My most embarrassing moment in nearly 18 years covering sports came in 1980 at RFK Stadium in Washington.
I was covering a Washington Diplomats game for a small suburban paper that no longer exists, and my sister asked me to get an autograph for her. The player was aging Dutch superstar Johann Cruyff, and even though I knew not to ask players for autographs for myself, for some reason I said I would.
So after the game, I interviewed Cruyff and then asked for the autograph. He did it, but the look he gave me showed disdain for my total lack of professionalism.
It never happened again.
In fact, eight years later, working in Colorado, I laughed at the unprofessionalism of a young reporter who asked Larry Bird whiny, silly questions and then asked him for an autograph.
So I never asked for an autograph again, and there were some fairly amazing people I met that I wouldn’t mind having their signatures. So as a lifelong baseball fan, about 25 years ago I started buying signed balls, some on eBay and others at stores. Occasionally the chance came to get some quirky ones, baseballs signed by non-baseball people.
So I’ve got Billy Crystal, Grace Slick, Samuel L. Jackson, Jane Fonda, John Elway (who actually played in the minors) and the King. No, not Elvis, but the legendary Richard Petty.
But the best part of my collection is ballplayers. I’ve got 19, maybe 20, of the 30 members of the All-Century team on balls, and one other on an autographed bat.
The one on the bottom is the best ball I have, or would be if there wasn’t an 80 percent chance it’s a fake.
Sinclair Oil had a contest giveaway in the late ’30s with the prizes a couple of hundred baseballs signed by Babe Ruth. My ball is one of those, although it’s probably not one of the 20 percent Ruth himself actually signed.
The top row of the above box has six All-Century types and a seventh who should have been. Sandy Koufax, Johnny Bench, Mickey Mantle, Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio and Ernie Banks were all on the squad and Tom Seaver should have been. The other two on the row are Ralph Kiner and Duke Snider, who with Seaver are all in the Hall of Fame.
The second row has four (and a second signature from a fifth, along with another that it’s shocking he wasn’t on the team. Brooks Robinson, Bob Gibson, Hank Aaron and Stan Musial made it, and for some reason the Aaron ball has a Banks signature. Rickey Hendersoln should have made it.
The third row has four more. Cal Ripken Jr., Joe Morgan, Nolan Ryan and Warren Spahn are on there, while Jim Palmer, Whitey Ford and Steve Carlton are all enshrined at Cooperstown.
The fourth row has three more All-Century types — Mike Schmidt, , Yogi Berra and Willie May — and Hall of Famers Carl Yastrzemski and Carlton Fisk. Row five has three more Hall of Famers in Bob Feller, Ferguson Jenkins and Bill Terry.
And then there’s the Babe.
I only have a few bats, but one is Pete Rose from the All-Century team. Another may be in Hall someday — Washington’s Juan Soto, for whom I also have a signed jersey.
But no Johann Cruyff.