Ran into David Letterman at a CART Indy car race at Portland Raceway many years ago. He was a total dick when it came to autographs. Another tough autograph is Ken Griffey Jr. I have a 1991 Upper Deck card with Jr., Sr., and Craig. I was able to get Sr. and Craig to sign the card at a minor league game. I tried sending the card to the Seattle Mariners, I got in back unsigned almost a year later. I tried sending it to the Cincinnati Reds about 5 years ago, this time it took only 2 weeks to get it back unsigned.
Frank Thomas (Chicago White Sox) would stand outside the ballpark, in the parking lot, and sign, pose or chat with every single person waiting for a moment of his time. At the other team’s ballpark. Very nice guy.
Jim Edmonds (St. Louis Cardinals) will sign things, but he tries to personalize every one to lessen the chance they’ll be sold (“To Aaron, best regards, Jim Edmonds”).
I have bunches of autographs, gotten by me or other people. I would never dream of selling them, as many are irreplaceable due to the death of the celebrity (mostly baseball players). I still have a Mickey Mantle bat up in my closet. I don’t even display the stuff.
Maybe I’m just geeky, but I think they’re cool.
I just remembered an interesting story my 7th grade teacher told us about sports autographs. At the time, she was in grade school at a Catholic school, and her class was taken on a field trip to the airport. Well, lo and behold, who happened to be at the airport but the Pittsburgh Pirates. She said that the only one who would sign autographs for everyone was the late, great, Roberto Clemente.
To me, the crazy thing about Fripp wasn’t even his refusal to sign autographs- it’s the feeling angle that amused me!
I first heard a story about this when I was a college freshman in 1979 or 1980, at a time when I was only vaguely aware who King Crimson were (as a YEs and ELP fan, I was aware that Lake & Bruford had been members of King Crimson, but that’s about all I knew of the band). A friend of mine who was a progressive rock guitarist, and a huge Fripp fan, told me he’d seen Fripp in Greenwich Village (around the time he was putting together the band that would make “Discipline”). He thought he’d just stroll up, say a quick “Hi, love your music, could I have your autogtaph?” but he didn’t get the chance. He says Fripp saw him approaching, and began walking quickly away… and when he saw that my friend hadn’t completely given up, Fripp burst into a full sprint, racing to avoid being approached by a fan.
Look, if I’d been told that Fripp was brusque, or rude, or had rebuffed an autograph request with “I don’t sign autographs” or “I really don’t have time, sorry.” I wouldn’t thought twice about it. It was the running away that made the story stand out (especially because the friend was a short nerdy guy, not a threatening looking guy at all).
I’ve never met Fripp, and have no firsthand knowledge of what he’s like. But over the years, I’ve read and heard several stories that suggest my friend’s experience was not at all unique! Apparently, there are times he feels it’s easier to run from autograph seekers than simply to say, “Sorry, no.”
Mind you, I don’t NECESSARILY blame Fripp. In retrospect, don’t we all wish John Lennon had run away from the last autograph seeker he ever encountered? Fans CAN be a scary lot, and a celebrity doesn’t always know who’s harmless and who’s not.
I meant the “fleeing” angle! Sorry!
I had the pleasure of meeting historian/novelist Shelby Foote seven years ago when he came to Cleveland. I was the head of a Civil War history group that hosted him for a speech. He rebuffed several autograph seekers, saying, “I don’t think authors should be giving out autographs; they should be at home writing their next book!” Then I had the pleasure of taking him out for lunch, just before his flight home, and he offered to give me his autograph “because you’ve been so kind to me.” Of course I accepted.
That really surprises me. I thought Fripp had adopted the tactic of actually running away from autograph seekers much more recently than that. Funny guy, that Fripp.
I want to 3rd the comment on Bruce Campbell. I met him in Vegas at the premier of Bubba Ho-tep. I was in a lounge area where he was being interviewed. After the interview, I approached him and he autographed his autobiography (after joking with me that he was disappointed that I waited until the 2nd edition to buy it) and posed for a picture. Great guy!
Regarding Celtic great Bill Russell – he once was a gracious signer. Then one day he realized he signed a ton of autographs and didn’t see a single face. So he stopped signing. He would rather look at the person, shake hands and talk a bit than sign an autograph. In recent years, he has participated in signing sessions, but he generally still does not sign.
A number of baseball players do not sign due to the players association sending out a memo advising them not to sign because of the money being made off their signatures.
Baseball player George “Boomer” Scott was known to sign until every last person left the park.
There was a little-known baseball player who figured he wouldn’t be famous as a player, so he decided to become known for signing no autographs. Not sure, but I believe it was Marty Martinez.
Actor Judd Hirsch does not like to sign (nor does he like it if people take his photo.)
Now* that’s* 
funny
Carlton was an asshole, period, but yes, he wouldn’t sign. Tug McGraw, OTOH, was just as nice as you’d imagine.
NFL hall of famer John Hannah posed for a picture with my family. Of course, since he’d just had dinner at our house, it’d have been really rude not to…