Autograph

Sam King of the Sunday Advocate in Baton Rouge, La., tells a story of a time he asked ESPN announcer Dick Vitale for three autographs. As Vitale rapidly wrote them out, he asked King what he was going to do with them. "He turned a bit red, wadded them up and tossed them on the floor of the Pete Maravich Assembly Center when I told him I could trade them for one autograph of Tim Brando," King recalled, referring to another TV broadcaster. King enjoyed his little joke, which he played in different versions on former baseball manager Tom Lasorda and bass fisherman John Fox, and was entertained by the celebrities' colorful responses.

Former heavyweight champion Hasim Rahman sat on a makeshift stage made to look like a red-and-gold boxing ring at a Baltimore County mall yesterday and took on all comers. Rahman's first visit to the area since losing his title two weeks ago brought a stream of autograph-seekers and well-wishers hoping to get a piece of "The Rock" at Security Square Mall. Kids wanted to meet a celebrity. Adults wanted autographed memorabilia to pad sports collections. As for Rahman, he wanted to deliver a message to students just as city and county schools are set to open this week.

Whose autograph would you most like to get at Ravens training camp? If he were to be at training camp, Dick Cass, president. Giving a kidney to a friend, this man is a real hero. John Ryder Timonium I would like to get Reggie Bush's autograph at Ravens training camp. Maybe it is the excessive heat and I'm dehydrated, but you didn't say that this answer had to be based in reality. Wishful thinking. Carla Corroto Baltimore Brian Billick, preferably on a letter of resignation. Tom Morton Columbia NEXT QUESTION Do you fault the Orioles for not making a trade yesterday?

Before we get into the whole business of how I got Tony Danza's autograph, let me say that I've never understood the obsession some people have with getting a celebrity or an athlete to sign something. This came to mind after reading the front-page story in The Sun Monday about all the fans who show up at the Ravens' training camp for players' autographs. Some autograph seekers, the story said, get there at 3 in the morning. Three in the morning! If I'm dragging myself out of bed at that hour, it's for something important like the Grand Slam breakfast at Denny's, not to swat at mosquitoes on some darkened practice field just so I'll be in position to scream at Ray Lewis for his autograph.

The Negro League Ballplayers Association is sponsoring its first Charity Baseball Card and Autograph Show to benefit association members. It will be held April 22 and 23 at the Carrolltown Center Mall in Eldersburg, on Liberty Road one mile east of Route 32. Hours are 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. April 22 and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. April 23.Members of the Negro League Ball Players Association expected to attend are Monte Irvin, Walter "Buck" Leonard, Max Manning, Stanley...

An estimated 300 people waited in line Tuesday evening at Barnes and Noble in Bel Air to get an autograph from Baseball Hall of FamerCal Ripken Jr., who was signing copies of his newest book released Monday. The book, "Super-sized Slugger," is the second in what for now is a three-part series. Many of the fans, young and old, sported Orioles hats, jackets and shirts as they waited in a line that snaked around the building. The manager at Barnes and Noble expected between 300 to 350 books would be sold by the end of the signing.

Given the choice of attending a bachelor's party or meeting his Orioles hero, Bryan Erdman didn't blink. "I bailed on the party," Erdman, 28, of Parkville said. Instead, he stood in line Friday night at Camden Yards with several hundred fans to get autographs of four players from the 1989 Orioles, the "Why Not" club that nearly won a pennant. For an hour before the Orioles game, fans hobnobbed with outfielder Mike Devereaux, catcher Mickey Tettleton and pitchers Dave Schmidt and Dave Johnson, reminisced about that glorious summer and gathered autographs.

Because of lingering symptoms of a concussion suffered 16 months ago, Orioles second baseman Brian Roberts most likely will be skipping next weekend's FanFest at the Baltimore Convention Center. A club source said it was “highly doubtful” Roberts, who played in just 39 games in 2011 because of the concussion, would be at the Jan. 21 event but it “is not completely out of the realm of possibility.” Roberts was originally slated to be there, and vouchers for one of his two joint autograph sessions had sold out. But he recently informed the club that, because he has been advised by doctors the event could cause further stress, he would not be attending.

On the day when the really big news in major-league baseball was the Yankees' signing of Johnny Damon - just the latest big-name player to jump for big bucks from one big-payroll team to another - the game lost a man who proudly put in 37 seasons with the same club. Elrod Hendricks, who died Wednesday just a day shy of 65, was a true rarity, and not just because, in his playing days, he was a left-handed-hitting catcher who knew how to handle pitchers. He was an old-school gentleman who, as the Orioles' bullpen coach since 1977, set a standard for loyalty unlikely to be matched in the game today.

Crowds gathered throughout Cooperstown yesterday, but nowhere were the bodies packed tighter than around booths where baseball greats signed memorabilia. The hunt for Ripken autographs became so intense that when the inductee's golf cart neared a fence bordering a public road yesterday, dozens of people appeared within seconds asking for some Sharpie love. One enterprising homeowner charged $10 a head for anyone who wanted to stand in his yard near the edge of the golf course. Dozens paid the fee happily, perhaps realizing that they would pay five times as much at one of the autograph booths in town.