It's an odd thing to do for sure. Never heard of another paper doing anything like this.
But the dude was a huge, huge, HUGE star in high school and the GDP considers itself - rightly - the hometown paper of Gwinnett County. Thereby, the hometown paper of Jeff Francoeur, who is still beloved in that part of the state.
It's a nice goodwill gesture.
I'd be interested to know how many people actually stopped by to sign it. And how they present it to him.