, 07:54 AM
I saw a kid once ask curtis wilkerson if he was brad wilkersons dad and i kinda felt bad for the kid.

Reminds me of the time this guy asked Bob Feller during a private signing here how long he had been throwing a knuckleball. Feller was beside himself and mixed in a few swear words with his response.

BaseballGM
09-21-2007, 08:16 AM
This happened to my good friend, a St. Louis Cardinals fan. He moved away from the midwest as a kid and got to go back as an adult to see the Cards play a game one summer. He gets to the park to watch BP and sees a gentleman dressed in street clothes behind the cage. People/players are coming up to him and saying hello to "Lou."
My friend says. "Wow, that's Lou Brock. Hey Lou, can I get your autograph?" Lou signs his baseball. My friend is so excited, he put the ball away. Shortly thereafter, the announcer tells the fans to please stand for the national anthem, to be sung by Lou Rawls :eek: . Sure enough, after looking at the signature, it was Lou Rawls who signed it.

bradleysupplies
09-21-2007, 09:56 AM
My step-father used to play in Hank Aaron's scholarship golf tournament - he was paired with Larry Doby one year.

Anyway, he had no interest in autographs and I sent him a number of items to get signed by the celebrities.

He told me that he asked Hank Aaron in the locker room (who was wearing nothing but a towel) to sign a few baseballs - they turned out great, but that's a tough image to get out of my head...

Joel

ivo610
12-29-2009, 09:02 PM
Not my most embarrassing moment but the signer...

I got to hang out with Chris Paul from the NBA Hornets in vegas during the all star game a few years ago since I donated a large amount to his charity. Since I knew I was going to meet him I bought a pair of shoes that just had come out at Niketown in Caesars. The shoes I bought were with Chris's face on the shoes. Anyway I brought the shoes when I met him, set them down and talked with him for about 30 minutes. I asked him towards the end if he would sign them for me. He said sure no problem so I went over to where I set them down and had to ask BJ armstrong if I could get them back(which was funny). Anyway chris looks at them as says "What are these?" im like ughh... your shoes. "Never seen these before." which to me was kinda cool. Then he signs "To Bryan, Chris Paul" As he reaches for the other shoe he pauses and says "Wait your name was Bryan right?" "No, its Ryan." He looked at me like he had just ran over my dog. I thought it was funny and had to keep telling him it wasnt it a big deal.

legaleagle92481
12-29-2009, 09:46 PM
Oh boy this happened September 25th of this year in New York City. Like most red blooded American males I find Sienna Miller, the actress to be very attractive and I have seen a few of her movies so I waited outside her then running Broadway show to meet her and get a picture of her and her autograph. As an aside for those of you not from NY most stars who do Broadway will sign after the show usually just Playbills or pieces of paper or index cards but it is better than nothing. I have gotten autographs from Hugh Jackman, Daniel Craig, Johnny Lee Miller, David Alan Grier, James Spader, Kerry Washington, Carrie Fisher, Bill Pullman, Julia Stiles, James Gandofoli, Jeff Daniels, Joan Allen, Marcia Gay Harden and Jude Law this way in the past year. Anyway put to the story, Sienna comes out and starts signing for people on the other side of the barricade and makes her way to the space in the barricade and I was worried she was going to exit the barricade and get in her waiting car without passing me so I shout "Serena, Serena don't forget us over here!" Meaning myself and 3 or 4 other collectors standing by me and she walks over and says its "Sienna not Serena", I was so embarrassed I did not know what to say but she was cool about it and signed for me and no she did not write Serena.

island_style
12-30-2009, 05:42 AM
Around 1994 I attended a signing at the LA Convention Center where I got a Johnny Bench signed baseball. I wanted to tell him how I admired his career and congratulate him on making the Hall. It was a very long line, and I was deep in the queue. I watched him sign item after item after item. When it was finally my turn to meet him all I could muster was, "So, got writer's cramp yet?" He gave me a strange look and said, "No, I'm used to doing this." He penned a beautiful signature and added the HOF inscription, but I walked away mortified.

Kind Regards,

Ron.

Rsamiano@aol.com

godwulf
12-30-2009, 09:14 AM
After you've said something really dumb to a celeb - as I've done several times, myself - just comfort yourself with the thought that they've probably heard much worse, and many, many times...and that you're going to remember it for a much longer time than they will.

bigtruck260
12-30-2009, 12:41 PM
I have a couple...

Celebrity - Rob Halford 1994 at a radio signing.

Halford is the singer for Judas Priest and one of my favorites of all time. He was signing stuff after a radio interview with his band at the time, Fight. Some guys were handing him 10-12 albums to sign since the line wasn't long. There was a lady with a clipboard behind him that kept putting her arm around him (his wife?) and whispering into his ear. When I got there, I turned into a starstruck nerd and had nothing to say, but "Love your stuff, Rob - is the wife travelling with you?" He looked up, smiled and looked right back down at my CD to sign it.

A few years later, Rob came out of the closet as GAY.

Baseball Player - John Burkett

Must have been around 1988 and it was first time in the field boxes at Busch. We got there early and tried for some autographs. It was my first experience at autograph seekers too...there were MEN pushing little kids to get to Bob Tewksbury :) . Anyway, I got a few sigs from some Giants players...nobody I knew - and proceeded to the Cards bullpen bench (which was in foul territory by the boxes)...I got a few relievers - Ken Dayley, etc...when there was a commotion. Some dude was handing out baseballs to little kids and signing. I waited for a few minutes and when I got to him, he opened my program to a certain page (maybe the scorecard?) and looked at it - and signs it while shaking his head. I got back to my seat and my Dad says "who'd you get?" I showed him the Cards sigs - and then the autograph of John Burkett who signed his name directly above the signature he'd put there 15 minutes earlier.

DUH.

godwulf
12-30-2009, 01:59 PM
Halford is the singer for Judas Priest and one of my favorites of all time. He was signing stuff after a radio interview with his band at the time, Fight. Some guys were handing him 10-12 albums to sign since the line wasn't long. There was a lady with a clipboard behind him that kept putting her arm around him (his wife?) and whispering into his ear. When I got there, I turned into a starstruck nerd and had nothing to say, but "Love your stuff, Rob - is the wife travelling with you?" He looked up, smiled and looked right back down at my CD to sign it.

A few years later, Rob came out of the closet as GAY.

About fifteen years ago, I was working as a dispatcher at a security alarm company, and we monitored Halford's house. He or his partner used to trip the alarm at least once a night, sometimes two or three times, so I got to talk to them a lot. :rolleyes:

Hey, that reminds me of an embarrassing incident, from that same time period. We also monitored security gates, where residents of gated communities or their guests could either punch in their code, or call us on the gate phone for entry, and in the latter case, we'd "buzz" them in if they had the password.

One night in February, I got a call from one of the gates, and it was Barry Bonds. He said that he was renting a house, during Spring Training, from a woman who lived in that community. Problem was, he didn't have his assigned password. (It was "baseball".) I advised him that I couldn't let him in, and that he'd have to call the homeowner and get the password...then I waited for the explosion, 'cause of course I'd heard about Barry's temper. He was very cool, and said he understood. I was so surprised, I accidentally reached down and pushed the button to open the gate - telling him that I couldn't let him in, and then letting him in. He must have thought I was some kind of idiot.

sox83cubs84
12-30-2009, 02:22 PM
Not involving an autograph request, but still worth mentioning...I had just entered Wrigley Field on a summer day in 1997 to take my spot on the thrid base foul line to "play the line"...ballhawk-speak for catching line drives, bouncers, and rollers along the wall. A security guard that I know and I start talking, and the stadium (fortunately) is almost empty, as the gates just opened a few minutes earlier. Kevin Orie (Cubs 3B) smacks a line drive that appears on target to bean the guard. I shout for him to move, he freezes, but the balll detours around his noggin, and, expecting that it was going to hit him I don't have my mitt ready, and I "catch" it...right in the family jewels.:eek: :eek: :eek: I bend over in agony after the direct hit, and, with the nearly-empty stadium, my howls of pain reverberate across all of Wrigley, causing players on the field, many of whom I knew, to stop and look.
Despite all the pain, I was thinking clearly enough to start wondering "where's the ball"? After all, if the line drive was gonna make me unable to father any children, I'd at least like to have the ball as a consolation prize. I agonizingly shift around in place, see no baseball on the ground, and then feel something in the affected area...the ball was lodged between my crotch and my left leg. I grabbed it, held it up, began cracking up through my moans of pain, and saw more than a few snickering faces in blue BP uniforms looking over, as well. And, since the ball never touched the ground, it was a legitimate (albeit very painful) catch!! And...the type of catch I'd never see Ryne Sandberg, Mark Grace or Sammy Sosa make. I had Orie sign the ball the following year when the Cubs played the White sox in interleague games at New Comiskey. I told him the story, and he smirked and said "oh, that was you"?:cool:

Dave M.
Chicago area