Anyone ever hear of Steve Kline??......

[RJB44]

Vida Blue was known to wear a very old Oakland A's cap through the end of his tenure with the A's. Several pictures show him wearing an earlier style cap (1971-72?) as late as 1977.

Former A's picther Bob Lacy (1977-1980) also is believed to wear a much older style a's cap while on the team. Many pictues show him with a highly faded cap then that of his teamates. The 1980 team photo is an excellent example that shows the difference in his cap.

[pietraynor]

Just got back from Wrigley Field, Cubs hosted the Giants & saw Steve Kline being his old self..after warming up w/ a teammate, spent 30mins soft tossing w/about 10 diff. fans along the first base line..All the time talking to the fans, he gave a couple balls away, then worked his way back to the dugout, signing about 100 autographs for everyone who wanted one..was friendly w/ the Cubs security staff as well, made mention of a certain star teammate as well. One of just a handful of Giants to sign on this day. Kids were getting a kick out of playing toss w/ a Major League (opposing) pitcher! Wish more players would take time w/ the fans, don't expect this much, but something would be nice. Jay.

[Vintagedeputy]

Sounds like Kline remembers what its like to be the little guy. If the million dollar players remembered that its the fans who pay their salaries by buying the tickets, souvenirs, watching the tv etc, they might be a little friendlier. I've worn a badge and uniform for 12 years and made as little as $22k a year when I started out. If I was making umpteen thousands of dollars a day for less than 8 hours work to play baseball, I'd be as fan friendly as anyone you'd ever met. I would be coming to your kids birthday party to sign autographs if that meant that I could stay in the big leagues one more day.....

I went to a Nationals home game yesterday and was impressed that at least 4 Astros signed autographs as the visiting team. There were a ton of Astros fans there. Nice to see that they made the effort to appreciate their fans.