How many times have you waited more than three weeks and then stayed up until the wee hours of the morning to participate in an auction only to lose a bidding war well into the 10-minute rule?

Sure, the chase for an item can be fun, but if you really want a piece, the excitement of the challenge usually comes  only secondary to the thrill of actually obtaining an item for your collection.

If you ask any autograph collector who the nicest signer of all time would be, you would probably come up with a list of dozens of generous athletes and celebrities who all go out of their way to help collectors.

For every bad signer, there are plenty of great ones out there who continue to make the hobby so much fun. Yet there is still not many, if any, that are any better then the legendary John Wooden. The former UCLA head basketball coach, who is considered to be the greatest college basketball coach of all time, is far and away one of the greatest with the Sharpie, as well. The man has been as kind and gracious with his time toward fans as he has been successful on the court. Wooden guided the Bruins to seven national championships during his tenure and has four undefeated seasons on his resume.

Rod Carew has a Hall of Fame attitude toward the sports memorabilia industry, especially card shows, putting him on par with Harmon Killebrew and Brooks Robinson. Seriously.

Despite the serious game face he wore through his big league career, Carew has morphed into a hobby hero.

Take, for instance, his baseball cards, which date back to his 1967 Topps rookie card (No. 569). Carew has all of his cards and enjoys looking at them. He said the cards makers did a good job with his cards.

Koufax is still King

April 22 - Sandy Koufax
Last week myself and Robert V. headed down to Jupiter, Fla., for a very special signing. This was to be my first autograph session with the legendary Sandy Koufax. As I said in a previous post, Koufax is one of the few heroes that I have (Koufax, Magic, Marley, Jerry, Dylan ... those are probably my fave five). Anyway, I went into this one cautiously excited to meet the icon. You never know if one of these guys will live up to your expectations and, even if they are nice, you could always catch them on an off day.

Dave Righetti had one of the most valuable collectibles a kid could ask for – a Joe DiMaggio autographed baseball. And like any normal kid, he took it outside and played catch with it.

“We had that ball on the street. Can you imagine that?” The former Yankee All-Star and current San Francisco Giants pitching coach said.

Fortunately, Righetti still has many valuable items from his career, but his collection is minus the baseball and basketball cards he grew up with. Like many other young men, his collection was a victim of his mother’s house cleaning.

If you want to fire up a conversation or are just looking for a good old-fashioned barroom debate, the old “all-underrated” (insert sport here) team is almost sure-fire ignition. Everybody’s got their list, and chances are, they’ve been secretly waiting for someone to ask them. Seems almost any card-carrying American sports fan is spoiling for a fight when the topic turns to who gets overlooked when we talk about who the “good ones” were. Let’s face it, we all have a few guys that appealed to us for one reason or another, and we seem to hold in higher regard than anybody else. And we are perfectly willing to argue about it.

 

It was 1945 when the Washington Senators made their last serious run at an American League pennant. It had been more than a decade since they’d last captured a flag, and the Washington fans were rabid with pennant fever. The second-place Nats ran their record to 81 wins and 61 losses (and two ties) following their 5-1 win over the Indians at Griffith Stadium on Sept. 12. They were trailing the league-leading Tigers by only 11/2 games, but there was an undercurrent of desperation in the air because the
Tigers were getting significantly better as more and more players-turned-servicemen returned to their teams following the end of World War II. Hank Greenberg had rejoined the Tigers in July after four years in the Army, and any day now, right-handed ace Virgil “Fire” Trucks was expected to leave the Navy and rejoin an already impressive Tigers pitching staff.

March 18

On Sunday afternoon, I flew out to Dallas, Texas, for a private signing with Mavericks superstar Jason Kidd. This was J’s first signing as a member of Dallas, and the first I have done with him in quite some time. Monday morning, I set up and awaited Kidd’s arrival. Jason popped in at about 2 p.m. (right after practice) and knocked out the session in no time. J seems incredibly excited about being in Dallas ... as he should.

The West is as competitive as any conference in recent memory, and with the Mavericks adding Kidd, the Lakers adding Pau Gasol, the Suns adding Shaq and the Rockets never losing, it truly has become the Wild West. Kidd and I spoke about how any of those teams are a three-game losing streak away from dropping to the ninth spot (and, at the time, out of the playoff picture).

It being the week before Opening Day, I stopped at my local magazine store and purchased the 2008 edition of  Who’s Who in Baseball. I’ve been doing this now for 47 years, but this is the 93rd edition, as it says on the cover, so I am sure there are others with a longer streak going.

Of course, being a collector, I have gone back and purchased most of the earlier ones, although I must admit that the first few years had such little information that I do have some gaps in the teens. There are reprints available to fill in those gaps, but they, too, are expensive, and they don’t match the small format that would make them fit properly when aligned with the others. No red cover, either.

Palm trees swaying in the breeze. Baseballs thudding into catcher’s mitts. The distinctive “crack” echoing over green expanses.
These are the images that kept me going through the cold, dark months of December and January as I counted down the days to Spring Training, my first visit in three years. As in my previous two visits, I would be chronicling my travels for SCD, though my modus operandi would be different.