It was 2011 and the baseball season was over and the Dodgers had another disappointing year as they did not make the playoffs once again as McCourt was running the team into the ground. Baseball was still being played but I had lost interest at that point so my wife and father in law took me out to Vegas for my birthday. It's late October and I just wanted to relax in Sin city and take in my ritual of watching a movie in a casino as obviously that is what you do if you are in the gambling capital of the world. Off we go and to kill some time prior to the show we hit the slot machines. As we play I glance over and see a table set up with an older gentleman smoking a cigar but at the same time I see baseball memorabilia for sale so I walk over and low and behold its Don Larsen. He is there with his promoter selling cards, hats, bats etc and asking $25 for a signature. Though not a Dodger he has the only perfect game ever in the history of baseball and it was against the Dodgers. In the World Series no less. Wasn't going to pass on adding this autograph so I asked if they would be there the next day and they said they would be. Went and watched our movie and then headed out to a Target to get a ball for Don to sign.
Arrived back at the casino the following day and Don was there ready to sign. No line, no hustle and no problems. We negotiated the $25 for two signatures a piece for my father in law and I with one being a photograph that Don provided of the actual perfect game. I asked him if he would put the inscription of W.S.P.G. 10-8-1956 and he had no issue with that. After we received the autographs he was kind enough to take pictures with us as well. We sat and talked to him for a good 30 minutes about past players and times and once a few more people arrived we said our thank yous and left. A nice man that dominated my team for one day but a great addition to my collection. Both autographs look great. You just never know who you will see in Vegas.
Full disclosure, I did this entry on my other blog back in 2011 but I wanted to add this to my autograph timeline on this blog
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