I've been a lifelong Texas Ranger fan. Back when everyone was collecting baseball cards in the late 80s and early 90s I was hitting about 12 years old, and was really into baseball cards and really into the Texas Rangers. One of my favorites back then was catcher Geno Petralli. Most Ranger fans remember him as the guy who caught before Ivan Rodriguez. I remember him as the guy who caught almost all of Charlie Hough's knuckle balls (which caused him to lead the league in passed balls and even set the single season record). A friend of mine is building a new restaurant here in town and a few weeks ago he called to ask me if I knew who Geno Petralli is. "Of course" said I. Geno is the head foreman for the building project and my buddy invited me over to the construction site to meet him. I got to stand there and talk to him for about a half our on the Rangers from that era. One of my favorite baseball conversations of all time. To get to chat with a guy who was there while I sat in front of my parent's old television with baseball cards lined up in front of me watching every play was a memory I won't forget. So, Geno told me to come back with anything I wanted signed. Today my buddy and I headed back over there and Geno was nice enough to sign a couple of baseballs and a number of cards. I'll have some pictures to post later. Any of you who have been a lifelong fan of a team hopefully will know what it's like to meet a guy who epitomized your favorite team just as you were entering that era of your life where baseball meant everything to you. Well that was me a couple of weeks ago and today.

Here are pictures.

The first thing I wanted to make sure I got him to sign was my Charlie Hough ball. It just wouldn't be right to have him sign for me without completing the knuckle ball battery on a ball.



Then I got him to sign a ball solo.



The he signed some cards. Two pics are all the cards together and then I took a few closeups of individual cards.

That's neat

very cool man congrats

that last one looks like the old bob uecker rule of catching a knuckleballer..

pick it up when it quits rolling!

congrats J!

Very cool, congrats on meeting your childhood hero!

That is AWESOME!!!

Very cool.

Great story, and some nice stuff there.

Very cool. Love getting to meet guys you watched on tv. I have had the opportunity to meet a few guys threw a friend of mine and all have been very cool.

NICE!! Funny how people can keep building memories even years later!!