The first time Tom McDonough was in the presence of Ted Williams, he couldn't speak.

And McDonough is a guy for whom conversation comes as naturally as breathing; a guy who has talked his way onto his own sports radio talk show; a guy who hates the Yankees, but will wear his Yankee ring because its a sure conversation starter.

He has run the popular Cranston Sports Collectors Show for 30 years, and has his own collection of baseball memorabilia, including personally signed autographs from some of the biggest names in the game. People he often refers to on a first name basis: Joe (as in DiMaggio) and George (thats Mr. Steinbrenner to you).

Tom McDonough loves baseball and he loves to talk about baseball.

Sometimes these baseball conversations lead to unexpected places. While working in the state welfare department in the late 1970s, a chat with a coworker turned to the topic of baseball. She could easily see that McDonough was passionate about the subject. She kept saying, Youd like talking to my brother. Youd really enjoy talking with my brother, says McDonough. I said, Whos your brother? And she told me. Her brother was Lou Gorman, general manager of the newly formed Seattle Mariners. I said Oh, yeah. Ive never met him. And then one thing led to another and he called me. They talked baseball for 45 minutes, and the next thing you know, McDonough landed a part-time job scouting players for the Mariners. The two men would reconnect later during Gormans tenure as general manager of the Red Sox (19841993).

Ill talk to anybody, says McDonough.

But Ted Williams was a different story. Hes my hero, says McDonough. Everybody has somebody [when theyre] growing up. Since I was a kid, Ted was my guy.

McDonough, who lives in Cranston, was born in 1938, the year before Ted Williams rookie year. While his passion for baseball was emerging on the fields and sand lots of Providences lower East Side, Williams was slugging his way into history as the greatest hitter in baseball at Fenway Park.

McDonoughs baseball fever got into full swing when the Red Sox went to the World Series in 1946. The Sox lost in game 7 to the St. Louis Cardinals, but McDonough was hooked. By the next season, he was in it full blast.

A pack of baseball cards cost a nickel back then. He would keep the good cards in a shoebox, but many of them wound up in the spokes of his bike. Youd get a hundred Gus Bells, he says, but youd never get a Ted Williams.

He just commanded so much respect when he used to walk to the plate, says McDonough. Nobody would ever throw at him either. Never throw at Ted. Hed hurt you. Hed hit it out of the park. He was just a tough, tough hitter. The greatest hitter Ive ever seen.

Williams was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in the late 1960s. By then, McDonough had left home, gone into the service, gone to college, married Pat, and started a family. The collection of baseball cards he had as a kid had disappeared, probably tossed during a spring cleaning.

One Saturday about 37 years ago, McDonough took a drive to Millville, Mass., to check out a sports collectors show he had read about in the newspaper. I went inside and it was like: instant addiction, says McDonough. In that old VFW hall, he rediscovered that passion for baseball. He spent the entire day browsing through cards, programs and yearbooks, and talking with dealers. He came home with a stack of 1953 Topps Cards and a revived interest in baseball collecting that would never wane again. In fact, it took on a life of its own.

In 1976, he started the Sports Collectors Show with members of the St. Josephs Mens Guild as a fundraiser for their church, Immaculate Conception in Cranston. The show was a big hit, and McDonough quickly earned a reputation as a knowledgeable collector.

He caught the attention of Gus Parmet, who was hosting one of the first sports talk shows in R.I. history from WJARs radio station on the fifth floor of the Outlet Company. McDonough was a guest on Parmets show and was such a success that he was invited back as a regular.That led to guest appearances on Chuck Wilsons show on WEAN, and other shows with Wilson on WICE and WPRO. Sunday Sports Alive was McDonoughs own show on WEAN, and he also had a regular Monday and Friday night show on WWON in Woonsocket. It was all part-time work, from the late 1970s into the early 90s.

It was fun, says McDonough. I got to talk to a lot of different people. People asking you for your opinion, and I have an opinion about just about everything. I felt comfortable doing it. And I still feel comfortable if anybody would ever ask me!

Having your own sports radio talk show and the press credentials that go along with it comes in handy when youre a sports memorabilia collector. Trips to Fenway Park became a regular thing. It wasnt unusual for McDonough to go to 40 or more games in a season; interviewing people for his radio show, collecting autographs and getting his picture taken with players.

Along with the press credentials came a field pass and game ticket for a guest, and McDonough would often bring his sons Tom and Chris and friends to get this rare behind-the-scenes look at Fenway.

I was up at Fenway Park with my brother Bob, who is a little younger than I am. And hes a big Ted Williams guy too. And were standing at the batting cage watching batting practice. All of a sudden I hear, Get your (expletive) arm up, Jimmy, says McDonough. I turn around, and its him.

The booming voice belonged to none other than Ted Williams. He was wearing an old pair of chinos and a cardigan sweater with a hole in the elbow and he was giving Jim Rice hitting instructions.

Rice is hitting the ball and hes telling Rice to keep his elbow in or something like that. And hes swearing at him and everything. McDonough looked at his brother, whose mouth was gaping. We couldnt even talk, you know. God almighty. Ted Williams.

McDonoughs gift of gab may have failed him that day, but another opportunity presented itself a few years later at a Hall of Fame induction weekend in Cooperstown, N.Y. McDonough spotted Williams alone on a bench at a tennis court, watching his son John Henry Williams play. Somehow he was able to get beyond his awe and approach Williams, who was congenial. Williams told McDonough that if he hadnt been a baseball player he probably would have become a professional tennis player. The hand-eye coordination, says McDonough.

Over the years, McDonough would meet Williams several more times at Cooperstown when they had Hall of Fame inductions. You used to be ableto sidle up to him and get a ball signed and sit down and talk to him, says McDonough. And he was very good. Hes the kind of a guy youd like to sit down and have beer with.

One might say the same about McDonough. His interviewing skills came with his profession as a clinical social worker, but by nature hes an affable guy who is just as comfortable shooting the breeze with the commissioner of baseball as he is with his next door neighbor.

Hes had lunch with Joe DiMaggio and arranged for a police escort to Logan Airport for Joel Skinner (coach for the Cleveland Indians), whose wife was about to give birth in Cleveland. Hall of Famer Lou Brock left an interview with McDonough to clear his throat after a fly flew down it while they were talking, but graciously returned to finish the interview. He found himself in elite company at an airport one time where he was talking with Bart Giammati (the former Yale president who went on to become baseball commissioner) when Sen. John Chafee approached to greet Giammati. He was at ease talking with both of them as long as they were talking about baseball.

Some players werent quite so approachable. On a cold September night in 1977, McDonough was sitting in the Yankees dugout with his tape recorder when Thurman Munson, sporting a three-day growth of beard and sipping a cup of coffee, sat down next to him. So I said, Well, this is my opportunity, right? says McDonough. I said, Excuse me, Thurman. I said, Would you sign a ball for me? He looked at me and he said, Why should I sign a ball for you when you write that crap about me all year long? I said, I didnt write anything about you. You probably have me confused with somebody else. I said, Im not a writer. He said, What are you doing here, then? I work for a radio station. He said, Aahhh, you guys are all alike, and he starts to mumble under his breath. So he grabbed the ball from me and a pen and signed it and threw it back at me. I got it. And he got up and hes swearing and he went back downstairs again.

Some autographs are a little easier to come by, such as the baseball autographed by Bobby Thompson of the New York Giants, and Ralph Branca of the Brooklyn Dodgers. They appear at sports collector shows together because of their connection in baseball history. Thompsons home run off Branca, known as The shot heard round the world, won the pennant for the Giants in their historic 1951 comeback season.

McDonough tries to work such themes into his pieces because, he says, they have more meaning. He takes a commemorative Fenway Park bat made by the Cooperstown bat company every time he goes to Cooperstown for a Hall of Fame induction. Over the years the bat has been signed by such former Red Sox players as Roger Clemens, Bobby Doerr, Carlton Fisk, Carl Yastrzemski, Wade Boggs, Dwight Evans and Johnny Pesky. Its a nice thing to keep building on, says McDonough.

Besides autographs, McDonough also likes to collect bats, rings and press pins. Much of his collection is so valuable, he keeps it in safety deposit boxes. The tapes of his interviews with ball players add another dimension to his collection. Its the items with memories attached that are the most valuable to him.

For the last 23 years, McDonough has been sharing the pictures of himself with the people hes met on Christmas cards. His first card was with Howard Cosell. The card read, Merry Christmas from Tom and Howard. Last years card was a picture with John Henry, owner of the Red Sox. The years in between have featured such famous faces as Carl Yastrzemski, Yogi Berra, Marge Schott, Carlton Fisk and late Speaker of the House Tip ONeill (he was at Yazs induction ceremony at the Baseball Hall of Fame). He knows people who collect his Christmas cards. Ive created a demand, he jokes.

The collectors show McDonough runs is coming up on its 31st year. Its held at the West Valley Inn on the day before the Super Bowl. He prides himself on running an old time collectors show no celebrities demanding hundreds of dollars for autographs.

People can come and spend the whole day for three bucks, talk to people. Once a year everybody gets together. All the collecting freaks get together and they sit around and they talk to each about what happened 25, 50 years ago, and I love that. I really love that aspect of the show.

If you go, be sure to strike up a conversation with McDonough. There are many more stories where these came from.