If you’re not a baseball fan but an autograph collector, you have to at least appreciate getting a baseball signed on the sweet spot. That white background, and a ballpoint pen signature…while you smell hot dogs in the background.

The two baseballs I regret not buying are Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays. At a baseball card show, a guy was selling a Mantle ball for $125. I…

Heart is one of my favorite bands.  I’ve seen them a few times in the past, but it has been 20 years since I last saw them so I was excited to see that they were playing at the Hard Rock Rocksino.  I jumped on Ticketmaster as soon as tickets went on sale and I scored 2^nd row…

The Confederate flag. I’m not a fan.

I remember 25 years ago, meeting a friends husband from South Carolina. He had one on the back of his Army jacket. We had this debate about it, and I could totally see his points for having pride in it. I didn’t have a dog in the fight, so I didn’t debate the topic with him for that long. I was also younger, and my debate skills…

Summer is finally here, and so far it's been great!  I got back from Italy and Spain a few weeks ago, what an experience to see the Colosseum and priceless works of art.  Oh to get a Da Vinci autograph!

Anyway, the day I returned home, Hall and Oates were playing in Akron.  I decided to try for them before the show.  There was one other collector there so the…

I’m lucky that Rush has never been one of my favorite bands. Otherwise, it would’ve killed me that I never got to get their autographs. Now, don’t get me wrong. And all you Canadians that can’t get enough of them…I’m not saying I dislike them. I own three of their albums. I’ve seen them in concert twice and have a Rush T-shirt (although I only bought it because it was…

The Tom Brady situation is back in the news (both with the commissioner reviewing the case and his few scenes in the movie Ted 2). Yet instead of dissecting whether or not a 4-game suspension was too harsh for one of the NFL’s best quarterbacks, I found this a much more interesting story.

One of the balls used in that famous game is up for auction on July 17^th. Bidding will be starting at $25,000 – and it’s a must-have for any Patriots fan on your list.

This…

Harper Lee, the author of the classic “To Kill a Mockingbird,” was back in the news recently. Her second, much anticipated book “Go Set a Watchman” which deals with the characters 20 years later, is set to be released soon. Usually that makes collectables sell for a lot more. Often times a movie adaptation of a book will spike interest also.

Christie’s in New York…

My wife likes to play the slots, I like to play poker and table games.  The Hard Rock Rocksino does not have table games so my only interest in going there is to see a show, or to get a free buffet.  The plus side of her gambling there is that they will send her comp tickets to shows if they aren't selling well.  I will pretty much see anyone for free and have seen…

Here in my hometown, there’s been a neat little discovery. For a music lover like me, it would be the equivalent of another discovering that nice painting your great grandmother always had hanging in her living room, was actually a Monet.

A music studio in in San Diego, Marc Intravaia’s Sanctuary Art and Music Studio, had a 1962 Gibson J160e guitar. They played it…

It was always fun listening to former prosecutor and bestselling author Vincent Bugliosi on various talk shows. He died at 80, and I couldn’t help think it was after hearing this latest bit of news: there’s an autographed copy of the White Album signed by the Manson family.

For those that don’t know, Bugliosi was the guy that successfully prosecuted Charles…

May is always a busy month for me.  Track keeps me very busy- I had 2 athletes make it to Regional’s and one just missed advancing to the state meet.  I also coordinate graduation at my school which is also hectic.  So autographs and shows are put on the backburner.

However the past couple of weeks, I have more than made up for it!

I did get to…

Johnny Manziel can’t seem to stay out of trouble. The Heisman Trophy winning quarterback was drafted 22^nd by the Cleveland Browns. They traded to move up, hoping they had their franchise QB. Rumors were that he was a bit of a head-case and liked to party. He promptly ended up in rehab, and I’m guessing the Browns are now regretting this whole thing.

While at…

I went to the George Thorogood / Brian Setzer co-headlining tour stop in New York City last night; both put on a great show. Autograph-wise, I was hoping to get Brian's signature on the two Stray Cats LPs that I have signed by Slim Jim Phantom and Lee Rocker already. Alas, that didn't happen—apparently he split as soon as his opening set was done—but I did get George, and it…

There’s a venue here in San Diego (well, Solana Beach), that has the best concerts. It seats about 600, the acoustics are fabulous for no matter what type of music is being played…and it’s been around since 1974. The amount of bands I’ve seen here is in the triple digits, easy.

Since they get a lot of big names looking to play smaller venues, those tickets sell out…

David Letterman has only been retired a few days and he already seems to be enjoying his days off. The long-time race fan (and team owner) was at the Indianapolis 500 and of course, he was asked to sign autographs. He obliged for many fans before the race started.

I have two Letterman autographs. One is on a Late Night T-shirt. I bought it at a…

So, as the week is about to start, thought I’d write about some of the thoughts and stories popping into my brain. It’s almost 1 a.m., so forgive me if it’s not as clever as it seemed late at night, right before bedtime.

Since the guitar George Harrison played (I wrote about it a few weeks ago in a blog) recently went at auction for almost $500,000, I couldn’t help but…

Aloha-

Within my collection of my Bainbridge Colby documents I have a pile of prototype proposals and the full schematics for a braking system on trains dated 1930 !!!!!  Now our Government and our railroad officials denounced the idea.   However South Africa and several small stretches of RR lines actually introduced this system and it worked well.

In the past couple years the news has been reporting that there are recent attempts to develop and build just such a system acting…

I thought about doing a blog with a bunch of jokes that came to mind. Since the announcement was made about Tom Brady being suspended for four games for deflating footballs against the Colts, I immediately thought about Pete Rose and autographs. There was the time an entrepreneur got Rose to sign a number of baseballs with the inscription “Sorry I bet on baseball.”

The…

UPDATE: B.B. King passed peacefully yesterday, May 14.

I've been sad since hearing the news, that B.B. King is in hospice care. It was confirmed by a statement by King on his website, …

It was another good week for getting some autographs in Northern Ohio.  Last week, Jay Leno performed in Cleveland.  I used to get Rolling Stone magazine back in the day and I kept some of them from the late 80's and early 90's.  I happened to keep the one with Jay and Arsenio Hall on the cover, so why not try to met him?…