Thrashers GM just another fan

By Chris Vivlamore

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Don Waddell is a sports fan. Just like most fans, he loves to get an autograph.

The Thrashers general manager has accumulated an extensive collection over his career. While many of his autographs have come because of the executive positions he has held, most have not.

He’s driven to Cincinnati with cereal boxes to get Pete Rose and Johnny Bench signatures.

He’s waited outside Detroit’s Tiger Stadium to get autographs of childhood heroes. He even got the famed double-play combination of Alan Trammell and Lou Whitaker to sign the same baseball. It’s one of over 200 signed baseballs has collected, many with Hall of Famer signatures.

He has books signed by Jack Nicklaus, Bill Walton and Howard Cosell.

He has golf gloves signed by Mark O’Meara and Johnny Miller. And pin flags from the 2000 U.S. Open signed by Nicklaus and the 2004 Masters signed by Phil Mickelson.

He has a basketball signed by Julius Erving. He has hockey pucks signed by Magic Johnson and James Worthy (it’s quite a story). A Joe Montana signed football.

“Everything means something to you,” Waddell said recently from his basement where much of the collection is displayed. “It’s all special to me.”

Membership does have its privileges.

On his mantle is a framed black and white photo, the famous shot of a diving Bobby Orr after he scored the game-winning goal in Game 4 of the 1970 Stanley Cup Finals. It is inscribed: “To Don, Given with the greatest respect. Bobby Orr”

He has the jerseys that Ilya Kovalchuk and Dany Heatley wore in their first games as Thrashers. He has Kovalchuk’s signed jersey from the 2004 All-Star game in Minnesota. He has Heatley’s signed jersey from the 2002 All-Star game in Los Angeles. He has a signed L.A. Kings jersey worn by Wayne Gretzky. Waddell and his wife housed Gretzky’s brother, Kevin, when he played in Flint, Michigan.

“There are some perks to being the GM,” Waddell said.

Spanning the decades Waddell has a photo of NHL legends Stan Makita and Bobby Hull, signed by each. He also has a photo of Brendan Shanahan and Steve Yzerman, signed by each.

“I would get the photo and carry it around with me,” Waddell said.

Waddell’s hobby really started in San Diego, where he was an executive with a minor-league hockey team.

“I got into it accidentally in San Diego with baseballs," he said. "I said, ‘You know what, this is kind of fun.’ I really didn’t get hockey stuff. It was a lot of fun to get other sports.”

Like Ted Williams. Once the owner of the San Diego franchise called Waddell to his home to drop off some tickets. There was Williams. Good thing Waddell carried boxes of Major League baseballs — he got them from an umpire — in the trunk of his car for just such an occasion.

Or Johnson and Worthy. The Lakers were playing a preseason game in San Diego and their locker room was near Waddell’s office. All he had readily available were hockey pucks.

“Magic said in all my years I’ve never signed a hockey puck,” Waddell said.

One of Waddell’s favorite items is a commemorative book from the 1998 Masters, signed by O’Meara. The two became friends when O’Meara bought tickets to the Orlando Solar Bears minor-league team for which Waddell worked. They relationship has continued and Waddell has played golf with O’Meara and his neighbor — Tiger Woods — four times. An autographed photo of the three hangs in Waddell’s office.