Elmont Online

Albany

Baseballs signed by famous sluggers like Babe Ruth and Joe DiMaggio are priceless heirlooms, cherished by collectors and passed from parent to child.

So what about a ball signed by Malcolm Wilson?

No, he's not some obscure, tired Red Sox player — Wilson was the unelected governor of New York. And Gary Hayes may be the only man on earth who has Wilson's signature on a baseball.

"I thought it would be neat to have a baseball with every governor on it," said Hayes, a 59-year-old retired teacher from Middleburgh, Schoharie County.

He's up to seven scribbles now after asking Gov. Andrew Cuomo to mark his ball this August at the State Fair near Syracuse. The younger Cuomo signed just below the signature made years ago by his father, Gov. Mario Cuomo.

Hayes first started collecting signatures during the elder Cuomo's administration. Both Wilson — who held office for a year after Nelson Rockefeller became Gerald Ford's vice president in 1973 — and his successor, Hugh Carey, who died earlier this year, were out of office and agreed to sign the ball after Hayes mailed it to their law offices.

Most other governors he met during the traditional New Year's Day open houses at the Executive Mansion on Eagle Street. Hayes made an appointment at the Capitol when David Paterson was governor.

"They've all been very generous with their time," said Hayes. "They said it might take Paterson a long time because he was legally blind. ... I got the impression from the conversation that — if you take a look at what he wrote, it was very large print — that they didn't want people to see the governor do that." (Paterson did, however, sign numerous pieces of legislation in public using a technique that brought him almost nose-to-paper.)

Most other governors have opted for some message near their signatures, ranging from clever to perfunctorily cordial.

"Best Wishes," wrote Wilson.

"It's a whole NEW ballgame, Gary. Thanks for your help," George Pataki wrote in 1995.

"Day One!" Eliot Spitzer exclaimed in 2007.

"Regards," Andrew Cuomo scribbled earlier this year.

Hayes didn't have a particularly cogent explanation of why he started collecting the signatures. "I was always a jock at heart, and I didn't really appreciate the significance of a lot of history," he said.

But slowly that changed, particularly as he learned the stories of local Revolutionary War figures in Schoharie County. His civic engagement probably peaked when he served as Middleburgh mayor between 2000 and 2004. (He ran on a specially created local line.)

Hayes keeps the ball in a safe in his home, which was relatively undamaged by flooding in the village caused by Tropical Storm Irene. He taught health and physical education, but because he never had his own classroom, he never displayed the ball for his students. He is childless. He's not sure what will happen to the ball.

"I'm getting old. ... I might give it to somebody. I really didn't think about it 25 years ago," Hayes said. "I'd like to display it somewhere — I'm just not sure where."

And while he avoided talk of politics during an interview, he did when prompted finally betray a preference for one of the governors whose signature he's harnessed.

"I guess it would be Malcolm Wilson," he said.

Reach Vielkind at 454-5081 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .