B&C: Nate Silver autographed my Bill Pecota card

While Dan Szymborski has yet to autograph my Bud Zipfel card.

I stumbled upon Bill Pecota’s 1988 trading card. In a moment of wistful inspiration, I decided to spare the Pecota card from the trash bag. Placing it carefully in a plastic sleeve, I told myself that if I ever had the occasion to meet Nate Silver, I’d ask him to autograph the card.

Fast forward to this October. Silver was giving a presentation and signing at a store around the corner from my apartment promoting his new book. In the receiving line afterward, in between the math professor who tried to stump him with a complex proof and the political science grad student with a fascinating theory on independent voters, I approached. I had wondered if he got this request frequently, an army of baseball nerds, following him around whenever he appeared in public, thinking we were clever by scraps of cardboard in his face.

Even if he’d gotten the request before, Silver could not have been more gracious. He chuckled deeply upon seeing the card and joked about what a Bill Pecota card goes for on Ebay. He signed his name carefully, even tracing over it a second time to make sure it appeared legibly. So yup, that picture is of my Bill Pecota card autographed by Nate Silver. It now has a permanent spot on the bookshelf, ready to take me down a peg every time I get event the tiniest premonition that I might be cool.