Probably a touchy subject...

[ahuff]

Jeff,

I completely agree with you. Trading them or not is not the issue. How would these same people feel if roles were reversed. Granted...some would be fine with it - others not. I spoke to Blake Beavan when he was in my area. I saw the same people day after day bringing books with 9 cards per page and asking him to sign them. Not only did they have 9 cards a page (of him) but they had multiple pages for him to sign. I see it much like you...if he signs all 27 cards you have that means 26 other people do not get an autograph that would have had that jackwad not done that. When I spoke to Blake he seemed very cordial and said it didn't bother him. I did notice his sig went from a full sig to primarily "B's". I do believe Blake is the exception and I always wonder if he still feels the same way after years of that garbage.

Guys like Ryne Sandberg are great at helping out fans, as they remember you and will not only sign just one or two items for you a day...but they remember your face and will only sign one/two for you during the entire homestand. I love guys like that.

The best story I have heard/seen was this: A local card dealer (or use to be) shows up at games with hundreds of cards of these players, gets them signed, and NEVER stays for even a pitch. The thing is this - he never actually gets them signed himself...he only has his daughter do it. She was getting them signed one day. She walks up with a stack of probably 50 cards of this one player and asks him to sign. He signs the first one, and then tells her if her dad wants the rest signed he has to come ask for himself. Still chuckle at that one!!!! :-)

[godwulf]

I think the craziest example I've ever seen was a few years ago, before an Arizona League game out at Papago Park. There's this father-son "team" that shows up for a lot of these events - the son is not a kid, but a guy in his twenties - and I watched while, between the two of them, they got Diamondbacks prospect Wagner Mateo to sign some outrageous number of cards, while I stood there waiting to get a ball signed.

A couple of years later, I'm at an independent league game, and I'm telling this story to a guy, and I'm a couple of sentences into it, and he says some number - like "Fifty-four". I said, "What's that?" and he says, "That's the number of cards we got him to sign." I hadn't recognized him, but this guy I'm telling the story to is one of the guys I'm telling it about. At least I dodged a bullet by not starting the story with, "Wait till you hear about these jerks!"