As the old story goes, when Carl Yastrzemski got his 3,000th hit, the Boston Red Sox sold a bunch of the ticket stubs that the team keeps when a person enters the ballpark. This audit stub part of a full ticket is plentiful. In fact, I have one unsigned as well as one signed with 3,000th Hit inscription. When the opportunity came up to purchase the OTHER half of the stub, the one that pictures Yaz on the ticket, I bought it. I recently sent it to Tom O (orr23mj on SCN) to be signed during his private signing with Yaz. Yaz no longer inscribes anything other than his triple crown year or Hall of Fame so getting a 3,000th hit inscription on it was not possible. I received it today and it was signed beautifully on the ticket. A great job by Tom and Carl!
Author: Kevin
What The Eck? (Part I)
A couple years ago I was fortunate enough to purchase a pair of tickets for Game 1 of the 1988 World Series. This was the game when Kirk Gibson hit his famous walk off home run and circled the bases on two really bad knees. I have a cool Story Ball signed by the Dodgers clubhouse manager on his recollection of that moment and later picked up the tickets. I was able to get Gibby to sign them fairly quickly after I received them but I wanted Dennis Eckersley to also sign them. As the story goes, the Dodgers’ scouting report on Eck was if he got two strikes on the batter he would throw a backdoor slider as that was his put-away pitch. Gibby knew this and when he got two strikes he looked for that pitch and clobbered it for his greatest moment in baseball. I kept looking for Eckersley to show up at a signing event as I really wanted an inscription on it. But, as luck would have it, he was a Fanatics exclusive in 2022 and they do not let their signers sign tickets. So I waited. Eck did not show up to any signings at the Hall of Fame induction weekend so I was thinking they might never get signed. Then my luck changed. Eck was signing at the Chicago Sports Spectacular. Since I had a pair of tickets, I figured I would send one to a pair of guys going to the show in case one had an issue or got lost in the mail or whatever. Today I received the ticket I sent to Donnie D (macey225 on SCN) and, as requested, Eck signed it with “Back Door Slider”. I love it! I cannot wait to get the other one soon as well! Stay tuned!
Walk This Way
Larry Walker was recently inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. He has started raising money for his favorite charity by signing autographs via mail. I had a pair of Hall of Fame postcards, with one postmarked on the back by the Cooperstown Post Office on Induction Weekend, and mailed them both to Larry to be signed along with the required donation amount. Today they arrived signed really nice! A nice way to knock off a HOF postcard need!
A Loose Strand
Christian Encarnacion-Strand was a highly touted prospect who made his Major League debut in 2023. I was able to trade for a ticket from the game he made his debut in and when I saw that Jim F (jimfalbo21 on SCN) was having a signing with him I had to send it in to get signed. Today I received it back in the mail signed perfectly with Christian’s scribble of an autograph and “MLB Debut 7-17-23” on it. It also has JSA Authentication on it. Nice ticket for an upcoming Major League star!