This podcast episode features an engaging discussion with Lou Vigilotti, the author of "Collective Dream: A Sports Collector's Journey." The crux of our conversation revolves around Vigilotti's extensive experience in collecting sports memorabilia, which has culminated in the creation of his book that not only recounts the tales behind his autographed items but also shares the stories of the athletes he encountered along the way. We delve into the emotional connections forged through these interactions, illuminating how each autograph carries with it a unique narrative. Vigilotti's anecdotes provide insight into the world of sports collectibles while evoking nostalgia for listeners who share a passion for such treasures. As we explore these themes, we invite our audience to reflect on their own experiences and the significance of the memorabilia they cherish. Rich Bennett graciously introduces the episode, acknowledging the sponsorship from the Book Fair at Bel Air, a cherished community event that convenes over a hundred authors and readers annually. This fair serves as a delightful platform for families to engage with literature, participate in activities, and forge connections with the authors behind their favorite books. As the discussion transitions into the primary focus, Bennett welcomes Lou Vigilotti, the esteemed author of 'Collective Dream', a book that encapsulates his extensive journey through the realm of sports memorabilia collection. Vigilotti, reflecting on his three-and-a-half-decade-long passion for collecting, shares anecdotes that illuminate the emotional connections he has forged with the sports icons he has encountered.

Takeaways:

• The Book Fair at Bel Air is a significant annual event that celebrates literature, authors, and readers.
• Lou Vigilati's book, Collective Dream, recounts his extensive journey of collecting sports memorabilia over many years.
• The book not only shares personal anecdotes but also provides insights into the athletes behind the autographs.
• Vigilati emphasizes the importance of storytelling in his book, making it relatable to collectors and enthusiasts alike.
• The author aims for readers to feel connected to the stories of their favorite athletes through his experiences.
• Readers can purchase Collective Dream from various retailers including Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Links referenced in this episode:

• Home - Book Fair at Bel Air
• Lou Vigliotti

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• Book Fair at Bel Air
• Lou Vigilotti
• Collective Dream
• GE Capital
• Jack Nicklaus
• Johnny Miller
• Reggie Jackson
• Joe Theisman
• Rocky Blier
• John Unitas
• Brooks Robinson
• Mickey Mantle
• Aaron Judge
• Amazon
• Barnes and Noble
• Walmart Books

Before we begin today's pitch, I want to thank the Book Fair at Bel Air for sponsoring this episode. Every year, this free community event brings Together more than 100 authors and readers of all ages to celebrate the magic of books.

There are stories to discover, activities for kids, and plenty of chances to meet the writers who inspire us. To learn more or join their email list, visit book fairellaire.org what if discovering your next great read only took a few minutes?

Welcome to the Author Pitch, the short form podcast where writers from around the world deliver a powerful pitch for their book and read a standout excerpt in their own voice. I'm Rich Bennett. This is the Author Pitch and your next great read starts here.

Welcome to the Author Pitch, where writers from around the world deliver a powerful pitch for their book and read a short excerpt in their own voice. I'm your host, Rich Bennett, and today's guest is Lou Vigilotti, author of Collective Dream. And this is a book that if you're.

Well, I'm not going to say anything. I'll let him say so. First of all, how you doing, Lou?

Very good. Thanks, Rich. Thanks for having me on. I appreciate it.

Oh, it's an honor. All right. I want. I wanted to go right into it and start with the pitch.

Give listeners a tight, high impact overview, what the book is, who it's for, why it matters, and what makes it unique.

Okay, so Collective Dream came about. It's Collective Dream, A sports collector's journey is what I call it.

And it came about because I've been collecting signed sports memorabilia for over 30 years, 35 years. And I started collecting baseball cards like all little kids did.

And eventually, you know, there was a story in the book about how mom got rid of the cards. And I'm sure everybody can appreciate that. Yes, I know.

And then, so then as more and more card companies came out, you know, flirting tops, and they came out with all these different series, I said, you know what, I can't do this anymore. Right. So I was collecting with my kids, but it was like series one series, two series. That's enough of that.

So I started going to sports shows, signing shows that would be out in Philadelphia, down in Chantilly, Virginia, and, and so on. And I started getting autographs and baseball, and I'm sorry, on baseballs, footballs, helmets and so on, so forth, Photos. Right.

And that's how it started. And it just continued to grow. And every autograph has a story. When you meet the individual, something transpires between you.

You have this conversation, you have A story, you joke or whatever it happens to be. And I just was starting to collect these. And what happened was people would look at my collection and they would say, hey, that's a pretty cool ball.

Reggie Jackson. Where did you get that? And then I tell them the story behind that, and I started doing that.

And then somebody one day said, why don't you just write down the stories? Yeah, And I thought, that's a pretty good idea. So I started thinking about it.

Now, when I started out, my son was going with me to the shows, so he was getting to meet all these, you know, sports icons, what I call them. And then after he got a little bit older, my daughter started coming with me, and then my wife started coming with me.

So all of a sudden I had people, you know, the kids were involved, the wife was involved, and I was getting photographs of me and, you know, John Unitis, me and Brooks Robinson, me and all the other people. So it just started building. And then I said, you know what? I'm going to write a book of all the stories dedicated to my. My wife and my kids.

And it's something that they'll have in the future and my grandson will have in the future to be able to look at. But the book itself is about. It's the stories behind getting the autographs, as I said.

Yeah.

Some of the humorous things, some of the unique, sometimes odd stories about how you got the autograph, what I had to do to get them sometimes, and it's just built up on that. And like I said, the book has. It's not that long a book. It's about maybe 100 pages.

Okay.

And they're very short chapters. I'll call them chapters. Right.

And you have people in there like John Unitis, Brooks Robinson, Jack Nicklaus, Reggie Jackson, Rocky Blier, Joe Theisman.

Oh, wow.

Stories behind Mickey Mantle. Not Mickey Mantle's autograph, but the stories behind some of these things.

And what I tried to do in the book was not just tell the story of me getting the autograph, but also throw in some statistics on the individuals so that when a reader is looking at this and they say, oh, Joe Theisman, okay, Washington Redskins, down the road and so on and so forth. You know, they can look at it and go, oh, he played here. Oh, he started out with cfl, you know, so it's.

There's some interesting facts associated with. And then the story goes into, how did you get the autograph?

I love that.

And, you know, the exchange between maybe me and the individual and so on. So that's what it is. And it's, you know, I've had some good reception on it.

I mean people that have read it said, you know, it really brings back memories now. Yeah. You know, some of the names I mentioned obviously are a little bit older. They're not the more modern.

Right. Not the modern day players. Yeah, yeah.

Or the Aaron judges of the world or anything like that. But, but the stories.

And I find that those parties that I mentioned, they're more receptive to the autograph and they like when you're conversing with them, they like telling the story of their career and you're absorbing all of that. So that's what makes it a really what I call unique and.

Absolutely. Yeah. I have to add something there though, because you did bring back a memory when you said your mother threw away some of this stuff.

I don't think my mother ever threw away any of the things. However, I know if I saw what I put in my bicycle spokes with a, with a clothes pin and used to make sounds of a motorcycle.

If I had any good cars that I used for that, I would really be upset. And who knows, I may have you as kids. We don't know.

You might have had a Mickey Mantle in there.

Yeah.

That card could be worth few thousand bucks today.

That between that and messing up our Redline, Hot Wheels, our GI Joes with the real hair.

Yep.

God only knows how much money we threw. All right, so let's go ahead and hear the excerpt you brought for us today.

Okay, so it's, it's not very long and because the Masters just ended, the little one I'm going to to read out here is about Jack Nicklaus. The Golden Bear. Right, The Golden Bear, I should say. So let's see. So this, and I used to just to preface this with.

Because of what I did for a living, there would be some golf tournaments that I would be able to participate in. They would be celebrity golf tournaments where you would invite people in.

And one of the chapters in the story is a great story which I'm not going to read because it's about Willie Mays, but I want everybody to read the book, buy the book and. Right, exactly. But this also happened at a golf hobby. So excuse me.

The hall of Fame golfers teed off in the afternoon for their practice round. We were instructed they were not to be bothered, so clear off the course after our golf day ends and head upstairs for cocktails and dinner.

Of course, everyone followed the rules. Well, almost everyone. We were at dinner, and the speeches were going on, and the people were waiting for the awards and such.

I looked out the window, knowing I was not going to win any of the prizes with my golf game. And as I see coming up the 18th fairway, there's Jack Nicklaus now. I said everyone followed the rules to go to dinner. But I broke a rule at dinner.

As I excused myself on the table, made my way down to the path where the 18th green ends. As Jack rode up in his chauffeured golf cart, I stood squarely on the path, blocking the golf cart from going any further.

I said something like, Mr. Nicholas, I just want to say hello, and I think you're a great golfer. Pretty corny, but that's what came out. He looked at me, said, thank you, and then dead silence. I did not move. He didn't know what else to say or do.

He asked if I wanted something signed, and yes, thank you came out of my mouth when I realized I had nothing for him to sign. Quick thinking, though. I took off my name tag.

You know, the ones where your name and the company name is on a piece of paper and inserted into a plastic holder that pins to your shirt. I handed it to him. He smiled and said, lou Vigilante, GE Capital, and graciously signed it in black marker diagonally across my name. Thank you.

A handshake. I stepped out of the way and headed back to dinner.

A few minutes after I got back, one of the people at my table looked at my name tag, of course I had, and put it back on. And they said, is that signed by Jack Nicklaus? You weren't supposed to bother him. I guess I didn't follow all the rules that day.

That name tag is now pinned to a case with the golden bear logo that covers the head of a putter signed by Jack across its face. The putter was a gift given to me a few years later from a colleague after I told him the story of my name tag. Score.

Can't have the signature without the putter. So that's just one of the stories about, you know, how you encounter. You don't know how the. The athlete is going to react.

Yeah, he was very gracious and, you know, but it was. It was a.

It was a fun because we both had a little bit of a Laugh after he signed it because he's signing the name tag and shaking his head like, this is the best you have for me to sign is. I'm like, it's the only thing I have for you to sign.

And it gets me that you just stood in the path of the cart and wouldn't move. Like, were you frozen or what?

I just stood there like any other fan would that had there been fans. But as I said, no one was supposed to be down there, so.

Oh, God. Now, are some of the other ones as funny as that?

Yeah, yeah, the one with Reggie Jackson is pretty funny. That's. That's a good one. Johnny Unitis, there's a good one in there about him as well. Yeah, there. As I said, there's some.

There's some nice stories in there about these people. And I. I have to say every one of them that I've encountered that are included in this book have been very nice.

And whether it was a humorous thing that happened or something unique, all were very good sports about it. And I've had some follow up with a couple of these athletes because I've seen them multiple times now going to the different shows.

And we get a laugh out of it when I bring up the story. I was down in Chantilly a few months ago when they had a show, the Chantilly Expo show. And Joe Theisman was there and Rocky Blier was there.

Well, Rocky and I had corresponded for a while about the book and he said, well, send me a copy, I want to see it first. So I did. And then when the show happened, I happened to walk up to the table and I was holding the book and he goes, you're the guy.

And we had a good laugh about that and so on. But the story of Rocky, we go way back. He was speaker at my sports banquet when I was a senior in high school.

Oh, wow.

50 Years ago was the first time I met Rocky Blier and had a picture taken with him. Had another picture taken with him a few years ago and another one this past June when I was. When I was at the show.

And we all get a kick every year we get a kick out of it because, you know, picture me 50 years ago. Picture him 50 years ago, what we look like till today.

So, all right, so with all these autographs that you've gotten and those that are featured in the book, have. Have you sent autographed copies of your book to some of them people?

To Rocky, I did.

Okay.

To Rocky, I did. The other I've reached out to now Keep in mind, some of them are deceased.

Right, right.

I'm gonna be able to do anything there. But some of the others I did have reached out to and offered copies to them and asked them to have a little conversation with me on things.

So I'm waiting to hear back from some. Theisman was open to the idea. Waiting to hear back from him because, again, because I happened to see him in person and, yeah, he liked the book.

He was signing the book and laughing about it. So, yes, I have, and I'm hoping to get more. Let's put it that way.

Who. Who was the first. After the book was published. And this was published in January, right?

This was published about a year ago. Just about a year.

Oh, January of last year. Okay. Who was the first one to read the published copy, do you know?

I think it was Rocky Blair.

Okay.

Because. I mean, because I had had an encounter with him and he was at my sports banquet.

Right.

It felt like I knew him. Right, Right. So I reached out to him, and very graciously, he came back and said, I'd love to read the book.

And so I sent him the book, and he sent me a note back, and he said, hey, I really enjoyed the book. And he said, especially, I think, was chapter 14. Especially chapter 14. That's the one about him.

Right? Makes sense.

Yeah. So it was very nice. And then he. I had signed him. I signed a copy for him and. And then he signed my copy back.

Nice.

When I saw.

So what do you hope that readers feel after finishing reading the book?

Well, I think a couple of things, Rich. I think, first of all, I want them to just enjoy the stories. Right. And feel like they're part of it.

And if you're a collector, you can relate to what you're doing, whether it's sports collecting or whatever, Zippo lighters or. Or knives or anything. Right. You can relate to some of these things. But what I found is when I.

When I wrote the book, my niece is a professional writer. She writes books for a lot of the stars under a Ghostwriting.

Oh, wow.

And I sent it to her and I said, take a look at this. And she asked me, she said, uncle Lou, what. What do you want to get out of this thing? You want me to edit it? And I said, what do you think?

And she said, I would leave it the way it is because if I edit it, it's going to be professional. Right. And it's going to sound canned the way I read it now. And the way people have. That.

Have purchased a book, have Gotten back to me and so on, have said I can hear your voice tell the story with all of the different changes in it and so on and so forth. And I think that's what makes it a little more personal. I had emails from people in Texas and Oklahoma that have read the book.

And these are just normal, everyday people that are collectors, but they've come back to me and through my email because the email, my email address is on the book and said I felt like I was standing next to you when, when you were telling the story, when you were getting the autograph, I felt like I was next to you and I relate what it, what it's all about.

So any plans on doing an audio version of it?

Well, there you can. There's the hardcover book and there's an ebook, but I don't know about the, the audio version. Yeah, if I did, I would do it in my voice.

Yes.

Ryan Reynolds or George Clooney, you know,.

But it would make sense to do it in your voice because like you said, even that's why your niece didn't edit. Edit it.

It's.

It's more authentic coming from you. Yeah, yeah, I believe. All right, so now here's the hard question. Okay, what's next for you as an author?

That's a good question because I have a few more stories, you know, so the question is, is there another collective dream 2 or is there some kind of spin off on it? Right. And everybody keeps asking me about it and I keep saying, I'm thinking, I'm thinking.

And in fact the publisher of the book, I get emails from saying, are you ready? Are you ready? And I'm like, not quite. I'm working on it, you know, so.

So where can people actually purchase the book and actually follow you as well.

So you can purchase the book? It's on Amazon, it's on Barnes and Noble, it's on Walmart Books, another number of the other independent book places.

But you can go to my website, which is ljvigilati.com it's L J V I G L I O T T I dot com.

It'll take you to the website, you'll see a cop, what the COVID looks like, some of the, some of the excerpt, not really an excerpt of the stories, but a description of some of these.

There'll be some of the reviews that I've received on the book and like your podcast, I've done another podcast, a couple of other podcasts and you can listen to those podcasts as well. But we'll feature yours on the top once that happens.

Oh, well, thank you. So those of you listening, you know what I'm going to say when you purchase Collective Dream, A Sports Collector's Journey by Lou Vigilati. I almost.

I did.

Got it.

Okay. Make sure you leave a review everywhere you can.

Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes, and wherever you can leave a review, leave a review and don't pass it on to somebody else because you're going to want to read the stories again. Purchase copies for other people as well because just, just hear the story you read about Jack Nicklaus.

I know the other ones are just as good or if not better. So, Lou, I want to thank you so much. I can't wait to read this. This is. And I can't read. Wait to read the second one as well.

There you go.

Thanks for listening to the author pitch. I'm Rich Bennett, and until next time, keep turning pages and discovering new voices.

Thank you, Rich.