You know the Subway commercial in which Deion Sanders takes a guy’s pizza? Well let me tell you about the time Sanders (aka Prime Time) almost drove off with my 9-year-old son’s prized autograph book.
In the early 1990’s I had to attend a meeting in Florida, and since my mother was living there at the time, I decided to take my son with me so he could see his grandmother and take in some spring training games. My mother was living in the Palm Beach area so we went to several Braves games. In those days, the players were much more accessible than current day. At the municipal stadium where the Braves held games, the players for both teams would walk right past fans to go from the clubhouse to the field. My son and I would ask for an autograph from every player walking by, even if we weren’t sure who it was. We made sure to include his number on the page so if needed we could figure out who the signature belonged to later.
After several games, our autograph book was starting to fill up with some pretty special names, including George Steinbrenner who happened to be sitting in the stands one day.
My son was not overly assertive when he was young (now he won’t shut up), but he was always tenacious when it came to getting autographs. The atmosphere was especially electric on the last day we went to the ballpark as we heard that MC Hammer was at the game hanging out with his buddy Deion Sanders. While we had gotten several of the Braves’ autographs, he still hadn’t gotten one from Sanders which was the Holy Grail for all autograph seekers at the park.
After the game, the two of us headed to the gate to wait for Sanders and Hammer to walk out to their waiting limo, along with hundreds of other eager fans. As we waited, it slowly become apparent that we were not going to get remotely close enough to the two men to request an autograph as there were just too many people who beat us to the front. We were close to throwing in the towel when I glanced to my right and happened to notice another gate, a few guards, and several attendants about 30 yards away. Thinking that Sanders and Hammer might try to take an alternate route to their super stretch limo, we quickly headed for the other gate. Just as we got to the front, security started to escort someone we assumed was Deion Sanders to the limo. Shocked that he may still have a chance at getting his autograph, my son quickly handed over his book and asked the man to sign it. Just then, the actual Deion Sanders emerged from the exit and headed our way. In what must have been a humbling moment for MC Hammer, my son quickly grabbed his book back, said “nevermind“, and ran over to Sanders.
With the crowd now noticing Prime Time was in their presence, they started to move towards him and we knew the window to get our autograph was closing. Fortunately, Sanders agreed to take my son’s book and said “walk with us” which we did. As the mob started to swarm, Sanders quickly climbed into the limo which – to our great surprise – started to pull away with my son’s book still in Sanders’ possession. I quickly pounded on the window and yelled “hey, I need the book back!” Lo and behold, the limo stopped. Sanders rolled down the window and stuck out the autograph book. I barely had enough time to grab it out of his hands before the throngs of people rushed the limo again, My son and I stepped back from the madness and watched as the limo roared away. To our surprise, we opened the book and saw that the one and only Deion Sanders had actually signed it! We were the winners of the day, and everyone else was jealous of our new treasure.
Whenever I see Prime Time on TV, I still think back to this day. Even though it all happened in a flash, it’s a moment that both myself and my son will never forget.
