Today provided a pretty neat return from Bert Campaneris. I found an October, 1969 issue that had a cool black and white photo of a play at the plate and did a little digging to see who the players were. I was able to identify the baserunner sliding home by his uniform and the ballpark. I knew it was Bert Campaneris and the play was at Oakland Alameda Colosseum. Since it was October, 1969, I guessed the photo was from late in the 1969 season. I went through a bunch of game logs for the A’s home games in September and August to see if I could identify a play where Bert was out at home. I could not but I found a few where he scored. I gave up and posted a picture as well as a closeup of the catcher’s partial patch in a Facebook group hoping someone could identify the team at least but received no replies. So, I sent the magazine to Campy and in my note asked who the catcher was. I received the magazine plus a 1972 Topps card he threw in signed for me along with a note stating the catcher was Ed Hermann of the 1969 Chicago White Sox. I thought it was pretty cool that he read my note and could remember the player. Sadly, Hermann passed away in 2013 so I won’t be able to complete the cover but at least the mystery is solved on who it is!
Category: TTM
Maz!
A couple weeks ago I received my August, 1966 Baseball Digest signed by Gene Alley back and immediately sent it to Bill Mazeroski to get him to sign it and finish the cover. Today it arrived beautifully signed by Maz. What is even cooler about this is that Cami and I were in Pittsburgh a month ago and went to the Forbes Field wall and the Bill Mazeroski statue at PNC Park. Nice way to tie in a memory to the magazine!
Dandy… just Dandy
Juan Marichal had the nickname of The Dominican Dandy and he was dandy for me today! Juan signed my July, 1966 Baseball Digest and it arrived today. While he did not sign in blue (it was black), he did include “HOF 83”. The cover is cool because it shows him with his trademark high leg kick windup.
Don’t Mess With Me Buster!
What a fun mail day today! I received a trifecta of items. The first I opened was a pair of Buster Posey Sports Illustrated magazines. Nik Key helped facilitate a signing with MLB Alumni that Buster joined in. I mailed a replacement magazine from the previous signing where they placed the MLB Hologram in a goofy location as well as the 11.08.2010 issue which features Posey and Brian Wilson on the cover. What is great about receiving the 2010 issue today is that Brian Wilson is doing a signing in a couple weeks so I will be able to finish that magazine with the signature of both players on it! Watch for that post in a couple weeks!
The next item I opened was a Danny Jackson Baseball Digest from December, 1988. Danny signed it in blue Sharpie and it looks great!
The last package I opened had a couple tickets that came back from a signing event that Mike C (Mac6185 on SCN) participated in where most of the cast from the Sandlot movie took part in as well as Harold Baines. I sent in a ticket from Harold Baines’ MLB Debut game which he signed and inscribed “MLB Debut”. His signature is garbage but it is what it is. The Sandlot item was a Japanese movie ticket and each actor pictured on the ticket signed it with their name and their character name. Those who signed it include:
Shane Obedzinski (Repeat)
Tom Guriy (Smalls)
Grant Gelt (Bertram)
Marty York (Yeah-Yeah)
Brandon Adams (Kenny DeNunez)
Victor DiMattia (Timmy)
All I need to complete it is:
Patrick Renna (Ham Porter)
Chauncey Leopardi (Squints)
and Mike Vitar (Benny The Jet Rodriguez). Vitar never signs so it will never have his autograph on it.
It is a cool little ticket with just enough perfect room for the remaining two realistic signers!