Say HEY! Willie Mays, 75 on Saturday

I would never pay for an autography myself (though I regret just a little not getting Thomson/Branca to sign together in one of the two Cooperstown trips I made), but that's a whole different world. Mays and players of his stature are getting paid extremely well; my friend is entitled to get a clear autograph for his money. I mean, that's the basic agreement.

I mean literally implying the guy won’t sign his name right? I’d be insulted too.

Don't get me wrong, I revere Mays. And I'm much more open to players from the '50s and '60s--especially African-American players--making good money at these signings; they were criminally underpaid throughout their careers. But with that stipulated, it's still a transaction where both parties should be happy.

I'm not sure what you mean...my friend doesn't imply that Mays wouldn't sign; it's that he wanted to sign with just a regular pen, which is just not what an autograph collector wants for his (guessing, and I'm not sure how far back this was) ~$100 or $150.

"autography"--I invented a new word. It's like an autograph, but more fun.

If you have 150-200 to spend on someone’s signature… maybe just take the L and don’t be a dick to Willie Mays ffs

Sorry 100-150!

I think where your buddy went wrong was in saying he was gonna get a refund. Makes him sound like a prima donna.

So if you can afford something, it's okay to not get what you thought you were paying for? What should my friend have done: said, "That's fine, sign with whatever you want--crayon will be fine"? If he doesn't get a clear signature, it's of no value to him--that's what a collector wants, even though such a mindset might not make sense to me or you.

If you read the post I made right before yours, Mays speaks pretty plainly about the things he went through as a black player to the point his teammates felt the need to sleep in his room to protect him. I think living through shit like that would make anyone pretty intolerant of lots of petty nonsense. Your friend was entitled to his autograph, he wasn’t entitled to tsk tsk a guy who’s probably gone through more shit then he’ll ever live through in his life because he preferred to use a biro.

What should my friend have done: said, "That's fine, sign with whatever you want--crayon will be fine"?

Yes.

We're going to have to disagree--a first, I know. My friend knows Mays's background very well, I assure you; he knows all about Willie Mays, that's why he wants his autograph. (His favourite player ever is Clemente.) But older players, black and white, make a lot of money signing autographs. People who watched them growing up go to those shows to get their autographs. And if the autograph is to have value--display value, investment value, whatever--something that's not going to last, or is illegible, isn't good enough. That's the understood transaction that's taking place.

Jimbeaux, I think I'd love to do business with you.

Funny thing is, gyac, my friend got under my skin once by saying something I could easily imagine you saying: told me that he loves the game for the art, and I love it for numbers. I told him that he was being really sanctimonious, and that he was missing a fundamental truth that there is art in baseball numbers.

That's the understood transaction that's taking place.

I am guessing he was using something that was fit for the purpose anyway. Your friend was just being an ass.

He quite likely wanted sign with a ballpoint pen. Which are terrible for autographs.

Let me recap as I understand it:
- your friend, a collector, wants Willie Mays’s autograph
- he pays whatever fee and joins the queue
- when he meets Mays, he asks him to sign with a sharpie, Mays doesn’t want to
- rather than accept an autograph signed with a pen, your friend decides he would rather have no autograph at all and goes to leave
- Mays, clearly annoyed, calls him back, signs with the marker but doesn’t put much effort into it
- your friend hangs around, Mays would very much like this guy out of his sight
- despite the bolded sentence, the key part, we are supposed to sympathise with your friend?

I didn't tell the story looking for anyone to sympathize with him! I actually thought it was a funny story. Only after the usual crew of three or four people materialized out of thin air to argue with me did I feel the need to defend him (which he'd find highly amusing, seeing as often he and I disagree). And yeah, if you're not happy that what you're about to get isn't what you paid for--cf. the San Francisco Giants and New York Mets--you'd rather have no autograph at all. That seems pretty basic to me.

I'm guessing my friend hung around because he wasn't satisfied with the autograph and was thinking about what he should do. I don't think there was a stipulation that people were to vacate the room immediately after their item had been signed.

Forgot it was Willie Mays/Orson Welles/Sigmund Freud day.

https://www.mlb.com/news/willie-mays-best-stats-and-accomplishments

92 is quite another accomplishment, Happy Birthday!

At the ballpark:

Always a special day when we get to celebrate Willie 🧡 pic.twitter.com/UdVWn75aI5

— SFGiants (@SFGiants) May 7, 2023

That's great. I'll say it again: dedicate the next All-Star Game to him while they still have the chance (and try to talk him into attending).

Today is Willie Mays Day (2/4/24)* and the Giants have been sharing videos with tributes:

Will Clark:

HAPPY WILLIE MAYS DAY!!! 🐐

A story about the GOAT showing up Kevin Mitchell and me: https://t.co/80vI8ZMawO pic.twitter.com/EVhVbHZ9wO

— Will Clark (@WillClark22) February 4, 2024

24 shouts out 24 🐐 @Mariners pic.twitter.com/RmVvxX0QAF

— SFGiants (@SFGiants) February 4, 2024

At 7:24 a.m., San Francisco Mayor London Breed officially proclaimed today -- 2/4/24 -- Willie Mays Day. Here's the report from City Hall and what S.F. and the @sfgiants are doing to celebrate the Say Hey Kid: https://t.co/8MyzBMillT via @sfchronicle

— John Shea (@JohnSheaHey) February 4, 2024

Will look at those when I get home. You know what my thought was when I saw this revived.

I think people have said this before, I should have prefaced with HE’S NOT DEAD

Vic Wertz, born February 9, 1925.

https://i.postimg.cc/8CkNFYp2/vic.jpg