In my years of covering sports, attending games, interviewing athletes and coaches, watching my son deal with it for over a decade, I’ve never quite understood the appeal of getting an autograph. Signing a hat or a notebook or a baseball or a woman’s chest just didn’t seem like a big deal to me. John still gets baseball cards to sign.
I’ve been very lucky to meet and chat with a wide range of stars over the years, Muhammad Ali, Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Hank Aaron, Reggie Jackson, Randy Moss and on and on. Never occurred to me to ask them to sign something.
The first autograph I ever asked for was at Fenway Park when I was a kid. Upon leaving the park, I saw a bunch of kids lined up at the fence guarding the player’s cars. And some player was standing there behind the fence — you couldn’t really see who it was through the cracks — but there were a bunch of kids shoving their programs in and he was signing them.
I slid my Red Sox program in and a moment later it came back signed. It bore an inscription -a hastily scribbled “Tony Conigliaro.” I think I still have it somewhere.



As we know now, signing autographs is big business. If you take a close look at the St. Louis Sports Collectors show set for the day after my birthday, August 24, you can get a Will Clark autograph on a card for $45, or shell out $99 for a premium signature (which maybe means you can actually read it) another $99 for signing a jersey or bat or an fs (not sure what that is.) Mail order prices are cheaper.
And the pricing is interesting, Mickey Rivers is $19, Turk Wendell is $8, somebody named Gary Bennett is $9, Gregg Jeffries and Todd Zeile are $12 each for a card. The last two are not there until November so they can rest their fingers through the summer. My friend Jim Gosger STILL gets baseball cards to sign and he retired in 1974, over 50 years ago! (He charges but donates the money to St. Jude.)
When I was at the SABR (Society for American Baseball Research) National Convention, I rode out to the airport with a 60-ish guy who was so excited that he got 82-year-old Ferguson Jenkins to sign a couple of baseball cards for him. Why?
I have to admit, I don’t understand the appeal. And I’ve watched my son stand outside the dugout both in the majors and minors signing for kids, adults alike. Why? If you go on EBay, you can buy a broken bat signed by John for $149! For a broken bat?
This has been a sweet source of income for these retired athletes. There are card shows all over the country and fans flock to get a signature on a card or photo or bat or ball. I recently met a guy just outside of Kansas City who has the most phenomenal collection of signed baseballs and memorabilia from some of the game’s greats - a baseball signed by Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio. He has Bob Feller and Willie Mays and George Brett and Harmon Killebrew and others. They’re all proudly displayed on the walls of his man cave, a stunning collection that is undoubtedly worth a small fortune. But why? Why do these signatures mean so much to so many people?
Now, I’ve done several book signings and always been delighted to do it. It doesn’t seem odd to me to sign a copy of a book I’d written and I’m always honored to personalize it for whoever is kind enough to buy it. That makes sense to me.
But begging or paying for a signed baseball or photo or bat from a guy who’s famous or even semi-famous like Mickey Rivers, why would you care? But many do.
The only autograph collectible I have is a Ring Magazine record book that I brought with me when I went to Canastota, New York some years ago, the hometown of former middleweight and welterweight champion Carmen Basilio and where they decided to put the Boxing Hall of Fame. Really. I wrote a story for Boxing Illustrated Magazine that Bert Randolph Sugar STILL hasn’t paid me for. Oh, well...
I brought my friend Mark Fountain with me and we talked — and even filmed — all sorts of boxing legends. We met Archie Moore, who re-enacted knocking down Rocky Marciano for us (it’s on film!), Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard’s trainer Angelo Dundee, Arthur Mercante (ref for the Ali-Frazier I), rode in a golf card with Gene Fullmer, chatted with Marvelous Marvin Hagler and Floyd Patterson.
And at one point, I was holding the book, standing and chatting with Hagler (I’d covered some of his early fights, so he sort of recognized me) when he asked to look at the Ring Record Book.
Not wanting to come out of retirement myself, I said “Sure, Marvin” and gave him the book. He started thumbing through it, looking up his own record, of course. Vito Antuofermo, the former middleweight champ whose face could melt a clock (and I mean that in the nicest possible way) was standing next to us and Marvin spoke up.
“Hey, Vito, you dumb ass. Where was you on November 30, 1979?”
Antuofermo turned and shrugged. “How the hell would I know? I’m not sure what today is.”
Hagler laughed. “It was when you fought me in Vegas and I got so damn tired of beating your ugly face, you made it to the 15th round and they called it a bullshit draw!”
We all laughed. Then Marvin asked, “Do you want me to sign this?” I honestly hadn’t even thought about asking him. But again, you don’t say “No” to Marvin Hagler so I said sure. So it started. And everybody was there.
If you look closely, you’ll see autographs from ex-heavyweight champ Larry Holmes, the great light heavyweight champ Bob Foster, who was funny, the old lightweight champ Ike Williams, lovable ex-middleweight champ Gene Fullmer, the shy ex-heavyweight champ Floyd Patterson, “Marvelous Marvin Hagler” (biggest signature on the page), ex-lightweight champ Carlos Ortiz, the man of the hour, Carmen Basilio, basking in hometown glory and ex-heavy and light heavyweight champ Evander Holyfield (his ears were intact, then) and he was my height!
On the other page, the great light heavyweight champ Archie “Mongoose” Moore is how he signed it, ex-heavyweight champ George Foreman (a weird cryptic signing) and former champ Thomas “Hit Man” Hearns, a personal favorite of mine, rounded out the collection. Quite a row of champions.
Now again, they signed the back pages of the Ring Record Book instead of the front but I thought it judicious not to correct these men who made a living with their fists.
You won’t see this on EBay. That’s a promise.
(THIS IS THE INTERVIEW, ONE OF MY FIRST POSTS ON SUBSTACK, MEETING ARCHIE MOORE. THE SOUND ISN’T GREAT — IT WAS NOISY — BUT EVERYTHING HE SAID IS IN THE BODY OF THE STORY)
https://johnnogowski.substack.com/p/archie-moore-remembers-rocky
I feel you John. But I am not much of a collector in general and that includes baseball cards.
I’m happy to say that I have Willie Stargell’s. It was through a promotion. In person would have been awesome, but growing up as a Pirates fan … it’s all good!