Torii Hunter talks about autographs.

Darin

I bought a baseball preview magazine and they interviewed Torii Hunter. This is what he said about giving auto's. I wish more players felt this way.

Do you sign a lot?

Torii- I'm one of those guys who always signs. Kirby Puckett used to tell me, "Sign every autograph you can, because when baseball's over, they might not even remember you, and make sure they can read it." I remember it took Harmon Killebrew forever to sign, because he hit every letter. That's what I do. A hundred years from now, when I'm dead and gone and they see a ball and it's just a scribble-scrabble, they won't know who it is and they'll throw the ball around and play baseball with it. But if they can read it, they'll say, 'Man, this is Torii Hunter. That's cool.' It's like a treasure.


So does anyone have a Torii Hunter auto so we can see if he's telling the truth about it being readable?

MeteoriteGuy

From www.hollywoodcollectibles.com

otwcards

At least it's the most legible of the lot.



And this ball looks pretty readable, too...

BunchOBull

He was just bumped up a couple of notches in my book. Good read.

otwcards

Don't get too excited. Torii doesn't sign through the mail and isn't always the first to rush over to the fans and start signing away. At least he does offer a legible signature, but let's not put him on a pedestal suggesting he spends his nonplaying hours signing autographs.

If you want to give someone props for a nice signature and someone who is accomodating and is a STAR, then props to Mariano Rivera...

onefasttalon

Does Joe Mauer know who he is?

Did he sign that card, or ask a question?

onefasttalon

Jim Edmonds has a unique Auto too.... you can't read it, but it's consistant. (sorry, no pics)

Nice story from Torii.... I remember from my days in San Diego Tony Gwynn used to be great for an auto no matter where you ran into him.
It's a shame there aren't more athletes that make themselves more avail to sign.

Elemenopeo

airjoedan

Torii Hunter is probably one of the most unique autograph stories ever - he started off his career with a terrible and illegible signature...then when he became a star he starting writing his name in a legible fashion. It is always the complete opposite with everyone else. His signature started looking good around 1999....he has approximately four different signature styles that I am aware of and have in my collection. At one point in his career he used to just sign "T. Ht" - the he starting getting fancy with his capital letters....then wrote every letter. Very odd signature history...but with a cool signature today!

- Joe

TheHun

not a bad way to be remembered.