This Week on TTMCast
Co-host Troy Rutter hopes not to get Wally Pipp’ed as Drew’s wife Genne fills in as co-host for a week. Les Wolff opines on the value of listeners items, and discusses the recent CGC/JSA news.
You can give it a listen here.
TTM Returns
It’s time to write some more letters to players, as the mailbox has been slow, but we do have a couple of returns to report on this week.
Russ Grimm
The only Hall of Fame member of The Hogs has been an excellent signer. Even though I already had his rookie card signed, when I found an unsigned one for $1, I knew I had to get a second one. This took just over a month to arrive in my mailbox.
Johnny Damon
Damon was already one of my favorite players before he hit the first foul ball I ever caught, before he joined my Cleveland then-Indians, and even before he was on the fun 2004 Red Sox team. He signed these for me in four months.
…and that’s about it for this week’s returns but not the last autograph story–and this one is of the in-person variety.
The Quest for Crosby
My semi-secret sports shame is that I am a Pittsburgh Penguins fan.
We have become loathed in hockey circles over the last two decades as bandwagon jumpers: a bunch of Johnny-Come-Latelies who didn’t know the sport existed before the Crosby-Malkin-Letang triumvirate appeared post-lockout.
As a Cleveland native, anything Pittsburgh is verboten and vice versa. From 1992 to 1998, there was an inferiority complex over the fact we, as a major league city in three sports, had to be their minor league hockey affiliate. And in 2016 when I tried to get Penguins fans to support the Cavs in exchange for Cleveland fans supporting the Pens, the Pittsburghers typically told me to shut up– or two words the FCC likes even less.
But ever since I grew up as the son of a Blackhawks fan living in between the Red Wings, Penguins, Sabres, and later the Blue Jackets, it was easy to become a Penguins fan in the early 90s. They won back to back Stanley Cups the first two years I watched. They had a great group of future Hall of Famers in Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr, Ron Francis, Paul Coffey, Mark Recchi, and Tom Barrasso. And of course everyone loves some Langeisms— broadcaster Mike Lange’s colorful list of exclamations and sayings. If I had to define that for you, then shame on you fox six weeks.
The early 2000s were a hard time to be a Penguins fan. Really they were hard for me as a sports fan in general: my Cleveland Indians had three sub-.500 seasons, the Cavs were in that weird era between Shawn Kemp and LeBron James, and the less said about the Cleveland Browns the better for my psyche. The Penguins had missed three straight playoffs after getting in for eleven years in a row, and there were no expectations of improvement. We had a season where the top three scorers were Ryan Malone, Alexei Morozov, and Dick Tarnstrom.
For the love of rump roast, DICK TARNSTROM!
So when the team landed the top pick in the 2005 Draft following a year-long lockout, we hoped we were in for a new era with generational talent Sidney Crosby leading things. And as an autograph collector in Boston, I had high hopes that I could get Crosby to sign a photo or two before I graduated from Emerson and left the city for Texas in December.
Crosby tried to remain humble when signing autographs early on. Reports had said he wouldn’t sign any Penguins items during training camp and the preseason because he hadn’t made the team yet. Of course, he did make it as we all knew he would, but the season started poorly. Sure, he tallied a point in every game and got his first goal in his third game, but he was held off the scoreboard for the first time in game number seven.
Game eight was in Boston and it drew every collector in the area down to the Nine Zero Hotel where the team stayed. This was already a surprise: the team typically stayed at The Lenox in previous years, but changed it up on us. October 21, they came in and Crosby wanted nothing to do with signing. Across the entire weekend– from getting off the bus on arrival, to taking a cab out to dinner, to the cab’s return, to getting on the bus for morning skate the next day, to getting off the bus after morning skate, to getting on the bus at game time– I saw him sign for two kids in his jersey, and heard of him signing through a taxi window for someone who chased it for two blocks and caught it at a red light. So I was 0 for 6 to start on him. Five nights later, the Pens’ got their first win. Maybe that’s all we would need for him to loosen up a bit next trip.
On November 3, the Penguins played at the Islanders. Sidney had his first two-goal game bookending a 5-1 win, and we knew there was a great chance that the Penguins would reserve ice time somewhere in Boston for a practice on the fourth. The team also moved over to the Park Plaza Hotel for this trip, a rare moment of a team changing hotels in-season. They had flown in the night before, but after going for the Detroit Pistons in the morning, I planned to spend most of the next 36 hours hounding this team until I got my Sidney Crosby autograph.
Sidney started picking up the pen this trip: several times I saw him sign for at least a couple people, but every time I got close, it was “Sorry guys, gotta go,” and he went into the hotel or got on the bus. The team practiced at Northeastern University’s Matthews Arena… and again, when he got close to me, it was the same “Sorry guys, gotta go.” When two of those happen with him right about to sign your photo, it’s hard not to take it personally. This trip, I went 0 for 8, for a nice total of 0 for 14.
I tried a TTM to his home in Canada in 2007, and got a preprint and a “Sorry, too busy” form letter: now 0 for 15. I did eventually get what might be a real sig via mail to his Pittsburgh address in 2008 (though the 87 in his sig looks very different from any I’ve seen).
And at that point, I kind of gave up. I needed him for my 2005-06 Upper Deck Rookie Class set and I knew I would have no chance in-person. Living in Wichita Falls at the time, it was a two-hour drive to the Penguins’ yearly game in Dallas, and once I got there I didn’t know what hotels teams stayed at. Even after moving to the Dallas area, I quickly learned that the main hockey hotel here was almost impossible due to overzealous security and ridiculous policies.
But I still remained a fan of his despite the frustration of him becoming one of my autograph white whales. I enjoyed watching him help deliver my team three Stanley Cups. The Olympic Gold winning goal in 2010. Nearly every NHL award that he could possibly win. I named my cat after him, for Spiderman’s sake!
A friend had one for sale or trade, but seeing as it’s a PSA-slabbed signed Crosby rookie card I knew I wouldn’t have any way of affording it or even packaging a trade together. Last season, I tried that impossible hotel and the scouting report was proven correct: we were stuck 200 feet from the bus and only one fourth line forward came down near us to get his pregame coffee. But at the same time, if I don’t try, I can guarantee it will never get signed: that 0.1% chance is better than absolute zero.
And it was with that in mind that I took Friday off, put on my Jaromir Jagr jersey and the Penguins Starter hat I’ve had since high school, and went downtown with my friend Chris. We had heard they were at a different hotel so we braved the rain and tried our luck. We didn’t see any bus or any graphers around, so a little after 4:00, we took a lap around the building– and lo and behold we saw a bus and a few graphers near it.
Kris Letang came out and didn’t even look at us. Nor did Pierre-Oliver Joseph.
And then the team security guy walked out with Crosby just behind him. I heard one collector ask “Sid, would you mind signing for us?”
And he came over, picking up a paint pen and signing a couple Funko boxes, some pucks, some photos. Chris and I had to dash around the back of the collectors in front as he wasn’t going to come back to us. The team security guard said “Okay guys, he’s gotta go,” as Chris mentioned that his 10 year old nephew couldn’t come due to a hockey tournament. Sidney heard it, and signed his card.
And as he signed, again the security guy spoke up: “Last one guys, that’s it.”
Not again. Please. No. NOT AGAIN…
With the failures of decades ago flashing before my eyes, I tossed up the Hail Mary: “Sid, I’ve been trying to get you for 15 years now!”
And the Sharpie hit my card. A quick sig, but one that is still better than some I’ve seen from him lately.
He handed the pen back to me and got on the bus. No one else from the team signed the rest of the time but I didn’t care.
I finally got my Sidney Crosby autograph.
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