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Signatures at Spring Training
jrboles
Posts: 566 ✭✭
In 1986 my family (All Cub fans except me) took the trip to Mesa for sun and five games at Hohokam, Tempe, and Scottsdale - Two Brewers, one Giants, one A's, one Mariners. I must have had a stack of 300 cards to get signed. Cubs are playing the Giants and we're there 3 hours early for infield practice. I'm allowed to do what I want until the game begins and I'm by the Giants dugout trying to get anyone's attention. Screaming for Chili Davis I hear my pop whistling (really loud piercing whistle he knew we could hear and if we ignored it - there'd be trouble) so I storm up to our seats and he says:
"You know who.....(turns to this old lady) who?" Old lady says 'Carl Hubbel'. My pop repeats, "You know who Carl Hubbel is?"
I ring off all his accomplishments that my 14 year old baseball nerd mind contains. And the old lady asks if I want his autograph. I go nuts. She says wait until the 4th. He usually comes during the 3rd but it would nice to give him an inning. Turns out we're sitting next to Ryne Sandberg's parents. She asks if I'd like Ryne's autograph too. $%&#& YEAH! "Ok, he's coming out after 6 innings, we'll meet him outside the clubhouse. I'll give Yosh Kawano a note. And Oh what a nice 1985 Donruss giant card you brought of him. Honey look at this big card, and yadda yadda." She eats a lettuce on wheat sandwich and drinks the water from the ice melting in her cup while I talk her ear off until the seventh.
Ryne comes out, she says, "Ryne this is jrboles. Look at this card." He shakes my hand, signs my card, asks, "You get good seats?" and heads back in. First natural buzz of my entire life. My pop got a picture of the seconds right before the actual shaking of the hands. Mrs. Sandberg was a delight. She took down my address so she could send me the Ryne Sandberg scale-size milk poster/growth chart.
I hear Willie's a bear, but he was cool in '86. Signing for us right by the first row. No Willie cards on me but got it on the ball. One of the greatest vacations ever. Cool guys were all over the place - Ernie Riles, Mike Felder, Dale Sveum, Tim Leary, Mike Aldrete, Will Clark, Bob Kearney, Jim Presley, Harold Reynolds, Gorman Thomas, Shawon Dunston, Rick Sutcliffe, and even Dave Kingman signed. Bob Uecker's kid was late to pick him up and he prowled the parking lot as pissed off as I can imagine Bob Uecker ever being but he signed everything and even forced a smile when my Mom said, "We love Mr. Belvedere."
Yutz's in the moment were Ron Cey, Dick Ruthven ("Mr. Ruthven, can you sign" "No, that's OK", Dusty Baker, and - the holy grail of the spring - Jose Canseco.
postscript - we went back in 1989. I was too cool for autographs but somehow convinced the security at Hohokam to let me stay inside the gate after the game because I was going to help "Lance" haul away all the recycling as soon as he was done in the stadium. Ryne comes out with his kids and I ask him if he'll remind his ma to look up jrboles in her address book and send the poster we discussed 3 years ago. He pulled his kids a little closer, said 'sure', and got the hell outta there. Good times.
Thanks for reading.
Your pal
jr
"You know who.....(turns to this old lady) who?" Old lady says 'Carl Hubbel'. My pop repeats, "You know who Carl Hubbel is?"
I ring off all his accomplishments that my 14 year old baseball nerd mind contains. And the old lady asks if I want his autograph. I go nuts. She says wait until the 4th. He usually comes during the 3rd but it would nice to give him an inning. Turns out we're sitting next to Ryne Sandberg's parents. She asks if I'd like Ryne's autograph too. $%&#& YEAH! "Ok, he's coming out after 6 innings, we'll meet him outside the clubhouse. I'll give Yosh Kawano a note. And Oh what a nice 1985 Donruss giant card you brought of him. Honey look at this big card, and yadda yadda." She eats a lettuce on wheat sandwich and drinks the water from the ice melting in her cup while I talk her ear off until the seventh.
Ryne comes out, she says, "Ryne this is jrboles. Look at this card." He shakes my hand, signs my card, asks, "You get good seats?" and heads back in. First natural buzz of my entire life. My pop got a picture of the seconds right before the actual shaking of the hands. Mrs. Sandberg was a delight. She took down my address so she could send me the Ryne Sandberg scale-size milk poster/growth chart.
I hear Willie's a bear, but he was cool in '86. Signing for us right by the first row. No Willie cards on me but got it on the ball. One of the greatest vacations ever. Cool guys were all over the place - Ernie Riles, Mike Felder, Dale Sveum, Tim Leary, Mike Aldrete, Will Clark, Bob Kearney, Jim Presley, Harold Reynolds, Gorman Thomas, Shawon Dunston, Rick Sutcliffe, and even Dave Kingman signed. Bob Uecker's kid was late to pick him up and he prowled the parking lot as pissed off as I can imagine Bob Uecker ever being but he signed everything and even forced a smile when my Mom said, "We love Mr. Belvedere."
Yutz's in the moment were Ron Cey, Dick Ruthven ("Mr. Ruthven, can you sign" "No, that's OK", Dusty Baker, and - the holy grail of the spring - Jose Canseco.
postscript - we went back in 1989. I was too cool for autographs but somehow convinced the security at Hohokam to let me stay inside the gate after the game because I was going to help "Lance" haul away all the recycling as soon as he was done in the stadium. Ryne comes out with his kids and I ask him if he'll remind his ma to look up jrboles in her address book and send the poster we discussed 3 years ago. He pulled his kids a little closer, said 'sure', and got the hell outta there. Good times.
Thanks for reading.
Your pal
jr
0
Comments
Jr,
Great memory you have there. We are going to Mesa and doing the same thing at the end of March, first week in April. We will be going to a Cubs game and I hope my son can come back with an experience half as good as yours.
<< <i> He pulled his kids a little closer >>
Hahahaha, great story
That's not to discourage you. I think it will be a great time. I will just be interested how much access you get to the players. Here's to hoping you and yours get great weather, good games, and mellow players.
Your pal
jr
I enjoyed your story.
mike
When the Dodgers won the World Series, Pedro was no longer with the team, so my 88 Dodgers ball only has signatures of players who actually played in the World Series.
quite a few times in recent years we've made the trip to Arizona to see our favorite teams, the Cubs @ Hohokam & the Angels @ Tempe Diablo Stadium and it's always been a lotta fun.....two great events stand out, so i will share them.....in 2003, we visited the Angels fresh off their World Series victory, and you've never seen so many happy, giddy baseball players, it was like a day in summer camp.....my son had the pleasure of sharing a few minutes with John Lackey, got photographed with him, got siggies from a bunch of pitchers and has an indelible memory to keep......now, John's gone to Boston.
my personal favorite moment was the following year visiting the Cubs, fresh off their playoff disaster with the Marlins.....i went up to the practice field behind the right field bullpen to watch Carlos Zambrano conducting an interview with a very attractive female reporter.....let's just say there was a lot of chatter going on and Carlos never stopped smiling the whole time he was talking to this woman....when the interview concluded, he strolled over to fence where some of us were standing, so I caught his eye and mouthed the word "NICE!".......he nodded approvingly, flashed a Cheshire Cat grin, and ran off to another interview.