Category: TTM

Sweet Music From Deano

I received a couple packages today. One from Frank “Sweet Music” Viola and one from Lezcano Dean (deano on SCN). I had send Viola a pair of Project 70 cards of his and asked him to draw in his face on one of the cards. Alas, he did not but he did sign both beautifully.
Deano was blowing out some items at great prices on SCN so I picked up a few magazines. Those I got are:
03.12.1973 Sports Illustrated Bill Melton (I had one but it was personalized to me)
11.2.2009 Sports Illustrated Ryan Howard (I had a couple of these but I think Howard is underrated so I added another)
April 1979 Baseball Quarterly Jim Rice
August 1979 Baseball Quarterly Larry Bowa (pictured with Pete Rose who I will get on it soon)
April 2012 ESPN HS Lucas Giolito and Max Fried. I had no idea ESPN made a magazine devoted to High School sports. And, to have these two stars on the cover is pretty neat. They both signed in icky green Sharpie but it looks ok and for the price I could not pass it up.

Stay Fair!!

With the latest downtime regarding autographs, I found that I was missing Carlton Fisk on my cover of the October 1979 issue of Baseball Magazine. I had Pete Rose, Don Larsen, and Bill Mazeroski on it but somehow missed adding Fisk when I was working on it. I sent it to him with his donation and requested him to inscribe it with “Stay Fair!!” which he did. The cover shows him waving his World Series home run to stay fair. Even though this issue includes Willie Mays on the cover, I will not be able to add him to it so I consider the cover completed!

What A Story!

My son said, “Dad! He really hooked you up!” as I was looking over a baseball FULL of ink! This past offseason I was watching the MLB Channel and “Only In Hollywood” came on. It was about Kirk Gibson’s 1988 World Series Game One home run. I remember right where I was when Kirk hit the ball. It was my first year of college and while my roommate and friends were out partying, I was in the dorm room watching the World Series. During the MLB feature, it was mentioned that Mitch Poole had played a big “behind the scenes” role in making the moment happen. At the time, Mitch was a clubby who worked with Gibby to get him ready to bat. Mitch is now the visiting team’s equipment manager with the Dodgers. I sent a baseball asking him to write about what he did and how it all came to happen. He, like Kirk, did NOT disappoint! It is probably one of the coolest Story Balls in my collection. And, my son was right, Mitch really did hook me up!