Cleveland Rocks!

For the second straight Friday, we had a great baseball adventure! Back in the spring, old friend Brian Hendrickson reached out to the Cleveland Indians to see if they would do something for Jack. They very generously sent him a nice gift package including an autographed picture of manager Terry Francona in addition to a couple Indians t-shirts.

Jack and his new signed Carlos Carrasco jersey

We thought that this was very nice of them, but much to my surprise, Curtis Danburg, who is the team's Senior Director of Communications and (as best we can tell)  one of the nicest folks you could hope to find, followed that up with a phone call inviting Jack and our family to come to a game of our choosing. This Friday's game fit perfectly between chemo treatments, family travels, and heading off to college. It was also of great interest to Jack because it was an opportunity to see Albert Pujols, Jack's favorite player dating back to the days when Pujols played for the Cardinals and we were in St. Louis. In fact, it was in emulation of Pujols that Jack played first base and has always selected uniform number five when given a choice!

We arrived at the ballpark about 4:00, and Curtis met us with four Indians caps and a bag with two baseballs in it for Jack to get autographed. He then took us down to the field, where the Indians pitchers were tossing. Once they got done, he brought over Carlos Carrasco. "Cookie" (as he's known) has been one of the top pitchers in the American League the last five years, with an ERA of 3.27, averaging over ten strikeouts per nine innings pitched. Earlier this season though, he was feeling lethargic before ultimately being diagnosed with leukemia, just like Jack.

Cookie and Jack

It was a great encouragement for Jack to meet a big leaguer battling leukemia, and working hard to get back on the field. As Carrasco put it, "I like to say that I may have cancer, but cancer doesn't have me."  

Carrasco gave Jack a signed jersey, and autographed both a baseball and a card that we brought to the game.

After meeting with Carrasco, we stayed down on the field while the visiting Los Angeles Angels took batting practice. This was a real treat not only because we got to see Pujols, but also because we got to see Mike Trout, who is generally considered the best baseball player in the world. The ball did indeed jump off his bat in a way that was different than other players!

After batting practice, we were able to get Jack a couple more autographs: Angels outfielder Justin Upton signed a card we brought and Caroline got Trout to sign a baseball.

Carrasco wearing Jack's bracelet
for the ceremonial "first pitch"

One unplanned surprise came when they announced that the young man throwing out the first pitch was a 19-year old who four months ago was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (just like Jack). The Indians appropriately had Carrasco catch the pitch, and we were heartened when we noticed that he was wearing the bright orange "WE STAND TOGETHER" bracelet that we had given him earlier in the day! 

The Indians provided us with wonderful seats and we thoroughly enjoyed the game as the home team won handily, but we also got to see the great Trout hit a home run in his first at bat. 

After the game, they had a fireworks show scheduled celebrating the 50th anniversary of Woodstock. As the game was winding down, we were commenting to one another as to how we were going do need to move because the overhang above us was going to obstruct our view. No sooner had we begun to discuss this than we received a text from Curtis asking if we were staying for the fireworks, and if we were, would we like to watch them from the visitors' dugout? Of course we were thrilled to take him up on the offer! It was a great show and a fabulous way to top off an unbelievable experience at the ballpark! 

In the dugout post-game for fireworks

Fireworks at Progressive Field

Mike Trout and Albert Pujols stride to the batting cage pre-game

Trout signs for Caroline

Mike Trout's autograph

Carlos Carrasco 59

 

95 and Counting...

Now up to 95 autographs for Project87. Here's the latest update:

A few months ago, I sent three cards to Ron Cey. He signed two of the three, one of which being the Cubs Leaders card that featured him and Steve Trout. I sent that card to Trout, and didn't hear back from him. Fearing that it might be gone for good, I sent Cey another one of the Cubs Leaders cards as well as the one he didn't sign last time. He signed both of them and returned them quickly, getting them back to me in just nine days!











Just ten days later (74 days after I'd originally sent them), I got these back from Steve Trout! Trout was a solid starter for the Cubs in the mid-80s, after having started his career with the White Sox. His best year was probably 1984 when he went 13-7, 3.41 for the NL East champs. The southpaw finished up his career with a few months with the Yankees and two seasons with the Mariners.











 Mike Fischlin was a solid, versatile defender who managed to have a ten season career despite not having much pop in his bat. His best season was 1982 when he had a .351 OBP in 322 plate appearances for the Indians.










While I still consider myself very much an amateur, my friend, Alex Hyde is a serious autograph collector. Not long ago he contacted me and asked if I still needed Dick Schofield for Project87. Indeed I did. Schofield was going to be signing at a show the next day in St. Louis, and Alex offered to get me his card signed for me.

Schofield had a very respectable 14 year career that spanned much of the 80s and 90s. He played mostly for the Angels, with short stints also with the Blue Jays, the Mets, and the Dodgers.  From 1986-88, he averaged a WAR of 3.3 per season, the two best seasons of his career coming in '86 & '88.

Schofield's father also played 19 years in MLB, including eight with the Cardinals.

I got a lot of six cards from Tom Tessier. They included:

Bobby Meacham was a first round draft pick of the Cardinals who was traded to the Yankees along with fellow prospect Stan Javier as a "make-good" for Bob Sykes, who ended up injured when the Yankees acquired him in October of 1981 in exchange for a young outfield prospect named Willie McGee. Sykes never pitched for the Yankees in 1982, while McGee starred for the World Champion Cardinals. Yankees owner George Steinbrenner threatened legal action so the Cardinals agreed to deal him two of their top prospects. Meacham was a starter for most of the 1984 and 85 seasons, leading the AL in sac bunts each season. He would only last six years in the MLB, but would stay in baseball and ultimately became the 2017 manager of the Blue Jays' AAA affiliate, the Buffalo Bisons of the International League.

Tracy Jones came up with the Reds and played for five teams in his six year career.

Tom Lawless is famous for two things: First he was the only player to ever be traded for Peter Edward Rose, having been sent to the Expos by the Reds when they acquired Rose to become their player-manager. Secondly, Lawless is the possessor of the most ridiculously epic bat flip in MLB history. In 1987 he had only two hits (in 25 at bats) for the Cardinals, but still found himself in the starting lineup of World Series. His fourth inning home run not only broke a 1-1 tie, but represented the only three RBIs he would get all season long. Even though it BARELY cleared the wall, Lawless acted as if it were out of the stadium completely.
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Chris Codiroli spent six of his eight years in MLB with the Oakland A's. In 1985, he led the AL with 37 games started as he went 14-14 with a 4.46 ERA.

Denny Walling spent 18 seasons as a corner infielder/outfielder, 13 of which were spent with the Astros. His best season was 1986 when he hit .312 with a career-high 13 home runs for the NL West champs. At the trade deadline in 1988, he was shipped to the Cardinals in exchange for one of my personal favorites, Bob Forsch, who I've written about elsewhere. Walling would spend the next two seasons in St. Louis before finishing up with a season with the Rangers and a few final at bats for the Astros.



Dane Iorg was a pinch hitter extraordinaire for the Cardinals in my earliest memories (1977-1984), and hit .276 throughout his ten-year career.

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."