Two Hall of Famers: Marichal and Cepeda

A great source for meeting sports celebrities and obtaining their autographs is by attending sports card and memorabilia shows, also referred to as "baseball card shows". These shows have a multitude of dealers offering up everything from baseball cards, autographs, bats, helmets, photos, collecting supplies and anything else that is associated with sports and collecting.

Moeller High School in Cincinnati, Ohio is the site of one of the longest running shows in the country, as it has been held every weekend after Thanksgiving for nearly 20 years. Moeller is known as the high school attended by several Cincinnati-area athletes who went on to play Major League Baseball including Barry Larkin, Ken Griffey, Jr. and Buddy Bell. I remember just a few years ago when it was commonplace to drop $200-$300 dollars each day of this weekend-long show, with high caliber, quality memorabilia being offered by dealers for sale. It was a treasure hunt, uncovering rare and one-of-a-kind items that I had never even seen before! The autograph guests making appearances usually, but not always, would have a Cincinnati connection. Past autograph guests signing autographs, for a fee, have included Frank Robinson, David Concepcion, Ed Bailey, Joey Jay, Bob Purkey, Richie Ashburn, and Bob Feller. Over the course of a typical three day weekend, seven or eight sports celebrities would make appearances throughout the weekend to sign autographs. The times have changed and now this show is nothing more than a glorified swap meet. The items offered for sale at this most recent show were nothing out of the ordinary and certainly not anything that can not be purchased any day of the week on any one of the on-line auction sites. I was unable to find even a single dealer in attendance this weekend who specialized in vintage, autographed sports cards, my main area of interest.

The autograph line-up, consisting of two members of the Baseball Hall of Fame, was the bright spot of this card show. The "Dominican Dandy", pitcher Juan Marichal and the Orlando "Baby Bull" Cepeda were on hand all three days of the show to sign autographs. Both spent a majority of their careers playing for the San Francisco Giants and both were very reasonably priced at $20 dollars per autograph. The only negative was that any additional inscription, other than the autograph itself, was an additional $10 dollars. Thus, many collectors were passing on having either player add "HOF" for "Hall of Fame" and the year of their induction, as is customarily done. More recently, card show promoters have become more focused with increasing their revenues from these autograph signings, so I see more and more autograph shows charging additional dollars for inscriptions. Twenty years ago, these inscriptions were added for no additional fees by the athlete merely by requesting them to do so. Marichal and Cepeda typically get $40 dollars per item each at most card shows so I guess I can't complain too much since this show was relatively so much more value-priced. I had Orlando Cepeda ink a mini Topps poster from the 1960's depicting him as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals and Juan Marichal beautifully signed the sweet spot of a baseball with his gorgeous autograph. Both gentlemen posed for a picture with me, with Marichal even standing up from his chair to make it an even better photo opportunity. Cepeda was polite but didn't say much and Marichal was friendly and smiling throughout my encounter with him. Overall, a good experience and a nice opportunity to add a couple of baseball legends that you don't encounter often to the collection.

Eddie Milner also appeared all weekend long, but I don't think there was a huge demand for the former Cincinnati Reds outfielder. Priced at $10 dollars per autograph, I felt that Milner was a little too expensive. Especially since you could get either of the much more difficult to obtain autographs of Cepeda or Marichal for only $10 additional more dollars. Milner answers autograph request through-the-mail and like most Hall of Fame baseball players, Cepeda and Marichal do not. I was on my way to my car when I stopped and began a conversation with a fellow collector. Soon afterwards, the door to the gymnasium, where the card show was being held, opened and leaving the show was Eddie Milner. He stopped and talked with us for a few minutes, with me asking if he still resided in Columbus, Ohio. Milner stated that he was living with his father and was extremely friendly, as always. At this point I realized that Eddie's parents were a few steps ahead of him and they continued walking towards the parking lot. Milner shook each of our hands and said that he would be at the show tomorrow as well and to come up and say hello to him. Dressed in a black leather coat, Milner is still in great shape physically and it truly is a shame that his addiction to cocaine played a role in him not reaching his full potential during his playing career. Milner seems to be on the right track, with a positive attitude and his life in order. It is nice to see and hear that things are going well for him.