after going for about a year with no response to my through the mail requests to terry forster, i jumped on this card when i saw it on ebay.
what a terrible airbrushing job. as always, i didn't pay too much, and i choose to believe it is legit. it looks similar to the few certified autos i have seen, and i would assume that if one is going to blindly forge his auto, they might wind up with something in which the last name more closely resembles 'forster' than 'foster' which is how his auto really looks.
anyway, forster came to the dodgers in 1978 as a free agent following his one-year stint in pittsburgh. he became the dodgers' closer as they successfully defended their national league crown, saving 22 games in 47 appearances and posting a 1.93 era.
in the 1978 postseason, forster won the game 4 pennant clincher against the phillies, striking out mike schmidt and garry maddox in his only inning of work. he also made 3 appearances in the world series against the yankees but didn't figure in any of the decisions. for his career in the postseason (1978 and 1981) he was unscored upon with 9 strikeouts in 7.2 innings of work.
as great as that is, it may be forster's batting that we should truly appreciate. had forster not gone o for 4 in 1985 with the braves, he would have retired with a batting average over .400. in fact, if he had had just one fewer hitless at bat in his career, he would have eclipsed .400. as it is, his lifetime average is .397 with 31 hits in 78 at bats. strangely enough though, given tommy lasorda's use of fernando and even tim leary as pinch hitters, it doesn't appear forster was ever called upon in that role during his stint in la (he did pinch hit for the pirates in 1977). i suppose it did allow lasorda to worry less about the pitcher's spot in the lineup when he would send forster out there in the 7th or 8th inning to finish things off. he got his first two career hits in 1971 against andy messersmith of the angels. later, he and messersmith would be teammates on the 1979 dodgers, and forster would pitch in relief in messersmith's final big league game.
this is the 26th piece in my modest 1978 topps dodger autograph project.
here's the tally:
team card (red adams) - through the mail success!
team card (mark cresse) - through the mail success!
dusty baker - through the mail success!
glenn burke
ron cey - through the mail success!
vic davalillo - ebay success!
terry forster - ebay success!
mike garman - through the mail success!
steve garvey - through the mail success!
ed goodson
jerry grote - through the mail success!
burt hooton - through the mail success!
charlie hough - through the mail success!
tommy john - in person/through the mail success!
lee lacy - through the mail success!
tom lasorda - ebay success!
dave lopes - through the mail success!
ted martinez - ebay success!
rick monday - in person/through the mail success!
manny mota - through the mail success!
johnny oates - ebay success!
doug rau - through the mail success!
lance rautzhan - through the mail success!
rick rhoden
bill russell - through the mail success!
reggie smith - through the mail success!
elias sosa - through the mail success!
don sutton - through the mail success!
steve yeager - ebay success!
nlcs (davey lopes) - through the mail success!
26/29 = 90%
2 comments:
Cool project, I like your thinking.
Love the project and don't mean to be negative, but that looks way too neat to be real. It may be, but Forster always seems to be a sloppy sig. Hopefully it came from a trusting source or was not too pricy.
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