October 2010
50 Balls
My most recent signed ball, that of MLB HOF umpire Doug Harvey, is the 50th signed ball in my collection. Not bad, considering I’ve only been collecting signed balls for the last couple years.
Here are some random facts about my collection:
First signed ball: 1989 by Blue Jays catcher Ernie Whitt. After that, I didn’t add another until 2007, so I’ve accumulated 49 in three years.
My favourite: Roberto Alomar. One of my two favourite players as a kid.
Blue Jays signed balls: 20 total (40%).
Hall of Famers: Seven total; Robin Roberts, Bobby Doerr, Bob Feller, Lee MacPhail, Doug Harvey, Duke Snider, Rollie Fingers.
Coolest Hall of Fame ball: My Robin Roberts ball is special to me, as he died about two weeks after I received this ball in the mail.
TTM vs. in-person: 41 balls through the mail; nine signed in-person.
Best prospects: Blue Jays Adeiny Hecchavaria; Mariners Dustin Ackley
Future HOF balls: Five: I believe Cito Gaston, Roberto Alomar, Tony La Russa, Bud Selig and Omar Vizquel will all make the Hall.
Non-baseball signed ball: James Earl Jones, received this summer TTM, because of his role in Field of Dreams.
Best young player currently in the Majors: Baltimore’s Matt Wieters. (Though I hope Toronto’s Kyle Drabek is selection 1a on this list.)
Balls signed by women: Two; signed by outstanding softball players Jennie Finch and Cat Osterman.
Duplicate signed balls: Two; both signed by Minnesota’s Pat Neshek, arguably baseball’s best signer. I got him TTM and IP.
Coolest inscription: “The Shot Heard ‘Round The World,” added to my ball by Bobby Thomson. He signed this ball about two months before dying earlier this year.
Balls still out there: I’m missing only three balls; one from Toronto’s Jesse Carlson, sent in 2009, and two from Stephen Strasburg, both sent this year when he was signing for a short period. I hope to still get the Carlson one back; doubtful on the Strasburg front.
Hopefully, I’ll get all my balls photographed and uploaded before long. In the meantime, thanks for reading. Looking forward to my next 50!
100th Entry!
To mark my 100th entry in this blog, I’ve got a cool addition to my collection to share.
This week, I added another Hall of Famer to my collection. Here it is:
Doug Harvey, a former MLB umpire who was inducted to the Hall in July 2010, signed this ball for me, care of his home, in about two and a half months. Harvey, who’s now 80 years old, is regarded as one of the game’s best umpires. He worked the National League from 1962 to 1992, and was nicknamed “God” by players for his encyclopedic knowledge of the game’s rules. He umpired in five World Series, and was crew chief for two.
Harvey is the seventh current Hall of Famer I’ve added to my collection, and I’m glad to get this ball back.
Thanks for reading!
Mailday – October 22
It’s been a pretty good week at the ol’ mailbox, especially given the drought I’ve gone through this month. Today, I received one more card for my collection. Here it is:
Washington National Jesus Flores signed this 2010 Allen & Ginter card for me in 75 days. Although I sent it to the Nats, it was postmarked from Florida; obviously, he’d taken his mail home after the season and sent it back from there. This marks my fifth signed card from the 2010 Ginter set, and second of a current player. (My others are the former world’s fastest man Ivory Crockett, Negro Leaguer Hank Presswood and bowling champion Kelly Kulick.)
This wraps up a pretty good mail week — three cards in total.
Mailday – October 20
Several months back, I pulled a 2007 Upper Deck Masterpieces card featuring the 1969 “Miracle” Mets. I liked the look of the card, and considering many of that World Series-winning team are good signers, decided to pursue my first ever multi-signed card.
First, I sent it to Ed Kranepool, the Mets first baseman who hit a home run in game three of the series. It came back looking like this:
Then, I sent it off to Al Weis, an infielder who was huge in the World Series; he drove in the winning run in game two, and homered in game five. Here’s how it looked after Weis’ signature:
Recently, I sent it off to Ken Boswell, the team’s second baseman. And it just came back, looking like this:
(The Boswell signature didn’t show up all that well, but I’m still pleased with it.)
I’m pretty excited to have three signatures on the card, and soon, it’ll go out again!
Mailday – October 19
It’s been a little while since my mailbox has yielded something exciting, but I’m happy to report I added another card to my signed 2008 Allen & Ginter collection.
Here it is:
Wily Mo Pena signed this card for me in about four months, care of his Independent League team, the Bridgeport Blueclaws. I am pretty happy to get this one back for a couple key reasons:
a) Pena is a tough signer at times, and sometimes, former Big Leaguers playing independent ball aren’t all that thrilled;
b) A couple months after signing with Bridgeport, Pena was signed to a Minor League deal with the Padres, so he wasn’t in Bridgeport very long.
This success marks the 30th ’08 A&G card I’ve added to my collection. Of these, 22 are baseball players, and eight are different “champions.” I’ll scan the non-baseball ladies and gentlemen and post them here at some point soon.
Mailday – October 7
With the 2010 MLB regular season done, I don’t anticipate too many more successes to come rolling in. That said, I still have a bunch of requests out in the wind, so I hope I’ll get a lot of them back. Anyway, I received two more cards last week, making for a pretty decent week.
Here’s the first one:
Chicago White Sox rookie Sergio Santos signed this 2010 Ginter card for me in about a month, care of the team. If you’re a Sox fan, you’ve got to love what this pitcher did in his rookie season. After beginning his career as a shortstop, Santos switched to pitcher and made the Chicago 2010 Opening Day roster. He ended up 2-2 as a reliever, with an ERA of 2.96 and 56 strikeouts in 51.2 innings of work. This is the fourth 2010 Ginter return for me, and the first of a baseball player.
Here’s card number two:
Toronto Blue Jays coach Brian Butterfield signed and returned this card in three weeks care of the team. This is a Jays team set from around 2001 or 2002, given out at home games during that time. I found it while going through some old stuff, so I figured I’d give Butterfield a shot. It’s another success for my Jays collection.
That’s all for now; my fingers are crossed for more good baseball stuff this week!
Mailday – October 5
It’s been a quiet last couple weeks as the Major League Baseball regular season wrapped up, but a few arrivals came in yesterday.
All three are Toronto Blue Jays guys — two current Jays and one from yesteryear.
Here’s the first one:
Jays outfielder Dewayne Wise signed this 2010 Allen & Ginter insert for me in about six weeks, care of the team. Unfortunately, this card doesn’t feature him in his Jays uniform, but it’s a pretty nice card nonetheless. It depicts his sensational late-game catch last year to keep Mark Buehrle’s perfect game intact, and I like Wise’s nice, bold signature on the lower half of the card.
Here’s card number two:
Next up is my first autographed card of one of Toronto’s top young pitchers, Brett Cecil. He signed this card for me five months, care of the team. Toronto’s clubhouse staff is notorious for hanging onto TTM requests and sending them all out at the end of the season, so I hope to get a few more Jays over the next month or so. I got Cecil last season on a ticket stub TTM, and it’s cool to add him to his 2010 Topps rookie card.
Here’s card number three:
Last, but not least, is a card I send in to a private signing in Baltimore. This one cost me $10, but I’m happy to add former Jays pitcher Mike Flanagan to my collection. The scan looks odd; something about the card’s texture made it that way. But Flanagan’s blue signature looks great. Flanagan lost the first ever Jays game I went to, back in 1988 against Oakland. I was tempted to ask him to inscribe, “I blew a lead in your first game,” but went against it. This guy didn’t do much in a Jays uniform, but he was ridiculous for the O’s, winning the Cy Young Award in 1979. In four seasons (1977-80) he won a total of 73 games with 60 complete games!
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