Best Autographs You Ever Got

While reading the baseball card thread I started thinking about some of the best autographs I got as a kid, mostly hanging outside the visitor's locker room at the Vet: Nolan Ryan, Bruce Sutter, Dale Murphy.

I once got to go inside the Phillies' locker room and was a bit surprised when a naked Kent Tekulve strolled by and volunteered to sign a program ...

Anyone else have a cherished signature and/or experience from your childhood days, before you became a hardened sportswriter? I'd like to hear 'em. Doesn't have to be baseball ...

 

Autographs were never my thing, but our 30-year-old agate clerk likes to buy a bunch of minor league baseball cards off the Internet and wait outside the clubhouse to get them signed.

 

Re: Best Autographs You Everr Got

Rocket Richard when I was 12. Beautiful readable autograph which I still have.

I've never felt the need to collect another one since.

 

Brook.

 

Bruce Springsteen

Ron Guidry, Mickey Rivers, and a couple of other Yankees from those Bronx Zoo mid-70s teams.

 

Jones - went to his Barnes Noble appearance.

 

I once paid $8 for Jose Canseco during his Bash Bros. Days to sign his rookie baseball card for me at a card show ... always wondered if it was really his twin brother Ozzie ...

 

I know I'm old.
I had a fountain pen.

 

My grandmother used to work in the same building as owned by one Gaylord Perry. Have his autograph on a baseball ... never asked for it, but still display it. No spit, either.

I also have the back of a bank statement sheet with the autographs of Johnny Dawkins, Tommy Amaker and Quin Snyder. A day more than 20 years ago that my mother and I won't soon forget. And Dawkins didn't seem too upset about turning around to sign ... that was the one I really wanted.

 

Ernie Harwell.

Was inside old Tiger Stadium one time as a kid. Group of fans were by the Tigers' dugout, waiting for autographs. Ernie appears and a fan gives him a box of homemade chocolates, which he proceeds to start handing out to the fans that were around him, including myself.

He signed his first book. More recently, he's appeared at a local library and I've got his other books signed then.

 

Did you also get the autograph of the booster giving them the money?