I flew out to Indiana early Tuesday morning. I was set to meet up with Larry Bird between 4:45 and 5:15 (great Who song off of Quadrophenia!) in the afternoon at my hotel. The reason that I flew out so early was to set up all the equipment. It takes quite a long time to unload basketballs, flip them to the appropriate panel and line them up. I spent much of the day listening to Phish's 1994 Halloween show on my headphones while setting up basketballs. I got finished prepping the product about an hour before I was to meet up with Bird. Larry walked in at about 5:10 and we got right to work. Bird, as always, was extremely quick. There is not much time for talking as the guy is a machine when it comes to signing. We plowed through the basketballs and then moved on to jerseys and photos. Larry was done before 6. Bird, Danica and Jeter remain the three fastest signers ever. The product came out great. We got some awesome new photos signed including two college images. After Bird left I popped my headphones back on and got back to work. It took almost three hours to bag up basketballs, tape up boxes and prep the product to be shipped back to New York. I got through two sets of a 1998 Phish show and the entire Ziggy Stardust album (which I finally understand the storyline) before finally carting the boxes out to the hotel's shipping department. I landed back in New York early this afternoon and am already looking forward to the next few weeks of signings before Christmas. I am also glad to be grounded for a little while. While there are a lot of signings coming up all are within a car ride away. I think I set a personal record with six airplane trips in twelve days.
This Saturday we have Mariano Rivera appearing at Last Licks in Thornwood. For those of you that have yet to meet Mo I recommend that you come out. Not only is his autograph a must-have in any collection but the future hall of famer is so nice in person. It will definitely be another great appearance.
Check back later for updates as I am sure something will come up between now and Saturday.