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!
Mauer Power!
Today I picked up something I have wanted to add to my collection for a long, long time. I have a Kirby Puckett game used bat that I got signed at Twinsfest years ago. I always wanted a Joe Mauer game bat to go along with it and today I got one. My pal Ben W was downsizing his collection and bought this bat from the Twins Pro Shop back in October, 2006 and got it signed at Twinsfest one year. He reached out to me and asked if I would be interested in buying a few items of his and this was one of them. He offered me a fair price and I jumped at the chance. I picked it up after the Twins game (they won!) and chatted with Ben for a couple minutes. He is really happy it is going to someone who will appreciate it. I will have to try to look at some late season games online and see if I can photomatch the bat to a game! THAT would be cool!
Terry!
Today I received a baseball signed by Terry Francona. I had send this to Lou R (SIGNATURES on SCN) for spring training LAST year but due to COVID, the signing, like many others, was delayed until recently. I did not have anything signed by Francona and with his track record, he has a shot at making the Hall of Fame someday.
A Schuer(holz) Bet!
Today I received a pair of Hall of Fame postcards signed by John Schuerholz. I had received one from him a while ago but it got partially rubbed off in transit so I send him a pair and his fee and received them perfectly signed today!