Category: Story Ball Collection

What a day!

Anyone who collects Twins autographs know that one of the hardest guys to get an autograph from was Jack Kralik.  Jack lived in Mexico and would not accept mail.  He recently passed away.  Jack’s passing made Rich Reese on his 1965 Topps card the new toughest autograph to get.  Rich is great to us collectors but for many many years would not sign that card.  I had tried twice in the past and both times received a polite note that he does not sign that card and even his daughter has tried to get him to sign it and he won’t.  Recently on SportsCollectors.net a post was made about that card and how a friend of mine has a friend who got him to sign one back in 1987.  That brought out another collector who had one that was signed Dick Reese (the card had his name as Dick) so I assume that was signed around the time the card came out.  I sent a truthful, honest, heartfelt letter along with an image of these two cards telling him I would never bother him again if he signed it and told him I have been looking for that card signed for a long time.  Today I received the card, signed, along with a note that read “These are not my signings.  Rich Reese ps  This is for you.  You now have 1 of a kind!”  I do not know if that is true that he did not sign those two cards but the one I have signed is exactly as all my other ones from him.  Mr Reese has no idea how excited I am to add that card to my collection.  I now need only one more card signed to have the entire 1965 Topps Twins set take care of.  That is of Cesar Tovar who has long been deceased.  THANK YOU MR REESE!!!

Then, if that was not enough to make my day, I also received a baseball signed by Joe Brinkman that I sent to him two years ago.  He even added the additional 30 cents as postage went up since I sent it!  I asked him to do a story ball about George Brett’s Pine Tar Incident.  He signed it with his name and on one panel all the umpires involved in the game and then quoted the three rules that were broken in that instance.  AWESOME baseball!

What a great day of mail!!!!

Pass The Buck!

I love getting the mail on Mondays.  It usually yields a package or two and today was no different.  While I did not receive exactly what I was after, at least both people were kind enough to sign the baseballs and return them.

The first package I opened was a baseball signed by Rich Rollins.  A friend of mine is working on getting me a ticket to the 1962 Twins game when the Twins hit two grand slams in the same inning.  I started looking into that event and found that everyone involved  has passed away except for Rich Rollins who scored in both slams.  I sent a Story Ball request to him asking what he remembered.  It was neat to read his memories about it.

The second package was a request I sent to Joe Buck a while ago asking for his 2004 call of the final out of the first Red Sox World Championship.  Unfortunately, he just signed his name.  Kinda missed the purpose of me sending it (for his call).

Thanks Champ!

Today I received a story ball from Champ Summers.  I asked him to write about what he remembered about the Disco Demolition Night back in 1979.  I chose to write to him because Pat Underwood mentioned in his story ball that he remembered “Champ Summers calling time-out to get a helmet to play rt. field”.  I thought it would be neat to get Champ’s thoughts.  He replied that he got the helmet because people were throwing pieces of records that were sticking into the ground.  Pretty neat memory.

Double Your Pleasure!

Today I received a couple items I sent out a little bit ago. First was a card signed by Carlos Gomez. Carlos did a private signing at Waukesha Sportscards on July 14th and Mark G (hofcs on SCN) worked out a bulk discount deal and I was able to get the remaining card I needed for my collection signed by Carlos. It was a 2009 Topps Heritage card.

I also received a baseball I sent to Ken Aspromonte back on 7/2/2012. Ken was the manager for one of the teams involved in the 10 Cent Beer Night promotion. After I got a cool Story Ball response from Joe Tait on the event, I thought it would be neat to get a manager’s viewpoint. Today I got it back! He even returned my donation and my pen.