N.Y. Times: Robinson: The Adventures of an Autograph Hunter (RR)

Alex Belth told me recently of his visit with the incomparable Ray Robinson and his amazing autograph collection. My Bill Voss siggy seems kinda weak now.

Every so often, there was an unanticipated contretemps. In another hotel lobby some weeks later, I asked Robert Moses Grove for his autograph. Then pitching for the Red Sox, Lefty Grove was one of the game’s incomparable southpaw pitchers — the Sandy Koufax of his time. He also possessed a volcanic temper.

At the moment I approached him, Grove was decked out in an egg-white Panama suit. Thrusting my autograph book into Grove’s hand, I turned to a page devoted to pictures of him. I asked politely if he would sign for me as I handed him my pen. He took the pen and signed Lefty Grove.

But as he returned the pen and book to me, he gazed down at his pants. A rivulet of dark, blue ink had dribbled down from his fly to his right knee.

Ashen-faced, Grove grabbed me, not so gently, by the back of the neck. In my panic, I thought he was about to fling me across the lobby at 100 miles per hour, a smidgen faster than his fearsome fastball. Instead, thank heaven, he thought better of it.

“I don’t ever want to see you again!” Grove said with a growl.

I made certain he never did.