Today I received a baseball signed by former American League umpire Joe Brinkman. What makes this baseball interesting is the process that went into getting it signed. I was recently reading a book and came across a part of it where the author wrote of the Darrell Evans pickoff play in Game 4 of the 1987 ALCS. It mentioned Drew Coble as being the third base umpire in it so I thought it would be cool to have a baseball signed by him talking about the play. I confirmed that Coble was the 3B umpire by looking into online boxscores from the game and sent off a baseball. A week or so later I received an email from Drew’s wife Cindy who told me that Drew was not the 3B umpire for that game. I replied with examples of the book and boxscores showing that he was. She said Drew told her he was in right field that night and clearly remembered it. I found my dvd of the game and watched the play and sure enough, I could not tell who it was but could tell it was not Drew. Cindy asked Drew who it was and he told her it was Joe Brinkman. So, I sent off the baseball to Joe Brinkman who replied today with the baseball that he was, in fact, the third base umpire for that game. He wrote that after the play Gary Gaetti told him he tried to get his attention before the play to let him know it was going down. Pretty neat adventure getting the baseball! Joe also included a signed business card showing him in the middle of the George Brett Pine Tar Game. Thanks Drew, Cindy, and Joe!