how sweet it is, the fruits of victory! a tommy lasorda through the mail success!

five times i have tried through the mail for tom lasorda's autograph on a 1978 topps card, not including the attempt by proxy i made by sending some tommy cards to friend cory out west who 'graphs at spring training and at dodger games in san diego. he came close for me once, but close is the difference between rubbery pasta and al dente.

i had gone the ebay route for tommy's 1978 topps card as part of my modest 1978 topps dodger autograph project after the first two ttm attempts went unfulfilled. even so, i didn't stop trying for the real deal. every once in a while, a success would pop up for tommy at sports card forum, and my hopes would be buoyed. so, last saturday when i checked the mail, the los angeles postmark got me a bit excited. not because i expected it to be tommy, but because it was likely a dodger return.

it was tommy!

you may recall his victory cry from the 1988 season - 'how sweet it is - the fruits of victory!'.  never mind the singular/plural grammatical error - it feels good to see this card in my mailbox.

as a side note, i have also continued to try for terry forster, steve yeager, and even ted martinez, (and i would try for a ttm success with vic davalillo but i don't know that he's in this country), while hoping at some point ed goodson decides to sign some autographs. i have even gone back to the well with some other 1978 topps dodgers as evidenced by the second mike garman auto i have received through the mail

which came the same day as the tommy shown above.  this garman is for my loosely sought after 1978 topps autographed set. i'm not really trying to get the whole set autographed, but i am pretty close to having 200 or so cards signed. included in that number is a second 1978 topps tommy card that i bought on ebay fairly cheaply.  so, now i have three tommy autos.  i may smell a contest coming up...

i am especially happy about this return because i saw that tommy will be signing autographs at a frank & sons show in the near future. small flats are $99 (!) which i took as a sign that tommy would not be signing for free through the mail anymore, even as hit or miss as it has been in the past.

just for good measure, i'll update my modest 1978 topps dodgers autograph project - here's the tally:

team card (red adams) - through the mail success!
team card (mark cresse) - through the mail success!
team card (john hale) - through the mail success!
team card (peter o'malley) - through the mail success!
team card (boog powell) - through the mail success!
dusty baker - through the mail success!
glenn burke - ebay success!
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! and through the mail 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 - through the mail success!
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!

28/29 = 97%

thanks tommy!  i'll stop sending you mail now.  unless you are tight with ed goodson.