Cal Ripken Jr. Book Signing Tour Stop

Cal's book signing promotion tour (Get in the Game) made a stop in central Ohio on Tuesday.

The event was run smooth by Barnes & Noble employees, Cal's people were very nice to everyone and Cal was (as expected) great to meet. He's truly one of the games best ambassadors.

A little league team was his first guest. They had copies of his children's book to get signed. The remaining 200 people were put in groups of 10 based on the ticket numbers they received from Barnes & Noble.

He signed the inside cover page (see picture). It's a real clean signature. Cal did not sign any other items. I saw that some people had baseballs and jerseys, but the book store and his people were very upfront with everyone that he would only be signing his book.

Cal also posed for pictures if you wanted. After every three , he would stand up and his people would take a picture of you and Cal. This was great! Some guys (hello Willie Mays) won't even let you take a picture of him signing your item. But Cal gets out of his seat and walks over to each person for a photo.

I also got to meet some other signingshotline.com members at the book store. It was great to share stories and hang out with them for a bit. It was also cool to hear how many people were getting signed books for birthday, graduation and even Christmas presents. It was such a nice change than the garbage you sometimes hear at memorabilia shows where people are talking about how much they can sell the item on eBay and what their item is worth. After all - it is supposed to be a hobby.

Cal's autograph ticket on a baseball or jersey goes for about $200 at an autograph show. At this event, you had to buy a $25 book and he stands up for a photo with you. Not a bad deal!

I was hoping Billy Ripken was around too. I wanted to see if Billy would sign the spine of the book with the same special (F Face) inscription he gave to that Fleer card in the '80s!