Category: Bought

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.

Oh Balls!

Wow! What a box of baseballs I received from my pal Chris L (ChrisL999 on SCN)! Chris is a guy who loves chasing autographs more than collecting them so he and I are a great fit. I put full trust in Chris to figure which prospects and players are “worth” an official baseball (these are not cheap!). Today’s box included the following baseballs signed on the sweetspots in blue ink… just how I like them:
Anthony Volpe (Yankees top prospect)
Yandy Diaz
Josh Smith (another Yankees top prospect)
Sandy Alcantara
Brett Baty
Justin Turner
Trevor Rogers
This was a fun box to open and add these items to the collection!

How The West Was Won

While on vacation, I saw Rocco Furio post on Facebook that he had gotten a couple baseballs signed by umpire Joe West and they were available. While at a rest stop somewhere in Montana I sent him a message that I was interested in one. Joe is notorious for signing in black ink and these were in blue and looked great. I made an offer and we worked out a deal. It arrived today and I could not be more pleased. Whether you like Joe or hate Joe, he is going to end up in the Hall of Fame someday and his autographs are tough to acquire. I am excited to have this one in my collection.