The Beckett Blog

With the big Beckett/JSA announcement yesterday, I started thinking about autographs and autograph seekers. At Beckett, we have at least two major autograph hounds that I know of, Sam Mood and Dave Sliepka. I have never seen them in action, but I have seen their kind. Backpack and Sharpie-laden, they scout locations and can hang out  like Stage Door Johnny, ready to thrust their item toward the intended superstar or spare, in hopes of adding to their monstrous collections. I am sure there are others at Beckett who fall into this category. If I collected in the same manner, I would be so frustrated by the illegible scratchings that pass as signatures, I would be driven away.

We have at least a couple of niche autograph collectors. Tracy Hackler is hopelessly devoted to John Elway and the Dallas Desparados. He is the only guy on the planet to offer  a Babe Ruth sig for a Clint Dolezel sig and  walk away wearing a smug smile, knowing the sucker he was dealing with could have also had the Willie Mays sig had he played hardball. Our hopeless PR Director is devoted to all former,current and future Pittsburgh Steelers.

Having worked in sports and the licensed products industry the last 30 years, I have collected hundreds, maybe thousands of signed items through the years. Most are long since traded, given away or sold. I still have a couple of hundred autographed items. The only themed items are 20-25 baseballs signed by HOFers. Each item I have kept has a story attached to it that makes it meaningful to me. Here are some of my favorites in , as the say, no particular order.

1. The only autographed item I have ever paid for was purchased at a charity event in the early 80s. It is a baseball signed by 25 Hall of Famers who participated in the first Cracker Jacks Old-Timers Game in Washington D.C. I had the winning bid of $25, a buck per signature.. About half of the men who signed the ball have passed away. It is one of my favorites because of five signatures on the ball. Stan Musial was my first baseball hero. Yeah, I am that old. Travis Jackson is a distant relative. Jocko Conlan is a Hall of Fame umpire. I did a book report on his biography when I was in elementary school. It is also signed by Warren Spahn  and Luke Appling. During the game , Appling, who was 74 at the time homered off of Spahn over the 240 ft. left field wall.

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