THE JACK MORRIS - '78 Tiger RC Project

WARNING: This may be the longest blog post I've ever done. Things got crazy today in the ghetto. A few days ago while checking my Crave the Auto app on my phone I saw Jack Morris listed as doing a meet and greet at a Walmart kind of near me. I poked around on the internet like crazy to verify the posting but could find nothing. I needed my '78 Morris RC signed for my goal of completing my Whitaker/Trammell/Parrish/Morris '78 Tiger Rookie Card signatures set that I am hoping to finish this year. I now need Trammell and Parrish and I am done. I had been planning on heading to the West side of the state for a minor league game that he was supposed to be signing at in May. When this popped up I started freaking out over the excitement of getting the card signed and locally at that. I also had my reservations as the ad said nothing about what he was signing and I couldn't verify if it was just a April Fool's prank too. Long story kind of short, I got a bunch of Morris stuff together and decided to commit to going to this event no matter what. When I showed up at the Walmart there was about 40 people in front of me in line. The Walmart employees couldn't answer any questions about what he was signing or how many items or anything. The event was publicized poorly and the information given to the people involved was worse it seemed.
Jack showed up 30 minutes before he was even supposed to and started signing right away. I have heard many negative things about the man and his personality toward anybody, especially autograph seekers but I have to say today my experience was different. He was very pleasant, funny, and tried to entertain everyone. The line moved way too fast and I looped around a number of times and got countless items signed. He was amazing the whole time I cannot and will not listen to negative stories about the guy. He kicked butt today! I had a few short, humorous exchanges with him including some fishing pictures and an April Fool's story about his son that was great. This day totally made up for Tigerfest sucking. (Tigerfest UPDATE: Neither of the 2 guys I got signatures from are on the opening day roster and only one is barely on the 40 man now and the other, though a great guy, is unemployed.) While I was in line I met a guy who told me about a card show about a mile away that I headed to after getting too many signatures.

Now, I do feel bad making the guy sign a ton of cards for me BUT I do not sell TTM or in person autos and I have a great uncle, a nephew, a brother, and a son who would totally love to have some Morris ink and the dude got paid and there was no line or people who didn't get anything. So, I think I am alright this time. At the show I was looking for any unique Jack Morris stuff in case I could find something in time to have him sign it. I found another of the '78 rookie cards in better condition than mine for $3. I bought it and went back to Walmart just in time to be the last signature of the day for him. I returned to the card show and overheard a guy frustrated that he didn't know about the signing. I proceeded to trade him the card I had bought for $3 for a handful of Tigers cards. I spent the rest of my day wheeling and dealing and had a great time at the first card show I have been to in years. I will do a separate post on Trade Bait I picked up, the personal collection stuff I found, and what I pulled from a few packs I opened. Here (above) is the rest of my Morris pull minus the other Rookie I traded away. I also got one of the Donruss Jumbo 8X10 free pictures from the event signed.