I am sitting here at my office right now waiting for Leonard Marshall to come sign (for those of you who think I have the ultimate job please take note that it is 8:00 on a Sunday morning and this is a basically normal, routine Sunday for me). I was going to wait until Monday to really get into the Aaron signing but, with a few minutes to spare, I may as well give it a go now...
Yesterday morning around 8:00 (take note again- Saturday morning at 8:00) I headed over to LaGuardia to pick up my friend Henry Aaron. Hank's flight actually touched down a little early and I honestly just got there as he was deplaning (normally I check the flight status but I spaced on it yesterday). After we walked through the airport to a chorus of "Mr. Aaron, Mr. Aaron" we made it to the car and were on our way. Upon putting his bag down Hank immediately noticed the plethora of seatbacks in the truck (Joba and Goose signing today) and the conversation turned to the Yankee Stadium demolition...until we drove past Citi Field and the entire ride then became Nation League Beast banter. I have talked about it several times on this forum but I must say again my favorite Mets conversations have and always will be with Hank. He is such a Braves die-hard (obviously) and it makes for great arguments. Anyway we arrived at Last Licks Rye in no time and was able to start signing the private signing. In what has become the norm as of late there was a ton of mail-order/send-in pieces. Friday night I was in Rye setting this all up (take note again: Friday night) as it would waste way too much time doing it as we were signing. That really is the one negative of the Aaron signings- with me picking him up there is very little lead time for me to be set up and acclamated with the product (which is why I knocked it out a day ahead of time). Once we got through the private Henry began signing for the public a few minutes ahead of schedule. I was even surprised at how big the line was. We have always done well but the crowd exceeded even my expectations. I guess as more of the steroid stories come out and time goes on the appreciation for Henry goes even deeper and gets even stronger. There were people who came from as far as Texas as well as an enthusiastic customer who drove my Rhode Island. The best part about it was that Hank did not disappoint any of them. He took photos with everyone (despite people's inabilities to work their own cameras), shook hands and listened to stories. There was even a person that came with program/scorecards from Henry's time in Puerto Rico Winter Ball. He was breaking records even back then in that league (the customer was nice enough to bring photocopies of the scorecards for Hank and myself..I will post some photos later in the week as they are very, very cool). Anyway, we finished the line pretty much right on time and headed back out the airport. I have been doing this with Hank for the better part of a decade so we are right on like clockwork with timing everything. We flew back to LaGuardia and Henry even got on an earlier flight back to Georgia... while me, on the other hand, got crushed in traffic and got home over an hour later (after stopping at Jackson Hole for a burger). Thankfully I did make it home for the last few innings of that impressive Mets victory over the Yankees and got into bed relatively early as today is just as big a day as yesterday.
Later this morning Leonard Marshall (after signing some awseome project pieces here at our office) will be appearing at Last Licks Scarsdale. Then around 5:00 we have the great Goose Gossage and Joba (no need for last names when it comes to a select few) signing at the Scarsdale JCC.
Hope to see you there...Go Lakers!!

Follow me on Twitter now! Click Here!