Baseball Players and their Game Used Items

[geoff]

I went to the Orioles and Marlins game tonight and got Hanley Ramirezs Autograph and told him i have a few game used items of his.He looked at me and did not say a word and had this look on his face like he was really mad.Then i asked him if i could take a pichure with him and he said no i have too go.He did not have too go and was still signing autographs for people for another minute or two.Anyone on the forum had an expierience like mine or something to that effect that a player got made when you told him you own game used items of his.Would like to hear back on this subject.Thanks Geoff

[kylehess10]

wow, that sounds horrible. I've never had an experience like that before. I have tried talking to players once about their game used. 3 years ago, I went to the Braves Fanfest to get my Glenn Hubbard game used bat signed, I simply told him that it was game used and he actually said "well I didn't get that many hit's back then". Kinda weird how he said that cuz there was ball marks all over the bat. Then 2 years ago I went to the Braves fanfest again to get my Chipper Jones game used bat signed and I told him the same saying that it was game used and he said "oh yea? did you steal this from me?" it was pretty funny. I don't get how Hanley Ramirez could be that mean though. If a player is in a bad mood then they shouldn't even be signing. Here in Atlanta at Turner Field you ask any player to be in a picture and they'll do it. I've actually never once seen a player refuse a picture taken

[suave1477]

Kylehess I think your missing the point the players are not mad bcuz they are having a bad day. I have run across that same problem a couple of times. The reason they are mad is bcuz from my opinion 2 reasons.
1) They feel slighted that you got something of theres and they didnt give it to you. ( "like how did you get that i didnt give it to you" )
2) There a bit annoyed becuz you got something of theres and they didnt see any money out of it.

I bet you if the Athlete himself sold that same item to you for $1000, he woulfd be like "Yeah sure ill take a picture with you, is your wife around tell her to get in the picture too"

Some guys are nice some are not.

Here is my experience - I had one athlete deny about 3 items i had of his were his. I know for a fact they were his, yet he denied it bcuz he was pissed he didnt get anything out of it.

[Kid4hof03]

It's actually pretty common. The truth is, alot of the stuff that many of us own, alot of the stuff in the hobby has been stolen.

I had Graig Nettles get very angry with me when I asked him to sign a game used bicentennial bat that was uncracked. He looked at the bat and said it had to be stolen, that he would have never given away a bat with that kind of use that was not cracked. I've seen Paul O'Neill refuse to sign a bat that was uncracked stating that he never gives away bats unless they were cracked and so any uncracked bat had to be stolen. Now, I'm sure that at some point a few uncracked bats got out that weren't stolen, but that was his stance.

I once had Bernie Williams first Yankees issued road jersery, #63 from his first spring training. When I asked him to sign it he looked it over and asked me how in the world I had this jersey when he doesn't have one for himself. He was very nice and signed it beautifully but I could see he was bothered.

If the stuff comes from the team or from a dealer that the player has an agreement with then they have a part in the sale or at least you can always plead that it's legit. If stuff comes from a clubhouse attendant or such, lets face it, it's stolen to some degree. By and large most players probably don't care, as I've had hundreds of game used items signed over the years and only a handful of interesting experiences. Don't get surprised though if you end up getting some strange looks or even get questioned at some point by a player whose game used items you want to have autographed.

Abe

[Nathan]

Well, Wayne Gretzky came out a few years ago and said that any of his jerseys in the hobby were fake because he had every last one that he'd ever worn...which was a load of crap.

[worldchamps]

Here are my experinces, only one was really bad

I had a game worn Cowboys Roy Williams jersey( bought from the gift shop). He was doing a free signing and I was very skeptical if I would get the good signature of his or the RW31. I watched him sign every signature perfectly with his good sig. When I threw down my jersey he looked me dead in the eye without saying a word, RW31 on my jersey, and looked looked me dead in the eye to get my reaction. The ironic thing is I never would have sold that jersey, and I am sure his thought process was "I am going to sign this bad so he can't sell it"......so if you guessed that I sold the jersey, you are 100% correct. And I am no longer a fan of his.....he should be a linebacker anyways.

Mark Teixeira was doing a signing at a local card shop his rookie year. It was a paid for autograph signing. I had a game used bat I bought from the gift shop. He looked at the bat, inspected every detail of it, asked me where I got it and said "they are not suppose to be selling these." But he was not rude, and I still have the bat.

Mike Young - free signing at Home Depot - exact same response as Teixieira.

Hank Blalock - signing at Tri Star show. I figured I would pay the $40 or so and get a good auto, and not get hanggled. I got a perfect signature and not a word or glance.


I agree with previous posters.

My opinion of this behavior, Game worn/ used equipment is something personal that the players feels belongs to them. If they wanted to give it to you, they would have, and would have signed it. When they are signing normal auto items, balls, cards, etc and then get a rookie worn jersey (which they either want or would like to have sold) it freaks them out.

[cjosefy]

I've seen both type of reactions.

A buddy of mine had a game-used rookie Craig biggio jersey. At the Tristar show Craig wasn't very happy and after looking at the jersey for a long time asked him "How the hell did you get this?" He still signed it, though.

Same buddy had a Chris Burke minor league jersey. At the tristar show Burke looked it over, smiled, and said that yes indeed it was his minor league jersey. Then he signed it. Of course, he's a really nice guy.

I took two bats to get signed by Brad Ausmus. One of which simply had the word "Bro" in place of the normal "Brad Ausmus." He looked at it and then told a story about how Biggio had ordered the bats for him as a joke. He looked at the other bat (a normal Ausmus bat) and said, "Now there's one of my bats." He signed both nicely. A guy got up to him a little later with a game used bat from his days with the Tigers and he said "Now that's an old one."

I got an Alan Ashby game used bat signed and he just said "I've haven't seen this in a while."

[Yankwood]

Funny you should mention Graig Nettles. I once had him utter the "F" word twice when asking me where I got a cracked bat of his. I told him I got it from a collector in Detroit and he then proceded to ask me where the "F" he stole it from. I told him he didn't have to sign it if he didn't want to and he said, you paid your "F'ing" money, I'll sign it. It was kind of embarrassing since there were so many young kids in line that heard him talk that way. I didn't know why he was so mad either since he was over 50 at the time and the bat had been cracked in the early 70's. Oh well. If anyone sees him soon, tell him I still have his "F'ing" bat.

[BULBUS]

I didnt show anything game used to Nettles, but a few years ago I had him sign a baseball. I asked him to put his number 9 on the ball, he looked up at me, gave me an angry look, sighed, and added his number.

Anyway, the coolest guy ever is Don Mattingly. I recently went to a signing of his, brought a game used bat of his, asked him if he remembered the model, he said yes, and I got a cool picture of him holding the bat

[Yankwood]

I always liked Nettles as a player, but now I wish I never met him.