Your It List interviews an autograph-collecting legend
If you’re a 21st century sports fan, you’re probably also a jaded individual. It’s no exaggeration that more ink, or pixels, are devoted to covering the latest drug, DUI and weapon’s possession scandals than pitch counts and interceptions. So when I ran across a charming profile of Jack Smalling in the New York Times, it brought me back to my days as an avid sports card collector and autograph seeker who would travel anywhere in the state to track down an elusive John Hancock. Jack has published 15 editions of his Baseball and Autograph Collector’s Handbook, which includes a painstakingly-compiled list of over 8,000 current and former Major League player, coach and umpire home addresses. An impressive feat, especially considering his endeavors pre-dated the internet. Smalling was gracious enough to answer a few questions about his pursuit—Starbucks and dwarf pinch-hitters play a part—exclusively for Your It List.
You’ve published 15 editions of The Baseball Autograph Collector’s Handbook, and recently the New York Times came calling to write a profile on you. How are you handling your newfound fame?
Fame? That and $1.50 get you a cup of coffee at Starbucks.
It’s ironic that someone who’s been collecting professional baseball
players’ autographs for over 50 years lives in Iowa, a state without a Major League team. Who do you root for?
Dodgers, Indians and Cubs. Dodgers I remember the 1949 World Series; Indians Bob Feller and the 1948 World series; Cubs my father took me to my first major league game at Wrigley Field in 1950. We caught the 6:00 a.m. CB & Q train at Burlington, Iowa and were back that night. Also, the Cubs had a farm club in the Western League in 1948, the Des Moines Bruins.
The advent of the internet must have made your task much easier. How were you able to track down so many player residences before the web?
Phone Books, Street & Smith Guides, Baseball Blue Book, Year & Note Book, Team Press Guides and Yearbooks.
Have you ever procured an autograph in person, or are you exclusively a through-the-mail type of guy?
Primarily through the mail and buying collections. Only a few in person.
Are you purely a baseball man, or do you ever branch out to other sports or authors or actors?
Just baseball.
In your 57 years of autograph collecting, what’s your most cherished “get”?
Eddie Gaedel and Cap Anson autographs.
What makes those two stand out? Were they particularly hard to procure?
Eddie Gaedel is the midget who went to bat for Bill Veck in 1951. Cap Anson is a Hall of Famer from Marshalltown, Iowa who first played in 1871.
Even though autograph collecting would seem to belong to a simpler time, there’s still a strong pull to have your hero’s signature. Why do you think that yearning has endured?
Baseball has a longer history than any of the major sports. Fan worshipping continues to this day.
With that in mind, do you think that the commercialization of baseball, the steroid scandals, and other factors that have changed the game will ever diminish the fan/player relationship? Or will fans continue to see the best in players under any circumstance?
Fans will still pick their favorites. Players who break the rules will find their popularity fading.
