Signed Ball of the Day - Player Appearance Recap : Bo Jackson ( 1989 All-Star Baseball )

I now know Bo.

Bo Jackson made an appearance this past Saturday at Frank and Sons in Walnut. It was part of the Raider Fest. I know that I was only a handful of people that were there to see Bo for baseball. I think I saw two other people that had baseballs in their hand and there was at least 1000 people on hand for the panel of Raiders. I know the Raiders have a die hard fan base and I have never attended one of these before but I was not expecting the horde of people. The only thing comparable to me was when Matt Kemp did a signing here last year.

Bo was scheduled to sign at 1:00 in the afternoon so I arrive around 12 to find the parking lot jam packed and after about 20 minutes of driving around I finally found a spot. I walked in and noticed the line was about 150 deep for tickets with the other 800 plus people milling around getting signatures, pictures or just waiting. I went to the front of the line and at the end of the table to ask if I needed to wait in the line for pre purchased tickets and thankfully she said no and gave me my tickets. It pays to pre buy tickets. That saved me at least a hour.

I headed over to what I will call the holding pen as I, like others felt like cattle. Bo came out right on time and I was number 88 out of at least 400 from the numbers I heard being announced. Got in line and talked to some of the Raider fans. We Dodger fans are not the only crazies I soon found out. The line was going somewhat slow but that was because Bo was talking to anyone that would engage him and he looked everyone in their eye and said he and thank you. He also took a few pictures here and there. It was finally my turn and I handed him my 1989 All-Star Baseball. Now this ball I wanted side paneled. For those who don't know this was his first and only All-Star appearance and he started that game off with a home run and was eventually named the MVP of the game. I thought this would be a unique and cool ball to have in my collection as these balls are getting harder and harder to come by and in good white condition it's even harder. He signed the ball right where I asked him to and added his number to it as well. What I found a tad funny he had to go back and paused for a minute before adding the number as I think he was so used to writing 34 for all the football autographs he had to think what his baseball number was. 16 BTW. Came out great I think. Thank you Bo for coming out and doing the signing and thank you for being cordial and nice.