Mailday – August 3

Another few things to report today, a day after the Jays beat the Stankees for the second straight game. In the first game, they went against A.J. Burnett, which easily accounts for the win. In the second, Toronto was powered by four home runs, including another by league leader Jose Bautista. Love it!

Back to the mailbox: Three more cards for my 2008 Topps Allen & Ginter collection. The first, an insert of Brad Ausmus, is pretty cool. The Ginter set includes 50 insert cards; one per American state. I guess the point is to show there are Major Leaguers from throughout the country. Anyway, the state of Connecticut is represented by Ausmus, who signed this card for me in just 28 days, care of his team.

I’m pretty pumped about the second card, a base card of James Loney. Loney signed this c/o his team in 102 days, and I think the blue signature looks great on the card, because of his blue Dodgers uniform.

Lastly, San Francisco catching prospect Steve Holm signed this card in 28 days, care of his AAA team. I like the look of his signature, but don’t know if he’ll be in the Bigs for a while — with the Giants, anyway. Buster Posey is having a great rookie season and I think Holm will get lost in the shuffle. Either way, I appreciate getting this autograph back.

The insert card gives me two signed inserts in the set, while the other two bring me up to 20 signed cards. I guess that means 330 to go ….