The 1980's, Baseball Cards, & Moose Skowron

Former New York Yankee great Moose Skowron passed away last
week at the age of 81. He was a fine gentleman that I had to pleasure to get to
know very well back in another lifetime.

In the mid to late 1980’s after a stint as a standup comic and
auditioning for TV and movies, I decided to make my living in my other passion,
business. I had always loved baseball. So I owned 2 baseball card stores and a 14-machine Baseball batting cage in Los Angeles. I also traveled from city to city
all over the country to exhibit at large sports card shows. I was on the
National committee of Sports collectable dealers for 6 years, one as treasurer
and ran one of the largest conventions in the country at the now deceased
Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas NV 4 times a year.

It was a heady time to be in Baseball cards. There were fortunes being made and lost all over the place (If I told you how much money I made on garbage pail kids alone you wouldn’t believe me!) The required attraction for card shows was to bring in autograph guests, the bigger the name the better the more of them the better. Only problem is the promoter never could make any money on the autograph fees. After paying for transportation and hotel rooms it was usually a big loser. Especially on current players who always wanted top dollar. And the current players often were horrible to the attendees!

I dealt with about 150-200 players over the years and I talked to the other promoters. We found that it was a good idea to compare notes on who we made money on, and who was difficult to deal with. The worst player  I ever dealt with was then NY Met and later Philadelphia Phillies Lenny Dykstra. It was with no small amount of pleasure that, after he ripped me off for a couple thousand dollars, and put his thumb print in the middle of every autograph he did give me after a settlement, to read last year that he was convicted on auto fraud and was
going to do a ten-year stretch in prison.

But I really didn’t plan on making money on the guests. I looked to break even and if they made the attendee feel good about the experience then I was happy with the arrangement. If a player was good to the people then I would have them back each year.

Back then in Vegas at the Sahara we got everything for free.
The exibit room was free. My suite and my partner’s suite was free, we got comp’d
to shows and dinners. We got a free room for every 50 rooms we booked and 20% of the rooms paid for kicked back from the hotel. Each Player got a free suite
and was picked up at the airport by the Sahara’s limo stocked with booze. The limo was at our disposal for the entire time of the show.  To players who were once great and then had fallen from the limelight this kind of treatment meant a lot to them. I remember driving up to the hotel with former great Oakland A’s pitcher Blue Moon Odom, who upon seeing his name in giant letters on the Marquee visible for a mile in either direction on the strip, he broke down in tears. This is where I get to Moose Skowron.

I was tipped off by the promoter in Dallas I think it was that Moose was a great guest and he gave me his phone number. I called him up to ask what kind of money he wanted. He said: ” You are going to buy me a ticket to Las Vegas, give me a suite for free and you want to pay me too, just for signing autographs for one day for 3 hours?” I said yes, how much money did he want?

He said that depended. Could he bring his buddy (former Yankee outfielder) Hank Bauer out too? So I had both of them at the show. They were contracted for the rock bottom price of $500 3 hours on Saturday. They stayed 7 hours. Then they came back Sunday for 4 hours for nothing, just because their plane wasn’t until 4 PM.

Some players who sign autographs would just take the picture scribble their name and throw the picture back at the fan. But like some of the old timers, Moose and Hank took their time with every fan, posed for pictures, shared stories, recalled games and World Series and stories of Mantle and Maris. And they shook everyone’s hand. Everyone’s.

Obviously I wanted to have them back. I called Moose 6 Months
later to ask if they were interested. “Of course they were!” he said. Only
could they bring another buddy. Sure I said, who? Moose said “Don Larsen”.

Here I had pause. From all the promoters I knew Don Larsen, the only pitcher in
history to throw a perfect game in World Series history, was a good name to
have at a show, but was seen a huge drunk and an unreliable autograph guest.

In fact the hardest trivia question in baseball is “Where was Don Larsen the night before he pitched his perfect game?” The answer is nobody knows because Don was drunk and never could remember.

I shared my feelings with Moose, and he said: “JJ (Nobody called me Joel back then. I was JJ to all baseball people as my stores were JJ’s baseball cards every so often I forget  see someone or get a call from 25 years ago and they will call me JJ) Moose said I will guarantee that Don will be  there and sign.

So I said OK. I had all three of them out and they were to sign at 10 AM on Saturday.   On Friday night I left the show room secured at 11 PM, walked through the casino, and saw Don pounding drinks one after another at the casino bar. There was a line of fans waiting their turn to buy him a drink.  I came back from my hotel room at 5 AM walked through the Casino and there was
Don STILL drinking, one after another, at the bar. I just shook my head.

So it was 10:15 in the morning and there was Hank, and there was Moose, but no Don. I looked over at Moose and looked at my watch. Moose just nodded and he understood what he had to do. He got up and excused himself.  I am sure he had done this many times before.

I don’t know if he got the hotel manager, or banged on his door. I don’t know
if he poured coffee down his throat or what, but sure as heck by 10:50 Don was
at his table signing. I had never seen such a rigid face in my life but he
signed everything he had to.

I had them all back 3 more times, but Moose made sure each time that Don got to bed before midnight.  And Don was a much more affable guest after
that.

For years afterwards Moose would call me to see if I was going to have
another show in Vegas. He just wanted to go back and spend the time with his
friends. It was then I wished I was still doing the shows. But alas Baseball
cards were over.

The world is sadder without Moose Skowron in it. I am sorry he is gone. Thanks for everything Moose, you were great! RIP.