Mass Indians Autograph Signing
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Checking into our Toronto hotel we ran into the reason we were in Canada: The Cleveland Indians. The Tribe were checking out on their way to the dome leaving my junior high self in sports fan heaven.
I got my hat signed by about a dozen players and was one of the few and proud to ask Jose Mesa for a sig even though he had lost us the series the previous year.
It was interesting to see how different players handled being hassled before a game. The starting pitcher for the day, Dave Burba, bolted head down to his cab trying to stay in his deep focus. Charles Nagy stayed forever and signed everyone's stuff and did a lot of talking with fans as well. Bartolo Colon and Manny Ramirez were just being Bartolo and Manny and stayed off by themselves chattering in Spanish while being heckled by some jerks for not signing.
My brother got a little better encounter than I did, though. Being only about eight at the time, he was small enough that when following Sandy Alomar Jr. outside to get a signature he ended up getting stuck in the same portion of the revolving door as his then hero.
My day ended with autographs from Nagy, Mesa, Alomar, Paul Shuey, David Justice, Travis Fryman, Chad Ogea, Pat Borders, Eric Plunk, Mike Jackson and Jolbert Cabrera all on the same hat.
Unfortunately, since we weren't prepared for this surprise we had them sign with a hotel pen and most of the signatures have since faded. Luckily, the memory still remains.
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