Today brought another autograph to what started as a little “what the heck” project when Pat Neshek was playing for the Phillies. At that time, Pat coordinated autographs for fans for certain players so I sent in a couple Sports Illustrated magazines for Jake Arrieta. He was the first of now nine autographs on the cover with the latest being Joe Maddon. Jackson T (zagurski2016 on SCN) had a signing with Joe and I sent in the magazine. My 10.10.2016 issue is looking good! I doubt I will ever finish it because it has Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo, and John Lackey and neither of them are very accommodating with the Sharpie but it is fun to chase the others.
Category: Private Signing
Here Kitty Kitty Kitty
With Jim Kaat being inducted into the Hall of Fame recently, there is very few items I needed for my collection. One of which is a baseball with HOF 22 which I picked up recently. The other is a Hall of Fame postcard after induction weekend. Topps Now sold a card commemorating Jim’s induction into the Hall of Fame the day after the announcement. I picked up a pair of these cards with the intention to get them signed. Jim works with Mike Macguire as his agent (and a lot of other former Twins players) and Mike set it up so that you could mail him any card to have signed and he will gather them and send them to Jim for his autograph and Mike would then return them to you. It is cool that Jim is making himself available like this for the same (or very close to) price point as prior to his induction. Today I received the pair of Topps Now cards signed beautifully by Jim!
Triple Play!
Back in September, 2021, Noel A (bluejay50 on SCN) posted he was going to have a bunch of signings with a number of players in the Dominican Republic and one of those players was Tony Batista. Batista played third base for the Twins in 2006 and on May 27th, he started a triple play. I had a pair of my season tickets from that game so I thought I would send them in to the signing. Due to a few issues, etc, the signing was finally completed around late January. The tickets made it back to me today from the Dominican Republic to Puerto Rico and then to me. They look awesome and each ticket includes “Triple Play”. The play started when Kenji Johjima hit the ball to Luis Castillo who touched second base and threw it to Justin Morneau at first for the second out. Carl Everett rounded third base too far and Morneau’s throw to Batista got Everett for the third out of the play. Not really a traditional ’round the horn triple play but it counts just the same! Now to add Castillo and Morneau to the ticket…
Autographing (Cham) Bliss!
Today was one of those days that I have been waiting for the last couple weeks and it did not disappoint! If you are one of the very few regular readers of this blog, you will realize that I have a few guys that I go to for signings. Once in a while I will get someone as a one off but most of the time I stick with a half dozen or so guys. One of those guys who takes amazing care of my items is Chris R (rifon on SCN). Chris is a guy who runs East Coast Collectors Service and attends all the autograph shows on the East Coast. The package I received from him today included a few things I sent for a recent show where Chris Chambliss and CC Sabathia attended. The best thing I got was my 3,000 strikeout ball now with Sabathia on it along with his 3073 strikeout total. The ball now has 16 players in the 3,000 strikeout club on it. There is barely room for the current two players once they retire, Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer. It is an awesome baseball and a jewel of my collection. The other items I got were CC Sabathia 3000th Strikeout full box office ticket with “3000th Strikeout” on it and a pair of tickets to Game 5 of the 1976 ALCS. Chambliss signed these two tickets with “Series Walkoff HR”. The tickets were creased from being in someone’s wallet or pocket for the game but Chris R made sure Chris C signed it while avoiding the creases. They turned out better than I expected. I am very please with all the items!