Last Thursday morning I flew down to Atlanta for a two day signing with Hank Aaron. I had been looking forward to this trip for a while as Hank and I have become really tight over the past four years. I arrived at about 10:00 AM on Thursday and went right to my hotel to set up for the signing. Hank came at noon and signed until about four. We got through quite a lot in the first day. The Home Run King signed some great new photos as well as the classic 715 image. The first day we spoke a lot about possible moves that the Mets and Braves may make in the off season. After Hank left I spent a few hours boxing up the product and prepping it to ship back to New York. The next morning Aaron showed up for breakfast at about 9:30 (we eat a lot over the two days of signing). The first items that were signed on Friday were these awesome Milwaukee mini helmets. After that Hank signed baseballs for a few hours and then headed out to work (promising to return at 6 to complete everything). Aaron did come back at 5:30 and got right to business. It was at that point that we got into a really interesting discussion about the 1969 Mets. We have talked about a lot over the years but this was the first time we really got into it about that team. Interestingly enough it was Hank's Braves that the Mets defeated to get to the World Series. Hank told me that Jerry Kooseman was one of, if not the, toughest pitcher he faced in his career. He spoke of how tough the Mets rotation was back then and how hard it was to win two in a row off of them (let alone a playoff series). I can imagine how good they were with Kooseman, Seaver, Gentry and Ryan. We finally finished a little before 7. I was already way ahead in shipping product back so it only took me a half hour to complete my work. I then headed to the airport where there were massive delays due to the windy weather. After sitting on a runway for two hours and then circling Queens for an hour upon landing I finally made it home in the middle of the night. I went straight to sleep to get some rest for the big Derek Jeter signing the next day.
Check back later for a recap of the Jeter signing.