SoCal Autograph Odysses

It has been awhile since I tried getting an autograph through the mail, and as mentioned before I usually do a pretty thorough job of researching which sports figures are more apt to send an autograph back.  I also delve a little deeper than that and look into who really signs the stuff sent to them, or who possibly uses a "ghost signer".  Ghost signers are the people that don't actually sign the items you send themselves, but have someone else do it for the.  One athlete rumored to do such a thing is Mike Schmidt, so although people will receive their items in the mail, the signature looks nothing like the signature you'd get from Mr. Schmidt in person.  All this being said, I've been five for five in getting authentic items back in the mail from athletes.  They include Dirk Nowitzki, Ryne Sandberg, Wade Boggs, Al Kaline, and Bobby Doerr.  This time around, I decided to send a couple of 8x10 photos to Patriots head coach and one of the greatest of all time...

Through a family friend of mine that happens to be a friend of the Strasburg family, I was able to land a signed Major League baseball signed by Stephen.  It was an awesome surprise gift for her to be able to finagle this ball for me, and in kind I gave her a signed card from NHL great Mario Lemieux.  The ball is in black ink and not the preferred blue, but it's on the sweet spot and I have zero complaints. Not a glamorous photo of this particular ball, I know.  This is how I received it, but now it's in one of my two cases and displayed nicely. As always, thank you for reading. 

I saw a few months back that all time NBA great and "The Logo" himself, Jerry West, would be appearing at a signing event hosted by Honabach and Sons.  At the time of purchasing my tickets, the location was yet to be determined.  As we got closer to the event, I found out the signing was to take place at the Holiday Inn Express near the Ontario Airport.  That's a good hour and fifteen minute drive (at a minimum) for me.  Nonetheless, this past Saturday was the day of the event, at which I showed up a good two hours early, picked up my will call tickets, and waited in my car until the actual start time crept up.  I was prepared with an 11x14 photo that resembles the NBA logo itself, figuring it was an apt photo to choose.  I lined up in the VIP line about 15 minutes before the noon start time, at which point Mr. West was finishing up his photo ops with some fans.  He began signing immediately afterward, and I snapped a couple of photos.  ...

A couple months back I saw that NBA All-time great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar would be signing autographs at the Puente Hills mall in an event hosted by Honabach and Sons. In a situation where I would have to drive 80 miles each way, I always have to make sure it's a player I truly covet or would add a lot to my collection.  With Kareem probably being a top 5 NBA player all time, I didn't think I could pass up the opportunity so I purchased tickets.  The day of the signing was this past Saturday June 24, so I made the trek up from Oceanside and got to the mall about 90 minutes before the signing was to take place.  Luckily, I had purchased the ticket right when the signing was available to the public, so I ended up with "VIP" tickets which in essence guarantee you a spot in the first 50. That meant I could show up to the event, pick up my will call tickets, then goof around in the mall until the signing began. My son and I decided to grab a quick bit to eat, then got in l...

There is an annual Celebrity golf tournament hosted in San Diego that is now hosted by former San Diego State running back and NFL hall of famer Marshall Faulk.  Previous iterations of this event were hosted by Drew Brees, and prior to that, Stan Humphries.  I first began attending these events about 15 years ago since they were very easy to meet sports celebrities and add to my autograph collection.  This was the first time I had gone in probably ten years, but previously had so much success I figured it was worth going and seeing what would happen in the current version of the tournament.  Players like Mario Lemieux, Joe Morgan, Ozzie Smith, Grant Fuhr, Rollie Fingers, Deacon Jones, Drew Brees, Jeremy Roenick, Sterling Sharpe, Stan Mikita, and many more had signed autographs at these events for me before.  For more in depth details about the history of this event, and to see which celebrities attended this year, I suggest going  here . Instead of rehash...

As mentioned on a few of my previous threads, I have recently become interested in the idea of obtaining autographs through the mail.  There is a quite a bit of research involved in deciding which former athletes to send my items to, as I don't want to be spending money or using unsigned items on guys I have little to no chance of receiving anything from.  So far, this has paid off because up until this point I was 4/4 by sending things to Dirk Nowitzki, Ryne Sandberg, Wade Boggs, and Bobby Doerr.  You can read about all of those ventures and what I got signed by looking back on this blog.  Back on the 17th of January, I decided to mail an 8x10 photo to former Major Leaguer and Hall of Famer Al Kaline.  I chose a photo rather than my preferred choice of official baseball since I read on forums that Mr. Kaline won't sign baseballs through the mail.  As such, I found a photo I thought was cool, and sent it to the proper address using the correct channels....

I recently received a ball from a private signing Orange County Sports Cards held with Nolan Ryan.  I always keep an eye on upcoming signings both of the public and private variety.  If the price is right, I don't mind adding people to my collection, particularly major league baseball hall of famers.  I actually placed my order a few months ago, and the ball came in the mail Christmas Eve, as a nice little gift.  As you can see in the photo below, I chose the Hall of Fame baseball to be signed underneath the HOF logo, as opposed to a regular ball signed on the sweet spot.  The ball is also authenticated by Ryan's company.