TTM Update

 This 8x10 glossy photo of Ron Gant was one I've had for close to 20 years. I saw that Gant works in TV in Atlanta and was a great TTM signer, so I dug up the photo, sent it to him, and was pleased to get it back quickly. Gant played for eight teams over 16 years, spending the first seven of those years with the Atlanta Braves. For Cardinals fans like me though, he is perhaps best remembered for the two home runs he hit off of former teammate Tom Glavine in game three of the 1996 NLCS, the highlight of his three seasons wearing the Birds on the Bat.








 

I was thrilled to get this one back from one of the greatest third basemen of all time! Brooks Robinson was a 15-time All Star and a 16-time Gold Glove Award winner. Robinson's Hall of Fame career was of course filled with amazing performances, but the highlight would have to be his performance in the 1970 World Series. Brooks hit .429 with two home runs and six RBIs in leading the O's to a dominant 4-1 Series win over the Reds. That combined with spectacular defense throughout the Series (including his iconic play against Lee May in game one) earned him the Series MVP.

Bruce Benedict is perhaps best remembered for his Chris Berman nickname, "Eggs."

  

Dan Plesac now works for MLB Network.

Ron Roenicke

 Rich Bordi

Floyd Bannister

In a post a couple weeks ago, I mentioned Tony Pena. He played in 74 games for Pittsburgh between 1980 & 1981, coming into his own for the Pirates over the next five years. During that span, he was a four-time All Star and a three-time Gold Glove Award winner. After leaving Pittsburgh with a .286 career batting average, he would play for five different teams over the next eleven years, winning just one more Gold Glove and being named to only more All Star team, compiling a .239 batting average over that span.

Lance Parrish was another catcher who moved to a new team in 1987. I had a previous post with his regular card, but today we feature his All Star card and his card from the Traded set.
The eight-time All Star team, six-time Silver Slugger, and three-time Gold Glove Award winner played for seven teams over 19 years. Much like Pena though, his greatest success and longest stay was with his first team, which for Parrish was the Detroit Tigers.

Rod Booker

Getting Caught Up

What a great run I've had lately in terms of TTM returns!


Lance Parrish played the first ten years of his 19 year career with the Detroit Tigers, but this was his last card with them as the 1987 season would be his first in a different uniform, playing for the Philadelphia Phillies. The second half of his career was nowhere near as accomplished as the first, but all told, he put together quite a career. Parrish made the All Star team eight times, won the Silver Slugger six times, and was a three time Gold Glove winner.

I'm not exactly sure why I sent this card to Parrish without sending the All Star card that is also in the 1987 Topps set. Regardless, I did. Turns out there also is a Parrish card in that year's Traded set, so I guess we'll send those to him together.

My favorite team ever is the 1985 Cardinals. Perhaps more than any of the Whitey Herzog-led teams of the 1980s, they embodied what came to be know in St. Louis as "Whitey-Ball," relying on speed, pitching and defense. The team's only true power hitter was Jack Clark (and he only had 22 home runs). But as for speed, boy did they have speed! The team stole an amazing total of 314 bases, almost two per game. Three players (Ozzie Smith, Tom Herr & Andy Van Slyke) exceeded 30 stolen bases in addition to MVP Willie McGee, who had 56, and Rookie of the Year Vince Coleman, who stole 110! Defense-wise, Ozzie and Terry Pendleton gobbled up basically every ground ball hit on the left side of the infield, while Herr played a steady, if not spectacular second base. In the outfield, hardly anything dropped in as Coleman, McGee and Van Slyke comprised perhaps the fastest outfield ever. Pitching-wise, Danny Cox won 18 and Joaquin Andujar won 21 (topping 20 wins for the second straight year), but the star on the mound was first-year Cardinal left-hander, John Tudor. Tudor started out the season 1-7, but from June 1 on, he was virtually unhittable, going 20-1 with a 1.37 ERA. In his 26 starts over those four months, he averaged over eight innings pitched per start. Perhaps the most amazing stat that season was how successful he was pitching on three days rest. Going into the seventh game of the World Series, he had started on three days rest eight times. In those eight games he went 8-0 with a 0.66 ERA, while averaging 8.5 innings per start. Unfortunately, nothing went right in game seven, and the Cardinals fell to the Kansas City Royals. Tudor would never quite return to the level of success he had in 1985, but he was very good for the remainder of his career. In his five years pitching for the Cardinals, he went 62-26 with a 2.52 ERA, and he will forever be one of my favorites to don the Birds on the Bat.

When I first started collecting autographs through the mail a few months back, I noticed that NBA Hall of Famer and former US Senator, Bill Bradley sometimes signed through the mail. I didn't have any pictures or cards of his, but I decided to send a couple index cards his way in hopes that I might get them back. Over three months later, I was thrilled to open my mail and find the index cards signed and returned! Bradley is a native of Crystal City, Missouri, not far from St. Louis. The father of one of my high school friends/teammates actually played with him there. And my uncle Jay went to Princeton to play basketball with him as well

About ten years ago, I read the Roger Kahn classic, The Boys of Summer. Though my dad had grown up a New York Giants fan, I must admit that the book more than piqued my interest in the Dodgers of the 1950s. Of course there were the mong the Hall of Famers (Robinson, Campenella, Reese, Snider) as well as other greats (like Newcombe & Hodges), but for some reason, Carl Erskine grabbed my interest. A 20-game winner in 1953, Erskine started seven World Series games, including three in 1953, a season in which he went 20-6.  I picked up this card at a card show in Fort Worth, and was thrilled to not only get it back signed from the 90-year old Erskine, but to receive it with a note thanking me for writing him!

In 1987, I had one of the great summers of my life. That baseball season I was perpetually at Busch Stadium, going to a total of 25 Cardinals games. The Redbirds rewarded me with an NL Pennant, and once more made it to game 7 of the World Series, before falling to the Twins. One of the key players on that Minnesota team was slugging outfielder, Tom Brunansky. The Cardinals would actually acquire Brunansky early the next season in exchange for Tom Herr. He would be a key component to a 1989 Cardinals team that would battle the Cubs all season long for the NL East title, but would be dealt to Boston early in 1990 for closer Lee Smith. In retrospect, it seems like Brunansky was with the Cardinals for more than just 24 months, and looking at the numbers, it's amazing that they were able to get Lee Smith for him!

Another member of the 1987 world champion Minnesota Twins was manager Tom Kelly. Along with his 1987 Topps card, I sent a Fleer team sticker to have him sign. I think it turned out nicely and was a kind of neat, unique item. Kelly twice won the World Series with the Twins (1987 & 1991).

For a ten year period from 1985-1994, Jimmy Key was one of the best lefties in baseball. For that decade, he averaged a 15-9 record with a 3.32 ERA. He played with the Blue Jays and went 2-0 in the 1992 World Series, starting game 4 and then picking up a win in relief in the 11-inning game 6 clincher. After the season, he signed a free agent deal with the Yankees, where he experienced continued success, and was ultimately a member of the 1996 world champs, before moving on to the Orioles for the final years of his career.











Jim Acker had a solid ten year career, spent mostly with the Atlanta and Toronto. He was drafted by the Braves with the 21st pick of the 1980 draft. Two years later, the Blue Jays acquired him in the Rule 5 draft. In 1986 they traded him back to the Braves, who three years later traded him back to the Blue Jays.


After bouncing back and forth between the two teams for more than a decade, Acker signed a free agent deal with the Seattle Mariners heading into the 1992 season. Ironically, that October the Blue Jays and Braves would meet in the World Series, thanks in part to the NLCS-clinching hit by Francisco Cabrera, who just happens to be one of the players for whom Acker was once traded.