Your autograph stories (Good or Bad)

[Shawon0Meter]

No good sports autograph stories. Most times I've gotten them it was some in-store signing so they were just doing what they were supposed to do.

My coolest non-sports one is Snoop Dogg. It was after a concert when I was 15 or 16. About 10 of us were waiting outside for him and he finally came out. He was really cool, signed autographs, passed around a blunt (I didn't participate). One of the people he was with gave one of the fans his watch to jump in a nearby fountain and this was in like late November lol. Then another member of Snoop's entourage asked this guy's girlfriend to go on the bus, her boyfriend was PISSED, but she went anyway and didn't come back yet by the time we left lol.

 

[Guess Who]

I had a friend who was a Key Grip and worked with him on a Chevy commercial in Phoenix featuring Ryne Sandberg. Another friend wanted me to get an autographed baseball for him. So during a break I put a baseball and pen in Sandberg's hand. He gave me a dirty look but signed it for me. I later learned Sandberg didn't sign many autographs.

 

[Gravis]

I've got one for you that involves neither meeting the man nor actually realizing what I was doing.

It began after Christmas when I was 9 and forced my dad buy me a Spawn comic (can't remember which issue) from a gas station as my interest was peaked from having see the trailer of the new Spawn movie (this was early 97). I eventually forgot about it until late summer when I had the sudden urge to write Todd McFarlane a letter. Since this before my family ever had a computer or the internet, I had no idea where I could find a mailing address for the letter so I dug through my messy room until I found that comic and an address inside. The letter itself was no more than a sentence long, a suggestion to McFarlane to possibly create a power rangers version of Spawn.



Months went by once again, until one day awhile after my birthday (Oct 22) I came home from school to find a bundle of Spawn collectibles that had come in the mail. Apparently, I unknowingly entered a Spawn contest and got 2nd fucking place. The prizes were a poster from the Spawn movie signed in gold marker by McFarlane, a signed and wrapped VHS of the first animated movie, and a signed copy of the Spawn movie soundtrack. The letter that came with it said it was worth up to 500$.

Oh and years later my poster was stolen by my sister's fiance (now ex-husband) when he moved out of the house. All things considered, with the ass-kicking McFarlane got in court the jokes on him. It ain't worth shit! Hardy-har-har!

 

[nwfisch]

People still call it grass?

I agree with all your comments though. I'm a grown ass man, I'll be damned if I ask another grown ass man to scrawl his name on a piece of paper for me.

Not to say that I don't have signed shit, I do...but I have never asked someone to sign any of that for me. Just memorabilia I've purchased over time. Also not saying that there is anything wrong with asking for autographs, just not my thing.

I think its different when you're 40 years old scouring for autographs than it is for a kid.

 

[whitesoxman77]

I prefer pics to autographs View attachment 1094


Sent from my Gopher hole using Tapatalk

 

[nwfisch]

I prefer pics to autographs View attachment 1094View attachment 1095View attachment 1096View attachment 1097


Sent from my Gopher hole using Tapatalk

Get some pics with Chicago athletes

 

[whitesoxman77]

Get some pics with Chicago athletes

if only...

 

[Shawon0Meter]

I prefer pics to autographs View attachment 1094View attachment 1095View attachment 1096View attachment 1097


Sent from my Gopher hole using Tapatalk

Meeting Joe Mauer would be cool

and I love the gif in your sig

 

[whitesoxman77]

Meeting Joe Mauer would be cool

and I love the gif in your sig

haha thanks dude! and meeting Joe Mauer was awesome, for the 10 seconds i got to talk to him

 

[Iwritecode]

I've never randomly encountered a celebrity. The only ones I've met are when I actually stood in a line with 100's of other people waiting to for them to sign something. Mostly Sox players at Soxfest. Although I do have a couple of slightly interesting stories.

I had just given Paul Konerko a ball to sign when a reporter came up and asked him what he thought about Comiskey Park being renamed to US Cellular field. He stood there and talked to the reporter for a few minutes while I listened.

My wife got an autograph from Carlos Lee. As he went to hand her the ball back she snapped a picture. The flash must have surprised him because he just sort of dropped the ball on the table and it started rolling away. My wife grabbed the ball, said "Thanks" and walked off. Meanwhile I'm standing off the to side LMAO.

I got to talk to Carl Everett in the bar of the hotel one Saturday night after the Soxfest activities were over. I asked if he would sign and he jokingly said something about how he was going to beat up the next person who asked him. Then his girlfriend/wife? grabbed the ball from me and gave it to him and said "Oh don't mind him, he'll sign it."

At the end of the night I got to see a very drunk Aaron Rowand hug Joe Crede and exclaim "I love you man!"

 

[Love Da Bears]

When I was 8 or 9ish I got my Frank Thomas Rookie Card and Little League game ball autographed by the Big Hurt before a game. Not a great story admittedly, but still a cool moment for me as a kid.

Secondly, one year at the Auto Show, Toni Kukoc was signing autographs. My dad is Croatian and from Austria (moved cause of WWII) and came here in 1955. Still speaks fluent Croatian when available. So we were waiting in line and we finally got up there and my dad starts speaking to Toni in Croatian, you could instantly see Toni's face light up and they had a good conversation for a couple of minutes. It was a cool moment.

 

[brett05]

So as many know here, I am a sports card shop owner. One of our guests has been Brian Urlacher. The off season after the Super Bowl Brian calls in personally to thank us for the signing from a few years ago and asks if we would like him to come back out for another one. We agreed but Brian said, unfortunately my prices have gone up. When he quoted us the price we said he'd have to be available twice as long for us to have the signing. Brian replied that he had to charge more because he was in the Super Bowl. Without missing a beat we told Brian, "You have to realize something, you didn't win." It was a worthwhile bridge to burn.

 

[brett05]

Another story was Andre Dawson the summer before HOF induction. First off, one of the greatest signatures of all time. Secondly, he was so respectful. I have to admit, I was intimidated as he's the HAWK. However, couldn't be nicer. He came to the store, did his signing and then afterwards we all had dinner from Boston Market. He ate very healthy and when I asked him why he said his wife asked him to.

We got to talking about the work he does for the minors and he said that it was a shame that he couldn't help the non super prospects because those are the ones that could benefit from his instruction. However, the Marlins don't pay him for that. He was to tutor Hanley Ramirez and said he completely oblivious to Andre and didn't care at all what he had to say. He predicted he'd be a pre-madonna in the majors too. He's so right.

Hate the Cubs, but I gotta call him one of the greats.

 

[nwfisch]

So as many know here, I am a sports card shop owner. One of our guests has been Brian Urlacher. The off season after the Super Bowl Brian calls in personally to thank us for the signing from a few years ago and asks if we would like him to come back out for another one. We agreed but Brian said, unfortunately my prices have gone up. When he quoted us the price we said he'd have to be available twice as long for us to have the signing. Brian replied that he had to charge more because he was in the Super Bowl. Without missing a beat we told Brian, "You have to realize something, you didn't win." It was a worthwhile bridge to burn.

Judging by what I read about Brian Urlacher, I'm not surprised.

 

[brett05]

So this was pretty neat. Matt Forte was at our shop during his rookie season. He was super nice and polite to everyone from owners to babies. At the end, all the folks that help out at our signings had done their meet and greet with Matt and I had the chance just him and I to talk.

I mentioned to him that I read he was a biblical Christian and he responded "Yes sir, mother took us every Sunday." I asked him if he would sign my bible which I had in my pocket. He had the biggest smile and I think that was his favorite auto that night. The story however kind of goes on. A few weeks later, my wife drops off some stuff at Morning Star Mission in Joliet and sees that they have a Giving Tree setup. She grabs a star and we get a 6-7 year old boy. My wife picked up a couple of things and I could feel the Holy Spirit nudging me. I placed the bible in with his other gifts and a little note from me to this child I will probably never meet.

 

[brett05]

During his rookie season we had Geovanny Soto. Dressed super nice, and was polite to everyone, but had to take a lot of breaks and really wouldn't pose for pictures because his wife and baby came with. I loved it that they stayed together on an off day, but it would have been nice to get the guests to be able to take pictures with him.

We had Starlin Castro during his rookie season with his entourage including his younger brother. Fair warning, bad comments about Cub Fans coming up. His younger brother was with him and multiple Cub Fans kept bugging his brother saying how he's better than Starlin and if they could have his auto. Anyway, before the signing started, we provided dinner to Starlin and his boys. They swore like no tomorrow and we were afraid at how bad this signing was going to be with that kind of behavior. That said, when the door opened, like a light switch Starlin becomes one of the nicest people we've had at the shop.

 

[gpphat]

Living in Richmond, VA we don't have many professional athlete's who reside here. Although Justin Verlander comes in to the restaurant I used to wait tables at and he has brought Kate Upton with him too. And I have partied with Ernest Wilford a couple times, met him through another one of my friends.

My one autograph story is a few years ago I owned a cell phone store and we had a conference in Scottsdale, AZ. Motorola brought in Anquan Boldin to sign autographs, all you needed to show was that you owned a Motorola phone. At the time I didn't so I had a buddy of mine who did get in line 5 people ahead of me and after he got his autograph and met Boldin he handed me his phone so I could do the same. I have always been a fan of Boldin back from his rookie year, so I really enjoyed meeting him. Wished we had made a strong play for him when he was a free agent, but glad he went to Baltimore. So i now have a mini football with his autograph on it.