A Yogi Berra photo gift for President Obama

Jan. 7, 2010 - PRLog -- When President Obama was vacationing on Martha's Vinyard a few months ago, Tom Murro, an investment banker, happened to be vacationing there as well! Murro and his ten year old daughter, Lauren, got a rare opportunity to meet The President, while he was playing golf.

"President Obama was playing golf on the Vineyard and I was talking to Spike Lee and his family on the course with my 10 year old daughter. Murro says that the secret service asked them to leave the area, but since Spike Lee's property bordered the Golf Course, Lee invited Tom and his daughter to wait on his property and catch a glimpse of the President.
Then the Secret Service cleared the entire course and allowed us to stay because of Spike, can you imagine? It was a very intense moment when the President pulled right up to us. The President was warm and showed us such respect and kindness, we owe it all to Spike and his gracious family.
"Murro has curiously received more than his share of 15 minutes of fame. In the span of four months since his random meeting of the president, Murro, has a list of roughly 40 celebrities he has met, crediting it to his meeting with Obama.

"It's really opened doors," said Murro. "I mean, I'm just a regular Bergen County guy and then all of a sudden I'm meeting all these stars and my daughter got to go behind the scenes on Sesame Street to meet the puppeteers, which is unheard of."

He was recently spotted earlier this month on the red carpet at the Gotham International Film Awards in New York City interviewing some of the A-list celebs, all thanks to that one photo he took with the president.

"I don't really know how it all happened," explained Murro. "It's so weird, but when I asked if I could attend they said, 'sure' and actually gave me a spot on the red carpet after seeing my photo with Obama."

Starting to build a reputation, Murro interviewed a slew of stars as "the celebrity magnet" reporter, which has inspired him to create his own Web site — www.celebritymagnet.com.

Murro wanted to thank  President Obama and Spike Lee for giving tham amazing photos and memories, so he obtained a very special gift for him. "I actually called Yogi Berra's son to set things up, I told him the story of our once in a lifetime encounter with the President and Yogi was more than willing to be a part of my request. The photo we created is very unique and only two others like it exist! Of course one for me, [one for The President,] and one I'll be sending to Spike as my thank you to him as well. The photo is of Jackie Robinson sliding into home plate at the 1955 world series, he was called safe that day and the Brooklyn Dodgers won the world series. Yogi was the catcher and had a difference of opinion, I got him to share that in the photo...Yogi signed it '' Dear Mr. President, He was out! '' and we know history tells us a different story. This is something I'm sure the President would love to have."

Murro would like to personally deliver the signed photo the Obama, but he has had difficulty. The Whitehouse has not been at all helpful, one person there told him to''just hold onto it until you see him again''..yeah right!
Tom and his daughter would be content knowing that the President received the token of their appreciation, but doesn't want to just drop the rare and irreplaceable autographed photo in the mail where it could get lost. "I've tried for the past 2 months and now it just sits on my desk."  Tom is Hopeful that the story gets enough media coverage to grab the attention of someone at the Whitehouse to finally have the gift safely delivered.