Your experiences with players who validated (or didn't validate) your game used items

[MUSEOVEN]

Re: Positive player reaction to seeing his GAMER

Yesterday I Went To A Baseball Card Show Here In Caracas And The Ballplayers Who Are Siging Was Oscar Azocar (yankee And Padres) And Julio Machado (mets And Brewers).. Was Great See Oscas Azocar Face When He Seen My 2 Tiburones De La Guaira Jerseys, The San Diego Jersey And The Bats.. Both Ballplayers Was Great .. Thanks

[tigerdale]

Re: Positive player reaction to seeing his GAMER

awesome stories.....amazing what some players remember....very cool.

[JETEFAN]

Re: Positive player reaction to seeing his GAMER

That's awesome. Did he actually remember some of the bats?

He did actually remember 2 of my bats, the first his rookie bat with "46" on the knob. For some reason he recognized it as his and used by him and noted "Rookie Gamer" on the bat. And also an M1728 bat which he claims very few exist due to them cracking very easily, it was a model designed by him and given the model number for his kids birth dates. Don said he loved the feel of the bat but it was a bat design as they cracked very easily. I thought the bat was not cracked and he bet me he would find the crack, he went right to the crack!!, said they all cracked at the same spot. He also notated "gamer" on the bat.... (Bat has also been photo matched since then.)

George


George

[JETEFAN]

Re: Positive player reaction to seeing his GAMER

Great story. Doesn't that make all your time and effort all the more worthwhile. And you probably cant beat the stories he told about your items. Did you get any new information about any of your items or was he pretty much verifying what you already knew you had. Thanks for sharing.

Pretty much verifying or confirming what I knew, I have been collecting his stuff for over 20 years so I've done my homework.... confirmation does make you feel good though!

[flota89]

Re: Positive player reaction to seeing his GAMER

Don Mattingly could not have been nicer when I shared part of my "Donnie" gamer collection with him. We talked for over 1/2 hour as he shared stories on each bat and uniform. He was truly humbled that I chose him as the focus for my collection. Great person, great time!!!

That's awesome. Did he actually remember some of the bats?

[godwulf]

Re: Positive player reaction to seeing his GAMER

Hey, I was hoping to be able to contribute another story to this thread, but my week continues to suck.

Drove over to Scottsdale Stadium this morning, to try to get their new hitting coach (and former Diamondback) Hensley Meulens to sign a couple of bats for me - a '92 Yankees Rawlings, and a '98 LS - and...well, I struck out again.

Sitting there in the front row of the bleachers, just a few yards from Tim Lincecum, Travis Ishikawa, Aaron Rowand, etc - it would have been a great situation for a Giants fan looking for autographs...but when I asked one of the players, as he jogged by (he was wearing an unmarked shirt over his jersey, so I have no idea who he was) if their hitting coach was around, he said, "No, he's (something unintelligible)" and pointed up. (Died and went to heaven? Gee, I hope not.)

Unfortunately, all of the other Cactus League ballparks are some distance from where I live and work...Phoenix Muni and Scottsdale are the only ones that I don't have to invest half a day to go visit.

Oh, well. To get back at Hensley for not being where he was supposed to be this morning, and to liven up an otherwise dreary (and somewhat whiney) post, here's a picture of him, playing in the Netherlands in 2000.



Well, I mean, pot is legal there, right?

[karamaxjoe]

Re: Positive player reaction to seeing his GAMER

I couldn't agree more. Rickey was always an absolute gem with me, too. I can't say the same about the person who used to market his stuff and run his signings, but Rickey himself was always terrific and happy to see and talk about his game used items. He is quite misunderstood by a lot of fans and collectors.

When Rickey was with the Red Sox he tossed a BP ball to my daughter and some adult ahole cut in front of her and grabbed the ball. Rickey proceeded to rip into the guy about how bad of person he was for doing that. The guy eventually gave my daughter the ball back and I became a fan of 'the greatest of all time.'

[sportscentury]

Re: Positive player reaction to seeing his GAMER

I had Rickey Henderson sign a Yankees jersey years back and asked if it were bloodstains on the front of the jersey from headfirst slides. He then proceeded to identify the stains as iced tea that he had spilled on it! I've had him sign some pretty rare items over the years and he always appeared to be pleased at seeing some of these pieces. Contrary to what many have heard, Rickey was always an absolute pleasure to interact with and gave you a top notch auto on your piece.

I couldn't agree more. Rickey was always an absolute gem with me, too. I can't say the same about the person who used to market his stuff and run his signings, but Rickey himself was always terrific and happy to see and talk about his game used items. He is quite misunderstood by a lot of fans and collectors.

[JETEFAN]

Re: Positive player reaction to seeing his GAMER

Don Mattingly could not have been nicer when I shared part of my "Donnie" gamer collection with him. We talked for over 1/2 hour as he shared stories on each bat and uniform. He was truly humbled that I chose him as the focus for my collection. Great person, great time!!!

[Danny899]

Re: Positive player reaction to seeing his GAMER

Legal Where in New York is he signing? I know he has done a few recently in New Jersey.

He is doing a signing through Steiner on April 10th in NY. They didn't list the at show prices but I'm sure you could call them for more info.
Dan

[suave1477]

Re: Positive player reaction to seeing his GAMER

I am going to get Pudge Rodriguez to sign one of his bats when he comes to my area next month. It is the first signing he has ever done in New York and I have always wanted to meet him. I normally do not get gamers signed but this one I got cheap off Ebay and I have no interest in nongame used signed items anymore so I will get it signed and see if I can talk him into adding a g/u inscription for free. I will let you all know how it goes and post pics on here if I can figure out how.

Legal Where in New York is he signing? I know he has done a few recently in New Jersey.

[godwulf]

Re: Positive player reaction to seeing his GAMER

I actually tried it this morning; I just got back about thirty minutes ago. Things did not go according to plan, and I have no one to blame but myself, but I'm still really pissed off. I wasn't going to post here about it, but maybe "venting" will make me feel better.

I decided to play hookey from work for a bit, and took off for Phoenix Muni a little after 9 - my work is only about twenty minutes away -and got there about 9:25. There were a few other autograph-seekers near the dugout, so I asked a couple of them if they had seen Jack Cust today; one of them pointed him out, just about the time all the players went out onto the field to do calisthenics (or the MLB equivalent). When they came back in, Cust was fairly close, so I called out to him, and he said "After" - in other words after BP. Okay, so I was stuck watching BP for the next ninety minutes.

After BP, I figured that he'd have to come back onto the field to pick up his bag, glove, etc, but instead, he heads down into the tunnel. People are poking stuff through the holes in the netting, so I head over there with my 2001 Sam bat and a gold paint pen, thinking, well, at least I can get one of my two bats signed - I couldn't see trying to get him to sign both of them under those conditions. After he'd signed for several people, there was a girl who also had a couple of his bats, and he was signing for her, even taking a minute to look over one of her bats and take a practice swing, so I thought, "Hey, I'll grab the Carolina Clubs bat, too." It probably took me no more than ten seconds to walk over, grab it and come back, by which time Cust was walking away. I called out, "Hey, Jack", and he said, "That's all, man" and walked away.

I got greedy and screwed myself, I guess. Really put a damper on my day, so far. Venting didn't really help very much, either.

[Danny899]

Re: Positive player reaction to seeing his GAMER

I had Rickey Henderson sign a Yankees jersey years back and asked if it were bloodstains on the front of the jersey from headfirst slides. He then proceeded to identify the stains as iced tea that he had spilled on it! I've had him sign some pretty rare items over the years and he always appeared to be pleased at seeing some of these pieces. Contrary to what many have heard, Rickey was always an absolute pleasure to interact with and gave you a top notch auto on your piece.

[OaklandAsFan]

Re: Positive player reaction to seeing his GAMER

Jeff,

The A's are playing split squad games on Saturday one away (in Scottsdale) and the other at home so going to watch bp the way we discussed won't happen that day.

[godwulf]

Re: Positive player reaction to seeing his GAMER

Well, maybe I'll give that a try next weekend. I see the A's are playing the Giants at Scottsdale next Saturday - maybe I'll show up at Phx Muni about 9:30 with the Cust bats and see what happens.

I've looked over the rosters of the 14 teams playing ball in the Valley right now (including the non-roster invitees and the coaches) and there are no fewer than 40 former Diamondbacks here - eight with the Brewers alone - and I've probably got unsigned bats for at least three-fourths of them, including some players I thought I'd never see again, like original DBacks Jeff Suppan and Hensley Meulens.

Thanks for the tip!