The Autographs Revisited

Antonio Sucre, a member of the 2005 Hickory Crawdads organization, signs autographs for fans at L.P. Frans Stadium in Hickory, North Carolina on May 15, 2005...

I had a brief discussion with a Hickory Crawdads baseball player regarding giving autographs. I had a few questions that I wanted answered from a professional baseball player, and I got a lot of what I was looking for. After thinking about what I have seen myself, a lot of my suspicions have been confirmed. I will list the conclusions I have drawn from this dicussion and talk about what I believe.

Professional Baseball Players Will Sign Autographs for Fans

Some players are more interested in signing autographs than others. I have seen some who seem to look for the opportunity to do so and others who shy away from it. I'm not sure why some players try to avoid this. It's not really bad for their reputation with the fans, but it's good marketing to interact with the fans as often as possible. A professional athlete is dependent on fan appreciation, so they should appreciate the fans as much and as often as possible.

Professional Baseball Players Will Sign Autographs for Collectors

Collectors and professional card traders seem to make up a majority of the autograph seekers that I encounter at L.P. Frans Stadium in Hickory. These are not kids. A large majority of them are adults and they appear at the park regularly. At our park, they aren't always seeking autographs from the home team. They usually have those covered early in the season. They are getting autographs from the visiting teams. These collectors bring in larger collections of cards and other items for autographs. I have watched a few ball players sign 15 and 20 cards for a single collector at once. In many cases, they are signing multiple copies of the same card. When I see this happening, I know I'm watching a professional collector. They are getting a couple for themselves and a lot more for selling.

I asked a Crawdads team member how he felt about doing this because I was expecting a negative response. The response I got wasn't as negative as I had thought it would be, but I did detect a little bit of irritation in the player by his facial expressions and his tone of voice. He said:

"I sign them because it's the right thing to do. I'm not always happy about doing it because I know this person is going to make money from my signatures."

He went on to say that other players may not do it, or they may only sign a couple of the cards rather than a whole stack of them. It's basically up to the player. The players don't want to create enemies by not signing cards, but they aren't thrilled about the idea of these guys making profits from their signatures and images.

My contact with the Crawdads also enlightened me to another unique piece of information about this process. He asked me if I went to many other minor league ball parks. I rarely go anywhere but L.P. Frans Stadium. When I told him that, he told me that our park gives the fans easier access to the players than most other parks do. Our field house has a sidewalk that goes up to the stadium and fans can make a simple stroll down to wait for players coming to and from the field. He said that most other ball parks they play in don't have that easy access to the players. They don't get asked for autographs as often at other ball parks. He said he believed this is why so many of these professional collectors show up here in Hickory. They have a single point of access to all players from both teams entering and leaving the field.

What's the Best Solution?

I don't think there is any solution to the problem. The players can sign autographs at their discretion. I hope they do it as often as possible and make sure they get the autographs out to the FANS first. If the professional collectors don't get everything they want, it's OK.

I'm finished talking about autographs now :)

I'm heading out to the park shortly to cover game one in a series of four against the Savannah Sand Gnats. I'm hoping that the 'Dads can sweep this series :)

John M. Setzler, Jr.
(the guy with the camera)