UPDATE: I’d like to thank everyone who submitted a story. They were thoughtful, emotional and well-written—I enjoyed reading them all. Congratulations to Terry who was randomly selected from all eligible entries. Thanks again to...
As an in-person autograph collector, my two greatest challenges are knowing where a celebrity will be and when. Simple questions with difficult answers. Graphers use various intel to aid tracking, from team schedules to...
For twenty straight summers the better halves of the Red Sox roster have set up shop outside Fenway to accept donations for the Greater Boston Food Bank. In addition to supporting a good cause,...
Skipped a few classes? Our mid-year review will catch you up on everything that has happened at Autograph University since the New Year. If you have an interest in getting a more real-time view...
May 9, 2011 Boston, Massachusetts The promo guy took a knee on the pavement and ripped into a cardboard box, pulling out a handful of lanyards that dangled from his fingers like entrails. His...
June 2, 2011 Providence, Rhode Island It’s not often the sound of police sirens makes you cheer. A crowd of red-jerseyed football fans stood shoulder to shoulder along the Retracta-Belt crowd control barriers, growing...
The hoop dreams of sixty shooting stars came true at last week’s NBA Draft in the Brick City. For these young men, their selections signify not the completion of a journey but, like a...
It was toward the end of the 2006 baseball season when I started to tag along with a friend who was a veteran of tracking athletes down at team hotels to get autographs. During...
Believe it or not, there once was a time when you could read an athlete’s signature. Now we recognize illegible scribbles, shapes and scratches which we identify with a specific player. Maybe it’s the...
April 28, 2011 Boston, Massachusetts “Sir, would you mind moving across the street? You were in the last shot.” Standing beneath an umbrella, I peered through the mist at the front entrance of the...