Today’s mail brought an envelope with five Hall of Fame postcards in it from Tom O (orr23mj on SCN). Tom was running a Christmas special of five postcards for $100. He happened to have five listed that I did not have and could not pass up the opportunity so I picked up the following:
Dennis Eckersley
Bob Gibson
Juan Marichal
Bill Mazeroski
Don Sutton
I really did not collect these postcards but had quite a few and these will fill the holes nicely.
Doc’s No No
Today I received a baseball from Brian Anderson. Brian is a broadcaster for the Milwaukee Brewers but he also works for TBS in the post season. I sent it at the end of the season after hearing the audio of his call on the MLB channel on XM Radio and thought it would make a neat call ball. Turns out Brian ended up doing the post season again this year and I thought I would not see the baseball until after Spring Training next year.
Today the baseball showed up and was signed perfectly! He also included a Brewers broadcaster photo card signed and wrote a nice note thanking me for the donation but returned it to me so I could donate it to a charity of my choice this holiday season. I think the Salvation Army will get it in the next red bucket I see. I love these call balls and the memories they really bring back!
The Ryan Express
There are not too many Foundations that do autograph signings as well as Nolan Ryan’s does. I heard via SCN that Nolan was going to have one more signing before Christmas and the deadline was around the end of November. I needed three of his Sports Illustrated magazines signed but found that his first issue was not in as good of shape as I would have liked so I only sent in two. I mailed in the 07.23.1979 and 05.01.1989 issues. (I have since found a real nice version of his first issue to send in next year.) Today I received the two magazines back signed beautifully with the Nolan Ryan hologram on each. They do an awesome job with everything. If you are looking for a Ryan autograph, you cannot go wrong sending in to the Nolan Ryan Foundation!
Also in the mail today was a 4×6 photo of Rudy Guiliani I received in trade with Eric M (erocmace on SCN). It was my first autograph of Mr Guiliani and a nice one at that.
May I?
Today I received the SI I recently had Brooks Robinson signed but this time it was signed by Lee May. Lee appeared on the 10.19.1970 Sports Illustrated issue along with Boog Powell, Bernie Carbo, Elrod Hendricks, Tony Perez and Brooks Robinson. I have it signed by all except Powell and Carbo. I sent it in to a signing that John B (badgley_signings on SCN) recently had with Mr May. It turned out great!