Today I received a neat ball signed by John McDonald. John has the unique experience of being traded for himself. He signed the ball with “Traded For Myself” and wrote the details on each trade on each side of the ball including the date, team, and general manager for that team. On the bottom he wrote “Traded 8 times in my 16 year career”. On the top he wrote that cash transactions completed each trade. Pretty unique situation that I don’t think ever happened since.
Category: Story Ball Collection
A Greene Thumb
Wow! I received a really cool package today! Even though it was Columbus Day, my mail carrier still delivered a priority mail package (yeah USPS!). My collection addition today is a baseball from Todd Greene. You might say “big deal!” The guy played for six teams and has a negative career WAR. Well, one of those teams was the New York Yankees and the year was 2001. That year he was back up to Jorge Posada getting into just 35 games but what makes this one of my favorite baseballs in my collection is something that will not show up in a box score. Prior to Game 3 of the 2001 World Series, President Bush threw out the first pitch becoming just the third sitting president to throw a first pitch in the World Series. Who did President Bush throw it to? Yep! You guessed it! Todd Greene! I asked him to write about the event on the baseball and he did a great job on it. He wrote that Jorge Posada was supposed to catch the first pitch but “‘Rocket’ took a while in the pen” so Todd grabbed his glove and caught it. What a neat footnote to the event. Next time you watch the clip of President Bush throwing out the first pitch, know it was Todd Greene who caught it!
Here is a video of the event!
My Renko Dink Blog
Today I received a baseball from Steve Renko. I had sent my request to him a while ago and wrote off ever getting a ball back. It arrived with a story of his remembrance of the Pine Tar Game. Steve wrote that he was the last one to hold the bat. A fun article written by Hall of Fame writer Murray Chass is found here.
Oh Balls!
My grandfather had a saying that when something did not go right, he would say “Oh balls”. Whether it was working in the yard or garden or playing cards or whatever. Today was a day worth saying “Oh balls” but not for something not going right! Today I received two packages and each contained a pair of baseballs! The first box had a pair of Oakland A’s signed baseballs. I noticed on Twitter that A’s Authentics posted that they just got in some Jesus Luzardo signed baseballs. Jesus is going to be a big time pitcher real soon so I thought I would purchase that one. And, why stop at one? So I added a Matt Chapman baseball to my order. Both arrived today. My other package was from Drew Coble. You may have noticed a couple posts recently regarding Drew and his wife Cindy. I originally wrote to Drew asking him to do a story ball on the 1987 ALCS pickoff of Darrell Evans but later found out the boxscores were all wrong and it was Joe Brinkman who was manning third base that game. After going back and forth via email with Cindy, I ended up sending a pair of baseballs to Drew to do storys on the 1991 World Series pick off play of Ron Gant at first base and also on George Brett’s Pine Tar Game, both of which he was involved in. I got them today and am really excited about them. They also included a cool 1987 Twins pennant and a pair of signed postcards and Drew included a nice note. I appreciate all the effort Drew, and especially Cindy, did in helping me acquire these baseballs.