The Autograph Connection

Last Updated: March 17, 2009

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Yes. It's been a long time since I updated my website. I'm in the process of updating. Stay tuned.
Detroit Tigers Fantasy Camp, January 28, 2006
I decided to run down to Lakeland for the second week of Tigers camp. The usual guys were at the camp (I'm out of stuff for Jason Thompson, Jim Price, and Willie Horton) but went mostly because Travis Fryman was doing the event for the first time. Travis was nice but only signed 2/6 for me. I left after the first set of campers batted for two reasons. First, the old people who were at the game were driving me crazy with their comments about every batter, reliving the good old days of seeing Mickey Lolich and Willie Horton in action back when "baseball was pure." Second, the Tigers had a female country music singer for entertainment. She sang a song before the national anthem, then sang the anthem, then sang another song after the first set of campers. I guess she was going to sing during every break in the action (and there were six teams of campers). My patience was spent. Here's my haul: Frank Tanana: 3/6 Travis Fryman: 2/6 Steve Kemp: 3/3 John Hiller: 1/1 Mickey Lolich: 1/1 Bill Freehan: 6/6 Freehan said that he would not be at Tigers spring training as an instructor this year. He says that he's retired.


PGA Qualifying School 2005, December 3rd
One of the newest PGA Tour members Dan Forsman	Nothing like a fifteen minute drive for autographing. This year's PGA Qualifying School was in my "backyard" at the Orange County National. Not a lot of crowds and I was literally the only person asking for autographs. OCN has two courses and both were being utilized for Q School. I went to the Panther Lake course, since my goals for the day were to get Dan Forsman and Larry Mize, two veterans of the tour that I somehow didn't have in my collection. I walked with Boo Weekley's group and Dan Forsman's group in the morning, then positioned myself at the scorer's trailer in the afternoon for some autographing and some observations about how grueling Q School is. After the round, there were some not so happy people (Brendan Jones threw his golf ball at the trash can and muttered expletives, for instance) and some of the younger golfers were nearly in tears after their rounds. The only person who turned me down for an autograph request was Gavin Coles who also seemed displeased at this round. A nice way to capture my day at the course was Chad Collins who signed his "game" ball and gave that to me. My favorite golfer for the day: Robert Garrigus. He jokingly asked me if I wanted just his initials or his full autograph. I told him full autograph and he added a smiley face on the card. Best response to my custom card goes to David Roesch (who was at the 2004 U.S. Open as an amateur and actually led the open for a round). David asked me if I was hoping that his autograph would be worth some money some day. I said "sure." He responded, "Well, I sure hope it'll be worth some money." That would be a reference to his hope of getting his PGA card and making some money of his own on the tour. Here's my haul: Scott Gutschewski, John B. Holmes, and Scott Hend all signed pages out of GolfWeek. Brendan Jones, Hunter Haas, Nick Watney and Franklin Langham signed the Nationwide ad that I started at the Funai (I needed Gavin Coles on that but I already mentioned his surly mood). Bob May also signed a couple of pages out of GolfWorld for me. Bill Haas signed an ad out of GolfWorld. Now I need the ad signed by his dad, PGA veteran Jay Haas. Actual cards: David Peoples, Larry Mize, Dan Forsman, Hunter Haas, Chris Tidland (2), Frank Lickliter, Alex Cejka Custom cards: Craig Lile, John Engler, Daisuke Maruyama, Matt Hendrix, John Merrick, Fran Quinn, Boo Weekley, Bill Glasson, Steve Alker, David Roesch, Deane Pappas, Mike Sposa, Ryan Howison, Danny Ellis, Robert Garrigus, Peter Tomasulo, Alex Aragon, Greg Kraft, Michael Allen, Henrik Bjornstad, Jay Don Blake, Paul Claxton, Micheal Long, Andrew McLardy, Andrew Buckle, Jason Allred, Joseph Alfieri, Jeremy Anderson, Craig Kanada, Jeff Burns, Chad Collins, Ryan Armour, Bubba Dickerson, David Mathis, Brian Bateman, Parker McLachlin, Perry Moss, Jim McGovern, Ryan Hietala, Will MacKenzie, Steve Stricker, Blaine McCallister, Bobby Gage, Jason Enloe

Funai Classic 2005, October 19

Only autographing that I like better than minor league baseball is golf. I took a vacation day from work and went to the practice round for the Funai Classic. I had three goals: get an autograph from Jason Gore, Sean O'Hair, and Ryan Moore. Mission accomplished as I got each of them on two items each.

Supposedly Tiger signed between holes on holes 1-9 on the Palms course. Unfortunately, I was on hole 3 of the Magnolia course. One of these days I might actually make an effort to get Tiger's signature but with all the stuff I have for other golfers, I wasn't about to spend all of my time chasing the Tiger. The worst part about the Funai is that it is played on two courses so not only do my feet hurt from walking around so much but I missed out on the game's best golfer because I was on a different course. Oh well.

I always enjoy the comments from the golfers who sign my custom cards. Here's a sampling:

Harrison Frazer, when he saw the photo from '99 that I used for his card: "Was I really that fat?"
Dana Quigley, after he signed the card: "I just devalued your card."
Bob Heintz, commenting on the photo that I used for his card: "Been a long time since I held up a trophy like that."
Marco Dawson: "Looks like we got a computer guru here."
Roland Thatcher: "That's got to be homemade. Nobody (meaning card company) would make a card of me."
David Hearn: "Upper Deck should be making a card of me real soon." (I guess he didn't like my card)

Here's my haul:

Full page ads or pages out of magazines with their pictures: (27)
Rich Beem, Tim Clark (2), Carl Pettersson, Greg Owen, Lucas Glover, Steve Flesch, Sean O'Hair, Bob Tway, and Vijay Singh on Byron Nelson Titleist ad (still need Ted Purdy and Doug Barron to complete), Joey Sindelar on Wachovia Titleist ad (already had Arron Oberholser on it…now complete), Jeff Sluman, James Driscoll, Robert Gamez, Charles Howell III, Scott McCarron, Mark O'Meara, Ryan Palmer, Justin Rose, Tag Ridings, D.A. Points, Patrick Sheehan Nationwide ad which includes: Kevin Stadler, Darron Stiles, Chris Anderson, Charles Warren, D.A. Points, Brett Wetterich, James Driscoll, Paul Gow, Scott Gutschewski, Michael Long

Magazine covers: (10)
Kevin Stadler (completed the July '04 Golfweek that already had his Dad's signature on it)
Jason Gore (2 different covers of Golfweek)
Peter Jacobsen
Ryan Moore (1 Golfweek, 1 Golfworld)
Retief Goosen
Stuart Appleby
Chris Dimarco
Sean O'Hair

UD or Proset cards: (25)
Alex Cejka, Dudley Hart (2), Matt Gogel, Rory Sabbatini (2), Len Mattiace (authentic fabrics card), Kevin Sutherland (authentic fabrics card), Jerry Kelly, Chris Smith (2), Craig Perks, J.J. Henry, Steve Lowery, Cameron Beckman, Briny Baird, Brandt Jobe (2), Nick Price (2), Marco Dawson, Scott Verplank, Robert Gamez, John Cook, Franklin Langham (Nike card)

Custom cards (1 each): (28)
Harrison Frazer, Dean Wilson, Notay Begay, Roland Thatcher, David Hearn, Brett Quigley, Bob Burns, Bob Heintz, Michael Allen, Jose Coceres, Kevin Na, Chris Anderson, Brett Wetterich, Will MacKenzie, Tom Byrum, Charles Warren, Michael Long, Vaughn Taylor, Paul Gow, Stephen Leaney, Marco Dawson, Craig Barlow, Todd Fischer, Geoff Ogilvy, D.J. Brigman, Tom Gillis, Steve Allan, Scott Gutschewski

Lowlights: 1. waiting for Fred Couples on the driving range (I gave up after a half hour…that guy can spend FOREVER at the range
2. Never seeing Trevor Immelman to finish a couple of multi-player items that I brought.
3. My sunscreen must be expired. It didn't work very well and I have a nice sunburn on my face.

Sean O'Hair: PGA Rookie of the Year

Ryan Moore: The next PGA superstar

Chris Dimarco

Rory Sabbatini

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