The Sports Info Business

When I was a kid, my friend’s father introduced me to the hobby of autograph collecting.  You notice I did not say the business of autograph collecitng because in those days, it was a hobby.  Mike, the father, had the collection passed down from his father and one day he showed me and his son Rob some of the famous autographs that had been acquired over the years.

Autographs like Abe Lincoln, Babe Ruth, and other famous folks from all walks of life were apart of Mike’s collection.  None of them, not one, had been secured for the purpose of selling them.  It was a way to chronicle history.  Something to pass down to the kids.

Fascinated by the hobby, I began my own collection, thinking one day I too might pass the hobby down to my kids.  Actually, I could not even imagine having kids at such a young age, but beyond collecting baseball cards in my pre-teen years, I thought this was a cool thing to do.  Mike showed me how to locate famous people by going to the library and researching the “Who’s Who in America” reference books.  it has been  a while but in those days it used to list the home addresses of famous people.

I started the collection and hand wrote letters to people.  Hollywood stars, athletes and a few politicians.  I knew the collection would never match Mike’s as his dad started it years ago.  I wrote to people I found interested or had significant achievements on their resume.  The collection grew over the years.  When possible, I would also collect the autographs in person.  I remember as a kid attending a dinner with my dad.  The guest speaker was Tommy Lasorda and when I asked for this autograph, he agreed, writing “To Chuck, a future Dodger.”  I am quite sure Tommy wrote this to just about everyone he met along the way, but who knew that one day this would actually come true when in 1991 I joined the Dodgers front office as the assistant director of publicity.

When I joined the executive team of a major league baseball franchise, my collecting habits waned.  The way I worked with ballplayers, the environment did not lend itself to advancing my hobby.  Do not get me wrong.  I had and still have a strong passion for sports.  I always will.  But as a team executive, this often took a back seat.  I got to know the players on a more personal level and asking for autographs did not seem like the right thing to do.

As I sit in a New York hotel and type this, it reminds me of road trips with the Dodgers.  I would be travelling with the club and sometimes we would arrive at a hotel in a new city at a crazy hour, say 4:00 a.m.  At every stop, Philly, New York, Chicago — no matter the time, there would be a handful of people waiting for the players to sign autographs.  Most of them you just knew were going to turn around and sell it to a dealer or a collector.  And this was in the days before ebay ever existed.

I do remember one day when then President George Bush(senior) was visiting the Dodger clubhouse, I could not resist and asked for an autograph.  I had never met a President of the United States before and the opportunity was certainly unique.  with secret service following his every move and one agent standing by with a secret phone to a hot line god knows where, I asked for the autograph and he President Bush gladly flipped me a signed baseball.

I am proud to say I have never sold one autograph that was given to me over the years.  Once in a while I will take out a photo album and it takes me back to my days youth, with all its glamour and its beauty.  A time of innocence for sure.  I would pass it along to my son but the environment for collecting has changed.  people charge for their autographs these days.  It is big business.

Hopefully my kids will find their own hobby and have something to one day look back upon with fond memories.