Tony Gwynn was a one of the nicest guys ever to take the field. I took my then 8 year old son to a Padres game in 1984 and we were watching the pregame field warm ups. My son yells to Tony: "Hey Tony can I have the baseball when you are done playing catch". ( He was tossing the ball to Kevin McReynolds.) Tony just looked away and then a couple of seconds later he tosses the ball to my kid. I thanked Tony and he gave me a thumbs up.

I went to over 100 games when Chipper was playing and never once did I see him sign. In the 8-10 years that I was actually trying to get autographs, I got Tommy Glavine, John Smoltz, Greg Maddux, Bobby Cox, Andruw Jones, Brian McCann, Brian Jordan, Jair Jurrgens, Kris Medlen, Johnny Venters, Billy Wagner, Craig Kimbrel, Kevin Millwood and Tim Hudson of the notable names. Tim Hudson was probably the coolest guy who played in a Braves jersey during my younger years. During BP he'd just walk around the OF wall having conversations with the fans. He'd talk hunting, baseball, football, or just about anything.

I grew up a Padres fan in the 90's, and I used to go to Spring Training in Peoria with my Dad every year. Tons of fans would descend on Tony Gwynn as soon as they got a glimpse of him leaving the locker room, finishing batting practice, etc. No matter how many people were huddled around Tony waiting for an autograph, Tony would never leave until each and every one of them had their item signed. Tony was the guy that you wish every pro athlete could be like. He was as down to earth as could be, and despite his greatness, he never thought of himself as above anyone.

A Barry Bonds story: This was one of the funniest things I have ever seen… the Giants were playing in Atlanta. This was either the year he broke the record or the year prior. He’s on the field warming up about 2 hours before first pitch. A kid around 10 years old keeps yelling, “Mr. Bonds, Mr. Bonds, I would like for you to sign my ball please.” This goes on for 30 minutes with Bonds only about 50 feet from us. Finally, this older gentleman behind us hits his breaking point. He taps the kid on the shoulder and says, “Kid, you could be in an alley with only you and him and he wouldn’t sign. You could be dying of cancer and he wouldn’t sign. You could be the last two people on earth and he STILL won’t sign your ball so hush.” The kid has a horrible look on his face, turns back to face the field and starts all over, “Mr. Bonds Mr. Bonds…” The older gentleman and I just shook our heads and walked away. In the hour+ of the kid’s yelling, Bonds never even looked on his direction, much less signed.

Tony Gwynn was freakin' awesome. He never gave me the vibe that he was "too busy" to be bothered. he was nothing but smiles with me when i spoke to him many years ago.

I heard kind of the same thing about Willie Mays from a former co-worker. He was at a card show back in the 80's and was in line to get Mays autograph and he heard Mays make some comment about how he was sick of doing autographs that day so Dave just got out of line and said the heck with it.

I've heard people say Gwynn was a prick, but he was the sweetest man ever to me. Always took his time to sign and talk to fans

Love the video, love the Humm Baby Baseball....one of my favorite TTM successes was the legendary Roger Craig this past year, and he was so kind as to inscribe his famous "Humm Baby" on the custom card I created and sent him! True class act! Whitey Herzog was very kind in person, he talked to me for a few minutes at a signing last year, and was not in any hurry, just a very down to earth and friendly man, and one of the all time great managers and Hall of Famers!

I was lucky to get Barry Bonds in 2000 outside the stadium in Milwaukee and he was actually really nice and accommodating. He even posed for a photo with me before getting in a cab. He was my favorite player, so that was a thrill. Your Randy Johnson story sounds familiar. He was like that every time I tried to get him, too. Tony Gwynn accused me of hitting him up "dozens" of times when I finally got him, on a ticket stub of all things, but I am happy I got him in person. Great video man, I am subbing and look forward to hearing more of your experiences

While attending a Yankees/Astros spring training game in 2006 there were a fans who noticed Daryl Strawberry in the section next to us behind home plate. Keeping in mind he was going thru a divorce at the time so none of us expected him to sign, but he couldn’t have been nicer. Keeping a low profile, we decided that one by one we’d go over and ask him to sign in between innings. I had just bought a ball at the team store hoping to get Jeter, which I didn’t think would happen anyway so when it was my turn I got up walked over and politely handed him the ball while saying I was a big fan of the Mets and loved the 86 team. He smiled and then after signing on the sweet spot in black, I said thank you and good luck. Thru all the troubles in his life he’s managed to continue being nice and approachable. I’ll always be a Daryl Strawberry fan!

Omar Vizquel was pretty cool. Told me to give him a minute while he went a grabbed some coffee. He came back out and looked for me and signed my ball. My one jerk was Juan Gonzalez. I was 12 and no one else was around after a game, I asked for his autograph and he flat out ignored me and walk past me.

I had interactions with hundreds of MLB players. Tony Gwynn was the only one who was ever rude to me. And he wasn’t just rude. He was a mega prick. This was when I was only 11 or 12 years old, wide-eyed and polite to a fault.

One of the nicest coolest dudes i ever met was Rob Dibble, i said hi Rob how are you, shook my hand with a good firm grip and said good buddy

You can tell by just hearing Gwynn speak 1 time that he's going to be happy to sign for anybody almost anytime. He was such a likeable guy. I miss his laugh.

Mark McGwire was such a good guy not only did he sign he took a pic and even stood and chatted for awhile. Such a good guy and this wasn’t just once I met him a few times being a huge McGwire fan and I was so happy he wasn’t a jerk.

I actually got to see Barry bonds and his manager at a restaurant I used to work at in 2019. Before this quarantine thing and I was nervous to ask for an autograph because he was eating A LOT! And did not want to be that fan. Nonetheless it was nice seeing him, it was at Orinda, CA. Maybe I should have tried... oh well next time lol

I heard a W Mays story where a guy had a 500 HR Bat , asked Mays to sign on a blank spot and he signed over 2 other signatures!

Great video, I have a cool story. I'm a lifelong Cubs fan and unfortunately I'm not old enough to have seen Ernie Banks play. Only highlights. However, Ernie attended a Fergie Jenkins charity night at spring training at hohokam field back in 2009. it was more of an event where you were supposed to just walk around the field and say hi to them and maybe take a picture but no autographs. They were explaining that to us in the beginning and there was about maybe a thousand of us waiting to get out on the field and do that .... And as they were explaining to us, I caught Ernie Banks attention with one of my coffee table books which said 101 reasons to love the Chicago Cubs LOL. He made eye contact with me and I made a motion with my hand as if he would sign it for me. He looked at one of the security guards and said something to him. Then he pointed at me and the security guard came up to me. I thought for sure I was going to get kicked out or something. He took my book and marker and gave it to Ernie and while the guy was talking about not asking for autographs, he signed it to me on the cover and gave it back to me through the security guard period I'll never forget it. What a great guy!!!

Is there a free list where I can get ahold of to send cards to get signed