I grew up diligently reading the Star Tribune newspaper sports section reading about the Twins and other Minnesota sports teams. If I happen to walk past a newsstand and see that Patrick Reusse had an article in the St Paul Pioneer Press, I would buy it (it was a quarter… a dime cheaper than the Trib) just for the article written by Reusse. He was a great beat writer for the Twins for a long, long time. He eventually moved to the Star Tribune and wrote for them so I had the best of both worlds then. He has been a finalist for the JG Taylor Spink Award and I hope he someday wins it.
I recently sent him a baseball along with a box to return it in and a donation. I happened to include my Twitter handle on my letter which I rarely do but I am glad I did it this time. Out of the blue I receive a message on Twitter from Patrick telling me he tossed the return box accidently and would use the donation to securely mail it back to me. Sure enough, he went to the UPS Store and shipped it to me. I immediately returned the postage he paid so he can at least buy a Diet Coke on me. Oh, and the cool thing? He followed me on Twitter!
Category: Baseballs
Not Justin
Today I received a package of a couple items from a private signing Matthew P (Mac6185 on SCN) had with Shane Bieber. They turned out flawlessly! I got a baseball signed on the sweetspot with JSA authentication and a debut ticket, also with JSA authentication, with an inscription of “ML Debut 05/31/18”. I thought about getting an inscription on the baseball with 2020 AL CY or something but he might win another and I do not want to have a baseball that does not have all the CY years on it (like I got with Johan Santana after he won his first). The Twins tickets from 2018 are tough to come by as you had to pay for printed tickets. I have had a number of people reach out to me to see if I had this ticket for sale. It was in my Sano home run collection but since printed tickets are SO hard to get for so many teams nowadays, I might scrap the Sano run so this was a perfect opportunity to do that.
Pronk
Today I received a couple items I am excited about. The first was a ticket I have had for a while. Back on 08.14.2003 Travis Hafner, Pronk, hit for the cycle at the Metrodome. I have sent this ticket in to a few consignors without luck in the past. I noticed he signed up for Past Pros so I sent my ticket in within the first couple days. He was not sure how I wanted it signed so he contacted Past Pros and they in turn contacted me. I provided a description and received the ticket today signed perfectly.
The other package was a baseball I sent to Ralph Garr on what it was like playing in the game when Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth’s home run record. He wrote a short story on it and sent it back to me.
A Wild Moose!
Today I received a pair of items for the collection.
The first was a box that had three baseballs I had sent to Lucky’s Sportscards for a private signing they were having with James “Wild Thing” Karinchak. James is a hard throwing reliever in the Indians organization who will be a top rated closer real soon. Vinny (owner of Lucky’s) also email me a photo of James holding the actual three baseballs he had just signed for me. I was really impressed with the service I received from Lucky’s. I got JSA on each ball too.
The other package was a Lanny Frattare scorecard I had sent to Mike Mussina. It was from the game on 06.14.2005 when Moose threw a complete game shutout against the Pirates at Yankee Stadium. I had sent a real nice note and even extra money to have it inscribed with “22nd CG SO” but all I got was “HOF 19”. Oh well. At least I got it back and got it back signed.