It was at an old-timers game in the mid-1970's at Arlington Stadium, then home of the hapless Texas Rangers. The old-timer teams were to be the old St. Louis Cardinals VS. old American League stars.
Before the game, many of the old-timers signed autographs. My family were seated some rows behind the first base dugout, so I had a good chance to get some signatures because guys were signing just below us.
I had seen a roster in the newspaper of the players who would be involved, so I had had the foresight to bring along some of my best cards, and had crammed them in a rigid plastic container.
Oh, there's Stan Musial! I hurried down to where Stan stood signing, lots of kids reaching over the rail to him w/ their programs, etc. I reached into my plastic container & pulled out my boffo 1953 Bowman color card of Stan & eagerly held it out to him.
Reaching past my card to snag some other kid's lousy 3x5 index card to sign, Stan wrecked my card with a clumsy elbow, leaving a permanent wrinkle. "CURSES!," I thought, as I reeled back my arm and examined the card . . . which never got signed; nor was Stan ever aware of what he had so carelessly done.
Well, the evening wasn't a total loss. Though I got none of my cards signed, for I was then shy of exposing any more of them to clumsy baseballers, I got many signatures on my program of old Cardinals & ALers. Also, Billy Martin, who may have been managing the Rangers at the time, took ground balls at second base and would, with tremendous coordination for a man his age, skim his glove up in the air and knock down line drives that were out of his reach, which I thought was quite cool.
Anyhow, I don't hold any real, nagging grudge against Stan the Man; but I will say he sure had a funny way of wagging his rear end when he was at bat . . .
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