Your best in person autograph signing experience.
BLUEJAYWAY
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How did it go? Great verbal exchange? Big let down?
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Sparky Lyle in 1991. Was only a kid. Told him what big fan my Mom was, he signed my hardcover of Bronx Zoo. Then brought me behind the table to pose for Polaroid.
Duke Snider in 1989, again only kid and he asked if I wanted anything special I asked him to sign my ball Edwin "Duke" Snider , which he happily did.
Both of the above I keep displayed in my home to this day - yes they are UV protected. They are my only sports related items not hidden away in my home office.
It's the singer not the song - Peter Townshend (1972)
1982 when I asked Minnie Miñoso if he could sign my cast...
Cool.
Harmon Killebrew, he asked me my name and where I was from, treated me like I was the HOFer.
Big sign behind him that said "No Personalizations" I asked him if he would sign one of my items "to Joe best wishes", he immediately did so with a smile.
One other time, he was signing in Denver for a show and ran out of people in his line. He saw me and a couple of other Killebrew fans chatting and came over to talk to us, asking if we might have any baseball questions for him.
Totally awesome human being. Had a beautiful, legible autograph too.
After an Orioles home game Cal signed 8 cards and 3 stickers.
Asked me about my collection. Some time 1993.
I know it is not baseball related, but it is my best in person experience. When I was 17, I cut out from high school to go see Megadeth signing at a local record store. They had just released the Peace Sells album and I got a publicity photo of them signed. Cool thing, it is the original and best lineup. It now sits framed on my wall all these years.
Wasn’t an organized signing, just out of the blue… Senior year 1988, pre-Sadie Hawkins dance, TGIFridays. Sitting at an elevated table next to the bar area, food shows up and I hear someone say, "Hey, look - we can eat this guy's fries". It's Lynn Swann, my all-time favorite football player, down in the bar. Chatted with us all through dinner, to the point where he excused himself to go sign some autographs for the table of football players sitting next to us and then came back. I was the talk of the dance - everyone assumed we were old pals based on how much time he spent with us. And, no - I wasn't interested in the girl that invited me
After spending so much time with us, I felt bad asking for an auto - the waitress did it for me 
Jim
it is hard to single out just one. I remember chatting with Wade Boggs at a signing and he was trying to get me to buy a bass boat he was selling. it was one the Tampa Bay Rays gifted him for either his 3000th hit or retirement, i cant remember (I did not buy the boat)
Robin Yount was very generous with his time when i met him.
i may have enjoyed speaking with frank thomas the most. we had a cool conversation about his 90 topps rookie and the nnnof variety.
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
For me, its Candyman. Or Tony Todd. 😁 He actually wanted to have a conversation. Tried to guess my profession. Second probably Raymond Berry. Was very friendly and conversational. Dickerson funny because I brought up his rooting for someone to not break his record on MNF. Dawson also great in the sense of just friendly and willing to have a chat about the current NFL and how at that time he felt bad for me being a Titans fan.
Hands down - Robert Smith from The Cure last year. Signed six items for me, gave away half to friends.
It was actually for my son. In 2004, we attended an Angels home spring training game in Arizona vs. the Cubs, and we waited in the parking lot for players of both teams to appear at the gated entrance to the field. John Lackey walked up to our group and chatted with us, posed for photos and signed a hat. He was by far the coolest pro athlete we met that day and was quite unlike the guy we usually witnessed on the mound during his career.
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i've tracked the golden bear down a number of times, but him graciously signing this emerald green masters flag from '94 is probably the crème de la crème
and Jordan Spieth slapping his John Hancock on my champs flag was also special, he being my fav modern-day golfer
you'll never be able to outrun a bad diet
Not sure of the year but was late 60's at the Chicago auto show at McCormick place. It was Bart Starr. My all-time favorite player. He was the nicest pro I have ever met.
I went to Cleveland State University. The Lakers were in town to play the Cavs and they did their day-time practice walk-thru at CSU one afternoon before a night game with the Cavs. I got Kareem, Worthy, Wilkes, Chones and Brad Holland.
Early/mid 80s and the Texas Rangers were playing the Royals in an exhibition game in Memphis between spring training and the season. I was a kid and Frank Tanana was with the Rangers then and was about as nice a guy as I'd ever met before or since. I instantly became a fan and still am to this day. Just a great guy who spent time talking and signing for all us kids before and after the game.
Frank White was another.
Great story and really wish I would’ve had a chance to have met him while he was alive. I have heard numerous people say the exact same thing about him and that he was such a nice human being. I was very lucky during my playing days in college to meet Mickey Mantle on the field and he signed and personalized items and also took a picture with me near first base. We had Cal Ripken at one of our NIKE sales meetings for a baseball event, and he was very personable and nice to all the people there. He talked with all of the sales reps and sign, autographs, and at one point our national sales manager cut the line off and said no more. Cal just politely move them out of the way and said let them keep coming and stayed and signed.
At the national several years when Keith Jr was younger we would go get autographs of his favorite players, and he was able to get autos of Johnny Bench, Pete Rose, and Joe Morgan. It was a thrill for me as a dad, since Johnny was my hero growing up, so getting to watch him not only get autographs, but to take photos with all of them was pretty cool. We have all the photos on his wall in his room. Probably the best experience was when we got to meet Ernie banks. He was only around nine years old or so, and Banks asked him to come behind the table and talk to them for a couple minutes. He asked about Sports what his favorite subject in school was, and had him sit with him and take a photo. He was such a gentleman, and it was amazing to see him take the time and effort mind you there was also a line of people still waiting for autographs, but it was towards the end of the day so it was pretty small. it is probably an experience that he will never forget, nor will I.
KC
Hands down the most exciting experience was meeting and getting the autograph of my childhood hero Harmon Killebrew. Like Joe mentioned he was so polite and you felt like a VIP.
One experience I will never forget was with Mudcat Grant and Dave Boswell. I had a book about the early years of the MN Twins and wanted autos on their pictures. Dave Boswell looked at his picture, held the book up and hollered "Hey Mud - look at this handsome guy!". Their back and forth banter had everyone in the vicinity laughing.
Two signers I felt like I wasted my money on were Pete Rose and Willie Mays. Neither even looked up as I handed them the ball with the usual " It's a pleasure to meet you". One (not sure which one) just flipped the ball back and I grabbed it just as it was bouncing off the table.
I've posted this story before but...
Starting in 1980, my dad and I would go to the Niners' training camp in Rocklin. Until about 1984, you could literally stand outside the locker room and walk with the players as they went back to the dorm rooms where they stayed. They'd sign autographs and make small talk along the way. (After the Niners won a second Super Bowl, too many people showed up, so they roped space off for autographs. Most players still would stop to sign.)
When I was old enough to drive myself, I went on my own with a stack of about 20 Rice rookies. He was signing them as we walked. We got to his Porsche and there were still half or so left to sign. He joked, "How many of these do you have?" And then said "Get in." So I hopped in his Porsche and he signed the remaining ones while waiting in the drive-through at Burger King.
Lester Hayes - I was 10 or 11, so 1989/1990 timeframe. Where I lived, we had one large card show annually and would get a couple of athletes. Usually, it was one headliner and one or two middle tier guys. I want to say the headliner that year was Willie Mays and the experience with each couldn't have been more different. While Mays didn't even look up to acknowledge you were standing there, Lester stopped what he was doing, got up, asked my name, gave me a pat on the sholder, and told me I should play football (I was a big kid at the time). Such a personable guy.
Bernie Parent is always a fantastic guy to meet for signings. I have two memorable meetings. The most recent one in 2019, my wife and I had just gotten engaged a couple months earlier and he was signing at the local LCS. I told him one of the items was for my future father in law. He looked past me at her, held out both his hands with his Stanley Cup rings, and asked if she wanted to trade. Not being a huge sports fan, she didn't appreciate the joke nearly as much as I did.
The first time I met him was at the Wells Fargo Center before a game in 2010. I had recently broken my ankle and was at concierge trying to avoid hobbling up to the last row seats we had all the way up top. He walked over, talked briefly about his past injuries, and invited us to join him for cigars and drinks in the cigar lounge to watch the game. I politely declined since I was on meds for the ankle, but he gladly signed my jersey before we made our way to the 2nd level. To this day i regret not accepting that invite.
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Two of my most memorable experiences: One I didn't even ask for an autograph. I was looking at a dealer's table at a local card show. We were talking about various cards in his display case and he points to a Catfish Hunter card and says something to the effect of 'then there's this guy who's standing next to you'. Sure enough Hunter had walked up to the table after his signing. My buddy and I shot the breeze with him for 10 minutes or so. He told the story about his brother shooting off his toe and a few other stories. Great guy and it's so sad what happened to him in the not too distant future. The other is Mickey Mantle. He was really fan friendly and posed for pictures of my buddy and then me. He even froze in a handshake with me until my buddy got a problem with his camera resolved. This was about a year before Mickey got sick.
A few that aren't so great memories is Eddie Murray who never looked up and then rolled the ball across the table after signing. Mike Schmidt who told the promoters he had a cold so wouldn't be interacting with fans. I told him I hope he feels better after he signed and he totally ignored me. Several fans had bad experiences with Willie Mays but he was nice to my buddy and I. He was doing a small show that was poorly advertised and not many people bought tickets. He asked us if they had advertised the show. He was surprised they would pay him so much and then not properly get the word out to sell tickets. We chatted with him for about 5 minutes. Maybe we got him on a good day when he wasn't very busy.
Welcome to the boards! Great to see another Twins fan join us.
I love all these stories. I currently work as an usher for the Peoria Chiefs, a high A MLB affiliate for the St. Louis Cardinals, and I am almost always impressed with the player / fan interactions. Both parties are patient and respectable.
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One of my most favorite moments was not even mine.
Was in Cooperstown for Gary Carter’s induction in 2003 and was walking through town looking at all the Hall of Famers signing in front of some of the stores. One store had Warren Spahn who was in a wheel chair and looked rather frail but was very engaging with all who were there. I was watching the interactions for a bit and one fan who was with his wife and his few months old son was getting several items signed. As Warren was signing, he motioned to his wife to snap a few pic and he placed his son down on the table next to Warren – once Warren saw the child, he animatingly started waving his arms and saying no, no, no. The guy and his wife thought he didn’t want any pics taken and started to apologize however Warren smiled and said sorry he wasn’t signing any children today. There was a dozen or so people in earshot and everyone burst out laughing. Warren then took several pics with the guy and his son and smiled away. Sadly, Warren passed away 4 months later – I’m sure that guy and his wife loves telling that story. I love telling it too as every time I think of it makes me smile.
The signing while not looking up or talking is hardly uncommon. Happened to me during the ancient card show days. Frank Robinson refused to acknowledge me while hurriedly scrawling his name across some photos. Oh well, still my hero. And Mays just grumbled a lot about annoying people.
Then there was Stan Musial. The Man stopped by our table in St. Louis and signed a few things. He proceeded to entertain the gathering crowd in the aisle by playing tunes on his harmonica. Unforgettable.
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Over the years I've had several positive autograph interactions with a number of players in spring training, Many retired players signing before the game to raise money for charities. Billy Williams, Lee Smith, Bob Feller, George Foster, Rollie Fingers, Bert Campaneris, Pete LaCock, and Doug Dascenzo to name a few.
Mr. Williams stands out. He signed for my brother and I after hitting grounders to Cub infielders in Mesa (below). Great guy, more than happy to chat with us for a few minutes.
I've had a few great ones: Dominique Wilkins, Bobby Murcer, Bernie Williams, Ron Gant, Don Mattingly, Gary Carter, Howard Johnson. The only negative I've ever had was Graig Nettles.
Backstage at Monday night raw in Raleigh, NC circa 1999-2000. The promoter gave me the sheet as I was working security at the time for giggles. The Rock was the last one out and it was only him and myself in the hallway. He asked me if I knew what that meant (KYR) and even though I watched wrestling and ultimately knew, I was so star struck that I couldn’t speak. Nice guy and was astounded at how personable he was.
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Without a doubt, it was Steve Carlton. I was about 8/9 years old and my grandfather took me to a card show where he was signing. I remember waiting around while they would call out numbers on a ticket and then those people got in line. While waiting, I decided to write him a letter telling him how much I liked baseball, the Phillies, etc. I also told him he was my favorite player which was a little bit of a lie as Schmidt was but Carlton was a close second.
I figured I would just give it to him when I went up to get my stuff signed but I was able to give it to him before then because he got up to take a break, walked right by me and I handed it to him. He took it and went on his way. Later when I was getting my stuff signed, I realized I had one more item than the tickets purchased. He then said something along the lines of it's ok, I will sign whatever you have since I am your favorite player. He didn't have to read the letter and even if he did, he didn't have to offer to sign everything. Small gesture but I have never forgotten it. My wife and I even used his name to name our dog, Clark Carlton. Her favorite player, Will Clark, then obviously Steve Carlton.
On the flip side, maybe a year later I went to a baseball camp where Mike Schmidt was supposed to be a guest instructor for the day. He shows up late, clearly did not want to be there, seemed annoyed when I asked him about other jersey numbers that he wore when I had seen some old footage of him with a different number. I cannot anything else he said other then the feeling he did not want to be there. He was supposed to stay and sign autographs and instead after fielding some questions just said it was time to go. My dad ran over to his car, blocked his door and said if you want to get in you are going to sign this ball so yeah I have a Mike Schmidt autographed ball. Going back to camps like this, when Phillies players would come they were always energetic and happy to be there but Schmidt was different. One time Milt Thompson came and when talking to all of us he told us a story on how it is important to always be aware and said that one time he was on second and Barry Larkin pretended to throw the ball back to the pitcher but hide it behind his glove. Milt said he knew it was there and happily stood on second letting Larkin think he was unaware but at the same time wasn't moving off the base. That stuck with me and I got several outs using that type of trickery or similar ones when I played that I probably never would have done without that discussion. So while this wasn't an autograph transaction, it always stayed with me.
And finally, after games at the Vet, you could wait around for autographs after the game as they would have to exit the stadium, walk across a small parking area / road to the gated parking lot where the players would park. I remember Greg Gross and Ozzie Virgil would sometimes sit down on a bench and make sure everyone who wanted an autograph got one or at the very least slowly walk to the lot and sign as much as they could. One day though, mostly everyone had left and it was me and maybe two or three other kids and we saw Ron Reed come out and he basically told us to get out of the way.
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Cool story man.
I was a kid visiting Busch back around 86 and the Phillies were in town. My mom dropped my brother and me off by ourselves (the 80s man!) outside so we could get autographs as players walked out of the hotel across the street.
Schmidt would only sign one thing and wouldn’t even take the time to chat. I get it because he was at the height of his career. We got Aton of Phillies signatures that day and evening after the game.
The nicest of all was Don Carmen. Just a super nice and cool dude who just chatted and signed whatever.
The one that really stands out for me was at a baseball card show in the late 70's. When I asked Whitey Ford to sign multiple items, he was very annoyed. He said to the guy next to him "I really gotta start charging for my autograph." Understand this back in the days when you paid an admission price to the show and the autographs were free. The man was ahead of his time!
Anyways, fast forward 40+ years and the autographs on my cards graded a 10!
Late 60's and early to mid 70's non-sports
Wade Boggs was awesome. I was at an Orioles game (about 1987?) (I am from Philly) and I used to get visiting player autographs on their way to the bus. Not far from the bus was a car with a lot of people around it so I went over and saw it was Wade Boggs. He stood outside of the car for at least 10 minutes signing all the while saying he needs to get going because he had dinner reservations. After 10 minutes he stayed another 15 minutes or so saying the same thing about dinner reservations. He finally left. About 30 minutes later he returned and started signing again. When asked why he came back, he said they canceled his reservation because he was so late. He signed for about another 20 minutes. That was awesome.
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That's pretty impressive!
Travis Kelce. This was way before he was a household name and before he had won his first Super Bowl, but was still seen as one of the best TEs in the game, so it's not like he was a run-of-the-mill player.
I'm strictly a vintage card guy, so I'm not sure about modern, but I bought as many shiny cards, jersey patches, 1 of 1s that I could find for him to sign. He had no issue signing everything that I brought and even asked what color and placement I wanted for each autograph.
Total class act. I was able to spend an entire day with him just shooting the breeze. A surprisingly down-to-earth and humble guy. I know that he receives more than his fair share of shade, but I can't say enough good things about my experience with him.
I went on eBay and purchased another run of everything that I could, thinking that I'd see him again, but unfortunately it didn't work out. The downside - no more autographs, but the upside is that everything that I bought is now at least worth a small fortune after the COVID boom. My only regret was passing on the Kaboom Green 1/1 for $850 because I thought that was a crazy price for a random insert card. Little did I know what Kaboom cards would become in the hobby.
Glad to hear good things about a fellow Cleveland Heights High School tiger!