more through the mail successes to be thankful for

as i have done in previous years on the blog, i am taking some time today to be thankful for through the mail autograph successes.  it's nice of these players to have taken a bit of time and signed some cards for free, and i appreciate it.

jim fregosi was an early request in my ttm infancy. he signed a 1978 topps card for me, but when i came into a large lot of 1960's angel cards, i decided to go back to the well for a couple more autographs.  the former angel player and manager signed a 1968 topps card

and another 1978 topps card for me.

i had, up to this point, never asked any questions (other than 'would you please sign and return the enclosed cards' in a request, but i did ask fregosi about a black armband that the angels wore at some point during the 1962 season.  he didn't answer, but instead signed my letter of request.

i think i will try to ask don lee and lee thomas in future requests, unless anyone out there knows tha answer.  

thanks jim!

i also went back to ron fairly for a couple more autos.  i had previously received a 1962 topps and a 1978 o-pee-chee signed by fairly, but hoped to add a 1978 topps for my partially signed set, as well as a card from his expos days.  and so i did.

thanks ron!

ben oglivie also signed a 1973 topps card

and a 1978 topps card for me

i realized only around the time that i started this blog that i had been pronouncing his name incorrectly for about 30 years.  i would say 'ogle-vee' instead of 'oh-gli-vee'.  if you had asked me to spell his name, i would have swapped the 'i' and the 'l'.  i can spell 'yastrzemski' and 'mientkiewicz', as well as 'grudzielanek', but not 'oglivie' apparently.  

thanks ben!

as you may or may not know, most of my non-dodger ttm requests come from the 1978 topps set.  i have maybe about 250 cards signed from the set.  i am not really trying to complete a signed set, but i add to it when i can.  over the last few months, i have seen quite a few players from that set being added to the sportscardforum database.  that is good for me, as i have a bunch of doubles from the set that i can send out for autographs.

among the players who have signed for me in the last few months are:

jack brohamer

paul dade

jim mason

duffy dyer

john curtis

kiko garcia

chris knapp

ron schueler

dave revering

bill stein

and bob lacey

wait - what?  a 1982 topps card?  i had sent a '78 to lacey, but he returned a signed '82 instead.  no worries - i sent that off to patp and sent another '78 to lacey.  this time, there was no card confusion.

thanks jack and paul and jim and duffy and john and kiko and chris and ron and dave and bill and bob!

and happy thanksgiving to all!

the only willie mccovey final tribute

i am secure enough in my dodger fandom and blogginess that i can devote an entire point to a san francisco giant.  still, i will post it on the busiest travel day of the year when i assume fewer people than the usual dozen or so are reading.

when i was a kid, i would ask my dad to take me to dodger/giant games.  i knew about the rivalry and figured that if we were going to see the dodgers, then i wanted to see them beat the giants.  and so, i saw quite a bit of the team from nocal in the late 1970's and early 80's.

luckily for me, my dad liked to get to the ballpark early, so we would usually get to see batting practice.  as is the case with most parks, only the visiting team's bp was going on by the time the gates opened at dodger stadium.  still, i was ok with this after the first time i saw willie mccovey take bp.  in fact, i actually looked forward to seeing him take his rips before each subsequent game i attended.  the man hit the ball hard.  real hard.  it definitely made up for all the ed halicki and bob knepper starts i sat through (i don't think i ever saw vida blue pitch, unfortunately).  in fact, when i talk to friends about the five hardest hit balls i have ever seen in person, mccovey is the first person i mention.  the others, in case you are wondering, are willie stargell, jose canseco, albert belle, and carlos delgado.  i remember telling my dad about the hard hit balls mccovey was sending into the right field pavilion one time, and he mentioned the last out of the 1962 world series - a scorching mccovey line drive caught by bobby richardson.

now, i wasn't necessarily a fan of mccovey's, but i was very disappointed when i opened up my 1981 topps packs and didn't see a mccovey card anywhere.  i had been waiting for a 'final tribute' since he announced his retirement during the 1980 season and then ended his career after a series against the dodgers in july.  it was my good fortune that there were other options than topps in 1981, and fleer came through.  since donruss didn't bother, this 1981 fleer card is the only willie mccovey final tribute card around.

complete with the hall of fame stats on the back. of course, fleer lies - his minor league stats are missing.

521 - the same number of career home runs as ted williams - was good enough for 8th all-time when stretch retired.  these days, he's also tied with frank thomas, and sits at 18 on the all-time leader board.

unfortunately, i was not at the last two games in which mccovey appeared (both at dodger stadium), but i would have definitely joined the dodger fans in a standing ovation for stretch.  i loved watching him hit, as long as it was in bp.

how does this happen?

yes, i know that in 1957, topps did it to hank aaron, and in 1969 they did it to larry haney.  plus, 1979 saw topps do it to willie horton, and 20 years later, topps did it to aj hinch.  but how, in the year two thousand eleven, does topps reverse the negative on a duke snider card?

that's a card from 2011 topps tribute that i picked up recently.

it's not like the 'b' on the hat or the '4' on the back of the jersey are giveaways - this is duke snider, hall of famer.

still, the card is nice and shiny, so i am willing to overlook the reversed negative.  but if topps puts out a card of sandy koufax throwing with his right hand…

…it will have to be reaaaaaally shiny.

first, there was a turn of two

i recently completed a trade with brad's blog that i initiated after seeing not a piece of dodger trade bait, but rather a 2012 topps chrome sepia parallel of jason kipnis turning two

i didn't have a dp sepia parallel in the dp collection (it's numbered to 75) and i don't think i had previously traded with brad.    those are two good reasons to trade right there.  and, after looking around, i saw that he had a few nice dodger items on his trade bait page.  before we get to those cards, here are a few other dodgers that brad added to the pot.

1999 topps mark grudzielanek mvp promotion

i had never seen or heard of these cards prior to opening the package.  they were randomly inserted into series 1 and 2 packs - 100 of each card.  if the card you pulled matched the player determined by topps to be the 'mvp of the week', you could redeem the card for a complete set of mvp of the week cards.  sounds like upper deck predictor or crash the game stuff to me.  to find out who the mvp's were for any given week, you had to check topps' website. since this was 1999, topps also gave you the option to call a toll-free number.  i am guessing that grudz was not named a mvp of the week by topps.

here's the back of a 1996 fleer ultra todd worrell card

because the front only had one photo of worrell, and who doesn't think that three images are better than one?

well, then, how about 5 and a half photos of kevin brown on this 2000 upper deck ionix card?

granted, 4 and a half of those are the same.

on to the trade bait.  first, here's a 2004 donruss world series orel hershiser jersey card

something i have noticed over the years is that bulldog autos and (most of the time) relics have held their relative value.  i haven't come across any in the bargain 'hit' bins to be sure.

2011 topps chrome ivan dejesus jr auto

i appreciate the fact that he embellishes his autograph, not with his uniform number, but with 'pr' for puerto rico, his birthplace.  i wonder if anyone ever told dejesus jr that history repeats.  his dad signed his first professional contract with the dodgers and was later traded away as part of a deal for mike garman and rick monday.  not quite 40 years later, dejesus jr is drafted by the dodgers and later traded away in a deal for josh beckett, carl crawford, adrian gonzalez, and nick punto.  hopefully history repeats again, and dejesus jr is able to land somewhere (he's currently a free agent) and have a productive career like his old man.

the last bit of cardboard to showcase is this 2007 upper deck legendary cuts bill madlock relic

we don't see too many dodger cards of the mad dog, so it was nice of upper deck to make a couple back in 2007.

thanks for the trade, brad! let me know when you get the dodger trade bait replenished!

the sue burns memorial patch

harmon burns led the group who purchased the san francisco giants in 1992, and in doing so may well have saved the team from moving to tampa bay.  after he passed away in 2006, his wife, sue burns, became the principal owner of the team.  she took an active role with the team, and was considered by many to be a 'team mom', attending every game and hosting team get-togethers at her home.

after she passed away from complications due to lung cancer on july 19, 2009, the giants wore a 'burns' memorial patch on their right sleeves, as seen on this 2010 bowman freddy sanchez card

she had only been diagnosed with late stage lung cancer on july 10 - nine days earlier - and later that day missed her first giants' home game in several years - a game that turned out to be a no-hitter thrown by jonathan sanchez.  

a memorial patch for tommie agee and brian cole

on opening day 2001 (and only on opening day), the mets wore a patch on their right sleeves in memory of tommie agee - one of the team's 1969 world series heroes - and brian cole - a mets prospect.  the patch, which had the uniform numbers (20 - 60) of each player, is visible on this 2002 topps gold label mike piazza card

agee passed away in january of 2001 after suffering a heart attack.  although he won the 1966 american league rookie of the year award, he is best remembered for his play in the 1969 world series against the orioles.  in game three, he hit a home run off of jim palmer and made a couple of run saving catches in the outfield to preserve the victory for the amazin' mets.  his career ended when he was released by the dodgers in the spring of 1974.  and, if you are interested, here's a post i wrote about agee a while back.

cole died in march of 2001, just after spring training ended, as a result of a car accident.  he was one of the mets' top prospects at the time - the first building block in what the team saw as a cole/jose reyes/david wright foundation for the team.  cole had been named the organization's player of the year in 2000, and the plan for 2001 was to start him in aa, promote him to aaa at the all-star break, and then call him up to the big club in september, according to jim duquette.

2013 topps update variations of a different kind

i recently participated in a group break of 2013 topps update over at andrew's baseball cards.  in addition to my dodgers, i was given the milwaukee brewers.  while i received a good number of dodger cards, there was only one insert (1971 topps mini jackie robinson).  i was able to obtain an emerald parallel of a brewer, however.  here's juan francisco in oz.

as i shuffled through the brew crew cards, i noticed a variety of uniform choices.  that francisco card shows the first baseman in the away grays.  here's jim henderson in the home whites

and here's johnny hellweg in the alternate blue jerseys

kyle lohse is featured in the set wearing the pinstriped throwbacks

and logan schafer is wearing the mustard alternate top

at least the brewers are consistent.  back in 2002, when the all-star game was held in milwaukee, the national leaguers were forced to wear mustard jerseys during the workout and other pre-game activities.  here's a couple of 2002 mlb showdown cards as proof - eric gagne

and odalis perez

looks like the roof is open on odalis' card.  do they even bother to open the roof anymore?  the games i saw there in 2002 featured it open one night and then closed the next day.  when it was closed i felt like i was watching a game in a shopping mall.  better than the metrodome, but only just.

there was an all-star jersey on a brewer in 2013 topps update, too.  here's carlos gomez wearing the mets orange jersey

so that's six different jerseys that the brewer players were wearing in this year's update.  just something i noticed.

thanks for hosting the break andrew!