Wow! What an awesome mail day! I rarely get a reply now days with exactly what I am looking for or hoping for but today I received two! The first was from the San Diego Chicken. In the letter I spoke of my son meeting him when he was 5 and afraid of mascots. The note Ted Giannoulas included said “Here’s hoping this will finally put me on your son’s good side!” It is pretty funny. Plus, the baseball he signed was a story ball and he outlined his “Grand Hatching”… the first time he came to the Padres. It is pretty neat and his penmanship is amazing!
The other package I received was a Roster Ball on the 1967 Impossible Dream team signed by Jim Lonborg. He listed the entire roster on the sides of the ball. This goes real well with my 1968 Tigers Roster Ball!
What a fun mail day!
Category: Story Ball Collection
TR
Today I received a baseball signed by Terry Ryan. Terry was the Twins General Manager when they signed Joe Mauer. With Joe retiring, I thought it would be cool to have a story ball signed about signing him. Unfortunately what I received was not a story except that it said “Drafted Joe Mauer #1 2001 Free Agent Draft”. I guess there is a story in there!
New Kid on the Blauch
Today I went to a local card show to get some autographs of Chuck Knoblauch and one of Junior Ortiz. I needed three cards for my Knoblauch Topps Twins card run and had sent these in to a number of shows just to find out Chuck never showed or whatever. I was very skeptical if he would show up today but gave it a shot anyway. I was not disappointed!
I was able to get Chuck to sign the following:
1994 Topps #555
1995 Topps # 250
1998 Topps #309
11.04.1991 Sports Illustrated
I also got Junior Ortiz to sign the same SI.
Chuck was very personable which was really cool. The person before me had his Upper Deck rookie card to get signed and Chuck looked at it and told him that the picture on the card was taken when he was in Double A “with those old ironed on logo uniforms!” Pretty neat he remembered that. After signing my items he shook my hand and thanked me.
I also got a card signed for a friend of my buddy Joel who said it was one of the last few he needed to complete his set. I was happy to help.
Before I left, I stopped by Denny McLain’s booth. I bought a ball he had signed with stats and a story of when he gave up a 480′ home run to Mickey Mantle as well as a story of his first start and home run. It is a pretty neat baseball and he graciously stopped to have a photo with me. He was real
nice too!
I may go back tomorrow for Tony Oliva’s appearance. Stay tuned!
Between a Rocco and a Hard Place
Today I received a couple packages I had sent out to have signed.
The first package contained a pair of tickets that Rocco Baldelli signed. Doug Keating had Rocco in as a signing guest and I mailed in a pair of tickets that were signed with inscriptions:
04.30.2003 stub with “1st MLB HR”
07.22.2004 full ticket with “1st MLB Grand Slam”
They look cool and Doug does a great job with his signings.
The other package was a request I sent to Bernie Carbo to sign a baseball with his memories of hitting the game tying home run in Game 6 of the 1975 World Series. What I received was more of a testimonial baseball as he has found Christ and it basically turned his life around.