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Mantle in-person

What a great day this was...

I believe this was in '92 at the National Sports Collectors Convention in Atlanta. You can see Mays on the far right of my photo.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on March 12, 2012 at 4:37pm

Great photo, Patrick.

Just curious... did you ask for the additional inscription and did they charge for it back then? I always wondered why so few Mantle items have inscriptions.

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Permalink Reply by Patrick Batson on March 12, 2012 at 5:44pm

The moron promoter might be the uptight looking gentleman in the blue shirt. :-)

This was my FIRST ever pay-for-an-autograph event and I think I paid $35 for the autograph ticket and maybe $10 ea for the 2 16x20s.

I wish I could remember everything that happened but it went something like this:

The lady in line in front of me had a camera. I asked her if she minded snapping a shot of me when Mickey signed my pics. She agreed.

When I got to the table, Mickey signed my first 16x20 " Mickey Mantle MVP 1957". Then, he began signing the second one and had just written "No. 7" when I asked if he'd put his HR total on it. He says, "Suuurre, if I can remember what it was. What wasit...?" I said, "I believe it was 536, sir". The guy in the blue shirt interrupts and says "You get ONE inscription and that's it! Please move along!" I said, "That's fine, all I really wanted was to shake his hand anyway."

At this point, Mickey looked up at me grinning from ear to ear and wrote "536 HRs" on it, thanked me for wanting to shake his hand and, almost on cue, the lady with the camera says "Hey guys...look here!!" He laughed. I laughed. I stuck my hand out and Mickey shook it.

Blue shirt dude looks a bit miffed, doesn't he?

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Permalink Reply by Patrick Batson on March 12, 2012 at 5:45pm

They MAY have charged for inscriptions but I can't really remember. If they did, it wasn't much.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Sipe on March 12, 2012 at 5:42pm

Randy Thyberg or Gloria Rothstein

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on March 12, 2012 at 6:19pm

I believe she is deceased.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Sipe on March 12, 2012 at 6:20pm

Not sure what happened to her but I used to attend all of her shows while working for Reggie Jackson, Mark McGwire, Jose Canseco and Wally Joyner back in the late 80's. We had a wall full of game used items, signed bats, photos, baseballs, jerseys etc. Good times for sure!

I remember one of her shows became mayhem when the Billy Ripken "F_ _k Face" card came out. People were buying those cases like crazy trying to pull that card. Much different times we live in now I am afraid.