Terrible Johnny Bench autograph story

[HENMICK44]

I've heard that about Bench, he's a real nasty s.o.b.

[aeneas01]

seems to me that the guy that wanted his bat signed understood the score when it came to sigs, understood the game. further, it seems to me that he was looking for a freebie from bench, was willing to circumvent the venue's policies in order to get the freebie, yet cries woe is me because bench calls him on it.

my apologies to the many forum members that collect sigs but i just don't blame athletes for acting the way they do and, frankly, i'm surprised how many athletes actually tolerate it. right out of college i worked at a major hotel in san francisco that had a contract with the nfl and mlb - when teams came to sf to play the niners or the giants they would stay at the hotel. it was my first introduction to autograph hounds and it was an ugly sight. as a matter of fact the sight struck me as greedy, thankless beggars in action - greedy and thankless because these hounds would shove items in a player's face and actually try to rush the player along so they would have time to nail a few more players before they boarded the bus. and the crap the hounds would give the players if, god forbid, they were not interested - many of these guys would actually show up with duffle bags full of stuff. security did its best but it was always a losing battle.

as such, i will never begrudge an athlete for not signing an item - even if the one asking for the sig was little jimmy from the corner orphanage because, more than likely, little jimmy would be working the floor for himself or someone else...

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[mvandor]

seems to me that the guy that wanted his bat signed understood the score when it came to sigs, understood the game. further, it seems to me that he was looking for a freebie from bench, was willing to circumvent the venue's policies in order to get the freebie, yet cries woe is me because bench calls him on it.

my apologies to the many forum members that collect sigs but i just don't blame athletes for acting the way they do and, frankly, i'm surprised how many athletes actually tolerate it. right out of college i worked at a major hotel in san francisco that had a contract with the nfl and mlb - when teams came to sf to play the niners or the giants they would stay at the hotel. it was my first introduction to autograph hounds and it was an ugly sight. as a matter of fact the sight struck me as greedy, thankless beggars in action - greedy and thankless because these hounds would shove items in a player's face and actually try to rush the player along so they would have time to nail a few more players before they boarded the bus. and the crap the hounds would give the players if, god forbid, they were not interested - many of these guys would actually show up with duffle bags full of stuff. security did its best but it was always a losing battle.

as such, i will never begrudge an athlete for not signing an item - even if the one asking for the sig was little jimmy from the corner orphanage because, more than likely, little jimmy would be working the floor for himself or someone else...

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I do believe the Internet and ebay has destroyed the original auto collection hobby for the true fans that just want the memory and the reminder in the auto of meeting the athlete. So much is flipped for sale it's crazy and the athlete's cynicism is quite understandable. Accordingly, I pay for my sigs 99% of the time so I have a right to request location, color ink, inscriptions as part of the business arrangement.

Amazingly, there are exceptions to the rules. Some great guys will still sign through the mail, or in person, for free. My fav personal case - I scored Dan Fouts' Oregon home address from a Chargers message board, purchased a new Mitchell & Ness throwback jersey (signed jerseys on the market are usually cheap garbage) and mailed it to his home. A week later, it was in my hands signed with his HOF inscription and is now one of my fav non-game used NFL collectibles.

[AWA85]

On the Sandberg..... Living in Burlington I saw him a few times a year and he is one of those that does not care to sign at all but he does do a few. I've got him the two times I've tried and he adds the HOF inscription any everything just don't plan on much convo.

He usually waited just a little bit before the games started so he would have limited time. The last game of the year that Peoria came to town I did not even bring my camera because I thought there is no way with all the people. Well after being here a few times in the past two years only a handful of people showed up to grab his signature (small community also). He did a little posing with some of the younger kids and signed for all those there.

Hope that helps! Think I may be one of those done going after him with a bat, baseball, card and 8 x 10 photo all signed.

[BergerKing22784]

I will start off with saying this first. I know players or celebrities owe us nothing besides giving it their best in the sport they play, the movie they star in or whatever their proffesion they are getting paid for. They have no obligiation to us other than that 9 innings of baseball they get paid to go play in front of us. So I hope that stops people from throwing that argument out there when they respond to my comments I am about to make.

I do believe players bring a lot of what they see on themselves though. Back in the day you could go to a baseball game to get a players autograph with a little bit of patience and trying. Well than it got popular and you could say profitable but to me I dont see how anyone makes any money off anyone who isnt the top line superstars because you can get almost anybody on ebay that is authentic for slightly over the unsiged items cost.

But anyway than it got harder to get autographs at games as more people were doing it and less players were signing.

So people moved to hanging out in player parking lots to get autographs or outside the stadium as players came in. That went well and still does go well sometimes but it def has gotten a lot harder than before. (I used to be one of those guys who would sit out front of the stadium at 11:30am for a 7:00pm game) Players quit signing for people at the stadium and found ways to try and be sneaky to avoid signing.

So the really determined people moved to stalking players at hotels for autographs as less crowds ment better odds, well security and people acting a damn fool made this even suck. I always hated bugging players at hotels because that is their home away from home but players brought it upon themselves by not being accessible to fans at their place of employement.

I think players just need to embrace it. Take the if you cant beat em join em mentality. Autograph hounds are not going to go away so why not take the few minutes to take care of the people so you dont have to deal with all their crap they will give you if you dont or deal with them doing crazy annoying things until you do or until you leave town. The casual fan isnt going to stalk you and do those crazy things but if you finally get a reputation of hooking people up at the stadium your less likely to see those people. I know for me personally if I could get the players I wanted at the stadium sitting out front I would never be tempted to go bug them at the hotel or have to do that stalker type stuff to get an autograph for my collection.

[David]

My opinion is that we live in the United States and a celebrity doesn't have to sign an autograph if he doesn't wish to. There's nothing in the Bill of Rights that says a baseball player has to sign an autograph no matter how rude and pushy the fan.

Bill Russell used to not sign, but would shake the fan's hand and converse if the fan wanted to. He said both he and the fan got a lot more out of that than if he scribbled a signature and walked away.

[David]

The flip side is it is the very fans houding you for autographs that made the player rich and famous. Without the hoards of fans, NFL and MLB players would be making millions to play a kid's game.

[sylbry]

This thread is annoying to no end. Basically this is happening because someone had a bad experience and decided to gripe about it on the interent (in multiple places might I add) and now Bench's unfortunate encounter is gossip for everyone.

This seems to be the collector's version of high school character bashing.

http://forums.collectors.com/message...hreadid=679846

[godwulf]

On the Sandberg.....

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Hope that helps! Think I may be one of those done going after him with a bat, baseball, card and 8 x 10 photo all signed.

Thanks. Yeah, I guess I'll just play it by ear and see how he reacts to other people's requests. If I don't get a ball signed, it's not a huge deal to me.

I normally get one ball signed by all the DBacks prospects, maybe a ball single-signed by the guy who looks like he's closest to being called up (last year I bet on Greg Smith, and I was right...but he was traded in the off-season and came up with the wrong club) and when I get ahold of a foul ball (I got four last year) I always get whoever hit the ball to sign it.

Aside from that, I don't do too much during the Fall League in the way of autographs, unless there's a major leaguer or former major leaguer managing or coaching and I happen to have one of his game-used items. Last year I got Matty Williams to sign one of his old gloves for me, and Damon Berryhill to sign one of his old Cooper bats. It was the only time I've ever seen Matty in anything like a bad mood - it was a couple of days after the story came out about his use of HGH, and he wasn't talking to anybody.

[godwulf]

This thread is annoying to no end. Basically this is happening because someone had a bad experience and decided to gripe about it on the interent (in multiple places might I add) and now Bench's unfortunate encounter is gossip for everyone.

This seems to be the collector's version of high school character bashing.

If the story is essentially true, Bench and his fans have nothing about which to complain, in my opinion.

People who've slammed the poster for "violating the rules" about only books being signed are assuming that such was the case at that particular signing, and we don't know that it was. At the Garigiola signing I mentioned earlier, no such rule existed or I wouldn't have asked Joe to sign my baseball and photo.

The part of the story that I find distasteful is the whole money business. If Bench didn't want to sign the bat, a polite "Sorry, I'm only here to sign books" would have said it all - and if the fan persisted or whined or got angry, then he would have been the jerk. Sending the fan to talk to his son - as though talking about money was somehow beneath him, and something to be delegated to others - is just weird.