Bob Dylan...Justin Hayward (Moody Blues)...Brett Hull...Bobby Hull...Tony Esposito...The Impractical Jokers...Nick Offerman...Billy Joe Shaver...John Prine...Junior Brown...Jimmie Dale Gilmore...pretty much anyone that played for or managed the St. Louis Cardinals in the past 30 years (and many before that).
Funny Jeff Torborg (White Sox manager) story, but you have to know who Tom Paciorek is (he's one of the nicest baseball players of all time). Torborg is signing autographs for a small group of us and he's telling stories as he goes and it's f-bomb after f-bomb until he notices a young lady standing there among us. He says "Young lady, I apologize for my language, I didn't see you standing there, I'm sorry." She says "Oh, it's OK, it's nothing I haven't heard before." He says, "No, that's no excuse. By the way, let me introduce myself, I'm Tom Paciorek ."
Mark McGwire, walking into the visiting player's entrance (he was the Cardinal's hitting coach at the time) at Wrigley Field. I asked him if he could sign a card for me. He says "Let me put my stuff down inside and I'll come back out". This is usually someone's way of saying no without saying no. A few minutes later I was talking to someone else and I feel a tap on my shoulder. I turn around and it's McGwire. "I can sign for you now", he said.
I have an authentic Riddell NFL Bears helmet signed by nearly every 1985 Bears player. I was missing Matt Suhey so I sent a letter to his house with a photo of the helmet, asking him if I could send the helmet for him to autograph. He sends me back a note saying under no circumstances should I send him the helmet, that it's far too valuable to trust in the mail. He gave me his cell number and said to call him when I was in the area and he would meet me to sign it. About two weeks later I called him and we arranged to meet at a Starbucks the next day. He not only signed the helmet, he brought me a sports drink from a company that his son just bought and we sat talking football for about a half hour.
1
