I've said here numerous times that I will not pay Emmitt's outrageous price demands for his autograph, but the emotions are now moving to the Hall of Fame blog.
Emmitt's individual prices on a full size helmet go for: $299 plus $189 for an inscription. The Hall of Fame is also selling a $500 super ticket that gets you an autograph of everyone going into the HOF this year. However, that $500 will only get you an autograph on a flat item for Jerry Rice and Emmitt Smith.
I'm a huge Dallas fan and Emmitt was one of my favorites, but I won't pay this amount.
Maybe he would sign this transcript though:
Panini is partnering with Mounted Memories and the Pro Football Hall of Fame for a $500 autograph session. Whoa!
$500 is a bit much if you ask me. In the session you get an autograph of every member of the 2010 Hall of Fame class which includes: Jerry Rice, Emmitt Smith, John Randle, Floyd Little, Dick LeBeau, Rickey Jackson and Russ Grimm.
Panini is also offering individual autograph tickets for Jerry Rice and Emmitt Smith. Emmitt's prices are the most expensive I've seen: $299 for a full size helmet and $189 for an inscription. This is nuts. $189 for Emmitt to write "HOF 2010."
I'm a big Cowboys fan and have all the other HOFers (sans Landry), but I won't be going for this one.
Click here for details.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame has a Class of 2010 autograph session on their calendar. The Festival Schedule has Sunday, Aug. 8 (time TBD) on their site.
I think the details are in the fine print. Under the listing it says: "Members of the Class of 2010 will participate in a special autograph Session. Time TBD. Class of 2010 participants TBD."
This Sunday session is separate from the Mounted Memories session on Saturday, Aug. 7.
Does this mean that Emmitt Smith, one of the most expensive players for autographs right now, may not show up?
Last year, there was one flat fee for one autograph per HOF class member. Considering Emmitt's prices, this flat fee will have significantly jump or will will occur without him in the line-up.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame is hosting an autograph event for HOFers who were first round draft picks. The event takes place Saturday, April 24.
Earlier this month I wrote about the Fred Merkle/Johnny Evers baseball going up for auction with Robert Edwards Auctions. This is a great piece of baseball history. Personally, I think it belongs in a museum for everyone to see and learn from.
I got in contact with John Evers in August, 2008 after writing an article for the Beckett web site. John Evers is the great, great nephew of Cubs Hall of Famer Johnny Evers.
We've exchanged a emails since then (he's actually a Red Sox fan now) and he allowed me to blog about our exchanges. I'm thankful for the conversations we've had and I hope to meet him in person and talk about his great, great uncle. He's done a lot of research on Johnny Evers. Here's a recap of our exchanges:
Q: How do you feel about Johnny Evers/Fred Merkle ball being auctioned?
A: I have mixed emotions about the ball being auctioned. It would never have made it to Christy's for auction to begin with if not for the bad times that feel on the Evers brothers back in the early 1990s. So much of Johnny's memorabilia was lost over the years.
Q: What is your background on the baseball? How did you get in contact with the baseball?
A: The ball itself was a company asset that we found in a box in a file cabinet in the late 1980s or early 1990s. My father and two uncles and I didn't quite know what to make of it. I did some research and connected the dots. It had written on it "Merkle, Sept 23, 1908" in handwriting. I assumed it was Johnny's handwriting. The ball itself was old and brown. Nothing else was written on it. We knew that Johnny kept some of his artifacts around but we didn't know what happened to them.
Q: What did you do with the baseball when you found it?
A: I had kept the ball for a while on my desk. When we found it may be worth something we put it in a safety deposit box.
Q: Why did the family originally sell it?
A: It was originally sold to keep the family business going: “Johnny Evers Sporting Goods Company.”
Q: Who worked for the Johnny Evers Sporting Goods Company in your family?
A: My father worked there from 1966 until 1992. Johnny Evers had a younger brother, Joe, who did a lot of the work. Johnny brought in the business by doing the speeches, school talks and such. Joe sold the equipment.
Q: Did you have any other family members play professional baseball?
A: My great-grandfather Joe Evers played only 1 game in the pros.
Q: What do you do today in upper New York?
A: I run the state food bank association in NY.
I have been waiting for this autograph a long time!
Roger Staubach came back to the Mounted Memories Canton Hall of Fame show on August 15. I got the helmet pictured here, and two other helmets signed by Roger last Saturday.
The full-size helmet pictured here is from GridIron Memories. Navy wore this helmet during the 1963 Army/Navy game. Navy Coach Wayne Hardin put the "Beat Army" and the players' names on the back of the helmets for this game. Hardin also added "Drive for Five" on the back of the players' jerseys - winning the 1963 game would be the 5th win in a row for Navy.
Navy won their 5th Army/Navy game in-a-row and Staubach finished the '63 season with 1,474 yards passing, 418 yards rushing and 15 total touchdowns to win the Heisman Trophy.
At the autograph session, Roger added the '63 Heisman inscription and the "Drive for Five" inscription. He was really cool about it, talked about the game a bit, and seemed happy that someone knew about that particular Army/Navy game.
It makes all the difference when getting in-person autographs if you have some different knowledge about the player when you meet him/her. On Saturday, Roger was cool to share stories about a game that most autograph seekers don't ask about. Another example is when I met Joe Namath at an autograph session a few years ago and talked about Alabama football, instead of the normal Jets discussions that most autograph seekers do. He talked about the Alabama/Tennessee game for 10 minutes with me. It was an awesome experience.
I'll have pictures of Roger signing my other helmets in the next few days.
I admit... I've never been to the baseball Hall of Fame. (sigh) I'd like to go, but it seems there just isn't an easy way to get there and each year I put off the trip for one reason or another. I need to push myself and just load up the car and go.
If I were going, HOF induction weekend would be the time I'd like to go. So many players seem to come back every year and sign a ton of autographs.
MAB has their Hall of Fame Spectacular this weekend. The list of players includes:
Mike Schmidt
Earl Weaver
Sparky Anderson
Johnny Bench
Tom Seaver
Jim Rice
Wade Boggs
and a tons more!
Gary Carter's picked his ultimate baseball team and it doesn't include Cal Ripken, Honus Wagner, or Derek Jeter at shortstop and he does not have Rogers Hornsby or Pete Rose at second base.
Instead Carter is picking Jeff Kent and Omar Vizquel to be on his infield. What?
Here's the rest of Gary's Long Island Ducks Blog.
What's the #1 marketing goal for a museum? To sell memberships!
I've been to several book signings and I have never been charged to:
1) walk through the doors of the store and
2) buy the book from them if I already have it.
The stores and museums I've been to for these events understand their goal is to bring people into the store/museum and get new memberships - not make a few dollars on a book or entrance into the store.
Say it ain't so! Mounted Memories is once again running the autograph session at the Football Hall of Fame this summer.
Their shows web site has "Canton Induction Weekend" listed as an "upcoming signing." Mounted Memories has run the autograph shows the last 4 years and in the process, has priced out the average collector.
The football HOF previously had "tent sessions" where you could you buy one ticket and get multiple autographs of Hall of Famers in the tents. Since MountedMemories was outsourced as the autograph vendor, the tent sessions have ended and prices have spiked. Fortunately, some Canton malls have autograph sessions throughout the weekend with prices for the average collector. Two years ago, Art Donovan was signing at one of the malls where he signed my 1952 Dallas Texans helmet. He was awesome and worth the $25!
Hopefully, the local malls will come through again with some great guests.
Parts of the Hall of Fame are moving to Sin City!
Planet Hollywood has opened the HHX-The Hoop Hall Experience on the Las Vegas Strip. This is the first time some of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is moving outside of Springfield, MA.
Major League Baseball did this a few years ago with their Baseball America tour and they also have a big showing at the All-Star game fan fests each year. Not everyone can make it to New England (especially in these economic times) so this is a great way to take the Hall of Fame to the people.
Insert your own Wilt Chamberlin memorabilia Las Vegas joke here.
I'll stop by and get some pictures when I'm in Las Vegas at the end of the month.
Baseball Hall of Famer George Kell died Tuesday in Arkansas. I don't know Kell the player, I know Kell the Tigers announcer and Kell the gentleman.
Elaine, "Who does this guy think he is?"
Keith, "I'm Keith Hernandez."
To me, Keith Hernandez is a Hall of Fame player. I believe there is more to baseball than home runs and RBI totals. Keith Hernandez was a leader with the Mets and Cardinals and oh yeah, is the best fielding first baseman in the history of the game.
I've met Keith a few times at different events. Each time he's been great with the fans.
Keith has some great stats that stack up against other Hall of Famer players. Check out this great SI.com article and tell me what you think.
"The Manster" - One of the best nicknames in sports. This is a Randy White 1984 Topps. Randy White has #54 because Tom Landry planned to groom him as his next great linebacker - #54 was Chuck Howley's number.
White never really grabbed the LB position so he moved back to his DT role and earned himself a spot in Canton, OH.
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