Expanding the Strike Zone

As I followed along on Twitter and watched other folks get their TTM autographs back, I noticed two things:

1) Almost everyone was getting multiple (sometimes three, four or five) cards signed.
2) Often folks have an extra autographed card from one set that they are willing to trade for a card from another set that they are collecting. 

While I am intent on working on the 1987 Topps set specifically, I figured it might be a good idea to start sending out an additional card with my requests, be it either to keep for my collection or to possibly trade for a 1987. Because I have a couple friends collecting the 1985 Topps set (and because I'm crazily nostalgic about 1985 in general), I figured I'd send out one of them with my 1987s on most requests.

Against that backdrop, I had a day last week when I got TTM requests back from three different former players:


I can't exactly remember why I sent out a 1986 to Mark Gubicza instead of a 1985, but for some reason I did. I guess maybe I hadn't settled on the 85s yet. Regardless, Gubicza was a mainstay of the Royals pitching staff for 13 years, ultimately becoming the last remaining player from their 1985 World Series championship team. His best year was 1988 when he went 20-8 with a 2.70 ERA. The two-time all star could never quite regain that form, as he battled injuries throughout much of the remainder of his career. He finished up his playing career hurling 4 2/3 innings for the Angels in 1997 and ultimately ended up in their broadcast booth as a color announcer on their television broadcasts. I got back his cards in 23 days.





Ted Power was another pitcher who has remained involved with the game. Power had a 13-year playing career in which he played for eight teams (including the Cardinals in 1989). Although he did start 85 games in his career, he mostly was a reliever, leading the NL with 78 appearances in 1984, and then registering 27 saves in 1985. Power was a pitching coach in the Reds' minor league system for 17 years before finally getting promoted back to the bigs in 2016. Now the Reds' bullpen coach, Power signed and returned my cards quickly, getting them back to me in just 10 days.

Also getting cards back to me in just 10 days was Bill Almon. A former #1 overall draft pick (note the 1985 special card!), Almon never became a star, but he did manage to put together a 15-year MLB career, playing for seven teams. In addition to his two cards in the 1985 set and his regular 1987 card, Almon also had a 1987 Topps Traded card. He only had 62 plate appearances for the '87 Mets (who Cardinal fans of that era not so affectionately referred to as "Pond Scum"). I guess this accounts for why I have no recollection of him playing for such a heated (and hated) rival. Almon's best year was the strike-shortened 1981 season when he batted .301 and finished 19th in the AL MVP voting.

All in all, the eight cards from three players represented the best day of TTM success that I've had so far. Hopefully we'll have more days like this in the future!

A Pair of Clubbing Cubbies

Kind of a funny story here. I wrote a request letter to Ron Cey very early on in this project, but I didn't send it. The reason was that I had Cey's A's card from the 1987 Topps Traded set and I had the Cubs Leaders card featuring him and teammate Steve Trout, but (to my amazement) I couldn't find his regular card amongst my collection.

As I mentioned in a previous post, when we were on vacation, I went to a card show and picked up a complete 1987 Topps set  to fill in the various cards I couldn't track down. So finally, almost two months after I wrote the request letter, I was able able to send it off. In just eight days, an envelope appeared in my mailbox containing the three cards. As you can see in the picture though, only two of them are signed. Turns out (upon closer inspection of the Sports Card Forum Mail Manager) that Cey's normal practice is to just sign two cards, even if more are sent. Turns out I could've just sent the ones I already had a long time ago! Oh well. Next up I guess I'll send the Cubs Leaders card to Trout and we'll just go from there.

A day after getting the mid-1980s Cubs third baseman and six-time all star,  I moved around the diamond to second base and got their ten-time all star, Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg. The 1984 NL MVP, Sandberg is the third Hall of Famer I've gotten through the mail, and (I would argue) the best player yet.

If you're in the Hall of Fame, there are probably a lot of teams you've had success against. That said, Sandberg always seemed to be REALLY tough on the Cardinals. I checked on it and sure enough, he hit more home runs against the Cardinals than any team in baseball. None of those home runs were more memorable (or more infamous for Cardinal fans) than the game-tying home runs he hit off Bruce Sutter in the ninth AND tenth innings one Saturday on the NBC Game of the Week in his MVP season of 1984. A lot happened in the game: Willie McGee hit for the cycle, the game went eleven innings, and the Cubs won 12-11. Despite everything else that happened though, it is simply known as "the Ryne Sandberg game."

Back from Vacation

We took a trip to Dallas to visit my wife's parents, and had our mail held while we were gone. I looked forward to coming home to a number of TTM success stories. Unfortunately that number ended up being just one. That one was former pitcher and current Washington Nationals pitching coach, Mike Maddux. The brother of Hall of Fame pitcher Greg Maddux, Mike spent 15 years in MLB as a pitcher (1986-2000) and has now equaled that total with 15 seasons (since 2003) as an MLB pitching coach for the Brewers, Rangers and Nats. I got the card back in 31 days, my longest successful wait yet.

Technically speaking, I also got another card through the mail when I got back from Dallas. Alex Hyde (@AlexHyde21 on Twitter) is the person who inspired me to get back into autograph collecting, and is kind of a mentor to me in the hobby. He recently purchased a couple Greg Brock cards from Signatures for Soldiers (@Sigs4Soldiers). Alex is collecting 1985 Topps autographs so he got that one for himself. The second card he got was the 1987 Topps one though, and he very generously had them send it to me for my fledgling collection. Thanks again, Alex!

One of the really neat parts of getting into this hobby in this day is the fact that via Twitter, I really feel like I've joined a community of really nice folks who are working on similar projects. One of those people is Gary Vassar (@garyvassar3), who I "met" on Twitter when I saw that he (like Alex) was trying to get the whole 1985 set autographed. When he found out I was going to be in Dallas, he informed me of a card show that he was going to be at and invited me to meet him there. It was fun to meet a great guy like him in person and get to know him a little better.

I had a real fun time at the show, talking to some of the dealers as well as picking up some cards. I was really impressed with the kindness of the folks that were there, especially the gentleman from Dallas Card Show (@DallasCardShow) who sold me a complete set of 1987 Topps for $5.00 and straight up GAVE me this card that he had gotten signed by Tatu when he heard me mention that I had been a fan of the MISL back in its heyday

One final thing: While in Dallas, I found out that there was a great card shop not far from my in-laws' house. Somehow, I've failed to realize this for the 18 years that we've been visiting them, but I was glad to finally find Nick's Sports Cards (@NicksSportCards). It's a real nice shop with lots of older cards that were a blast to look through. I even picked up one of fellow Webster Groves High School alum and former St. Louis Cardinal Charlie James that I hope to send to him and see if I can get it signed. Amazingly, one of the guys who works at Nick's actually lived in Webster Groves briefly  back in the 1960s!