TTM autographs received: Floyd Bannister

The former big league lefty signed my cards in about three weeks - there are guys who 'sign' autographs and there are guys who 'pen' signatures and Bannister's fits in the among the rarer pro athletes who really makes the effort to scribble out something easy to read.

Bannister maybe the type of big leaguer who gets obscured by history once their careers are over, but it's fun for me to give these guys a second look - despite a losing W-L record, the one-time Angel pitched more than 200 innings in 6 of his 15 years in the Major Leagues and had a double digits wins in 8 of those 15 years.

One more 1981 Topps repack brick

#260 Ron Cey

#228 Tom Paciorek

#230 George Hendrick

#231 Joe Beckwith

#232 Mickey Klutts

#233 Skip Lockwood

#235 Scott Sanderson

#236 Mike Ivie

#237 Charlie Moore

#238 Willie Hernandez

#239 Rick Miller DP

#241 Checklist 122-242 DP

#242 Chet Lemon

#243 Sal Butera RC

#244 Tito Landrum / Al Olmsted / Andy Rincon RC

#245 Ed Figueroa

#246 Ed Ott DP

#247 Glenn Hubbard DP

#248 Joey McLaughlin

#249 Larry Cox

#251 Tom Brookens

#252 Victor Cruz

#253 Dave Bergman

#255 Mark Littell

#256 Bombo Rivera

#257 Rennie Stennett

#258 Joe Price RC

#262 Sammy Stewart

#263 Brian Downing

#264 Jim Norris

#265 John Candelaria

#266 Tom Herr

#267 Stan Bahnsen

#268 Jerry Royster

#269 Ken Forsch

#270 Greg Luzinski

#271 Bill Castro

#273 Stan Papi

#274 Craig Chamberlain

#276 Dan Spillner

#277 Alfredo Griffin

#278 Rick Sofield

#279 Bob Knepper

#280 Ken Griffey, Sr.

#281 Fred Stanley

#282 Rick Anderson / Greg Biercevicz / Rodney Craig RC

#283 Billy Sample

#284 Brian Kingman

#285 Jerry Turner

#286 Dave Frost

#287 Lenn Sakata

#288 Bob Clark

#289 Mickey Hatcher

#290 Bob Boone DP

#291 Aurelio Lopez

#292 Mike Squires

#293 Charlie Lea RC

#294 Mike Tyson DP

#295 Hal McRae

#296 Bill Nahorodny DP

#297 Bob Bailor

#298 Buddy Solomon

#299 Elliott Maddox

#301 Matt Keough

#303 Johnny Oates

#304 John Castino

#305 Ken Clay

#306 Juan Beniquez DP

#307 Gene Garber

#308 Rick Manning

#309 Luis Salazar RC

#310 Vida Blue DP

#311 Freddie Patek

#312 Rick Rhoden

#313 Luis Pujols

#314 Rich Dauer

#316 Craig Minetto

#317 Lonnie Smith

#318 Steve Yeager

#319 Rowland Office

#320 Tom Burgmeier

#322 Neil Allen

#323 Jim Morrison DP

#324 Mike Willis

#326 Biff Pocoroba

#327 Moose Haas

#328 Dave Engle / Greg Johnston / Gary Ward RC

#329 Joaquin Andujar

#330 Frank White

#331 Dennis Lamp

#332 Lee Lacy DP

#333 Sid Monge

#334 Dane Iorg

#336 Eddie Whitson

#337 Lynn Jones

#338 Checklist 243-363

#340 Bruce Kison

#341 Dwayne Murphy

#342 Eric Rasmussen DP

#344 Byron McLaughlin

1981 Topps repack brick results

At the card show I went to, I was doing work digging through a seller's cheapo boxes - after tallying things up, it looks like I grabbed 108 cards that were 6 for $1, another 5-10 cards that were 3 for $1 and/or $0.50 each.

There was a 'display' of repackaged cards [$3 each of 2 for $5] that were apparently put together by the seller's son [might have been 11 or 12 years old] - actually grabbed three [one had a 1981 Topps Bobby Grich, I'm sure the other had a 1981 Topps Ron Cey on top and the other had a 1986 Topps Traded Wally Joyner XRC.

I tried to ask what was in them to, even though that feels kind of dumb question because it's going to be mostly someone else's discards - maybe I was just hoping not to be skunked where it's junk, junk [cards from the junk wax era, all dupes, no variety in years at all] as opposed to cards [miscellaneous brands, maybe some base stars / inserts, maybe oddballs or a good mix of years] that maybe interesting to go through, even if there was no value at all.

#182 Bob Grich

#171 Gene Richards

#10 Mike Flanagan

#19 Jim Clancy

#36 Ed Farmer

#37 Gary Roenicke

#94 Harry Spilman DP

#120 Larry Bowa

#121 Larry Harlow

#122 John Denny

#123 Al Cowens

#124 Jerry Garvin

#126 Charlie Leibrandt

#127 Rudy Law

#128 Gary Allanson

#129 Art Howe

#130 Larry Gura

#131 Keith Moreland

#132 Tommy Boggs

#133 Jeff Cox

#134 Steve Mura

#135 Gorman Thomas

#136 Doug Capilla

#137 Hosken Powell

#138 Rich Dotson

#139 Oscar Gamble

#140 Bob Forsch

#141 Miguel Dilone

#142 Jackson Todd

#143 Dan Meyer

#144 Allen Ripley

#145 Mickey Rivers

#146 Bobby Castillo

#147 Dale Berra

#148 Randy Niemann

#149 Joe Nolan RC

#151 Claudell Washington

#152 John Urrea

#153 Tom Poquette

#154 Rick Langford

#155 Chris Chambliss

#156 Bob McClure

#157 John Wathan

#159 Brian Doyle

#160 Garry Maddox

#161 Dan Graham

#162 Doug Corbett

#163 Billy Almon

#164 Lamarr Hoyt

#165 Tony Scott

#166 Floyd Bannister

#167 Terry Whitfield

#168 Don Robinson

#169 John Mayberry

#170 Ross Grimsley

#172 Gary Woods

#173 Bump Wills

#174 Doug Rau

#175 Dave Collins

#176 Mike Krukow

#177 Rick Peters

#178 Jim Essian

#181 Elias Sosa

#183 Dick Davis

#184 Jim Dwyer

#185 Dennis Leonard

#186 Wayne Nordhagen

#187 Mike Parrott

#188 Doug Decinces

#189 Craig Swan

#190 Cesar Cedeno

#191 Rick Sutcliffe

#192 Braves Future Stars feat. Terry Harper / Ed Miller / Rafael Ramirez 

#193 Pete Vuckovich

#194 Rob Scurry

#195 Rich Murray

#196 Duffy Dyer

#197 Jim Kern

#198 Jerry Dybzinski

#199 Chuck Rainey

#200 George Foster

#203 Bill Gullickson

#204 Record Breaker feat. Ron LeFlore / Rodney Scott

#208 Record Breaker feat. Willie Wilson

#209 Dickie Thon

#211 Derrel Thomas

#212 Steve Nicosia

#213 Al Holland

#215 Larry Hisle

#216 John Henry Johnson

#217 Rich Hebner

#218 Paul Splittorff

#219 Ken Landreaux

#221 Bob Davis

#222 Jorge Orta

#223 Roy Lee Jackson

#224 Pat Zachry

#225 Rupert Jones

#226 Manny Sanguillen

#227 Fred Martinez

TTM autographs received: Bill Lee

The former big league lefty signed my two cards in about a month - it looks like tried to mimic his facsimile autograph on the 1971 Topps.

He sent my letter back as well, writing that he just got a callus on his left index finger and as response to the 'I hope you are doing well' I add to the end of my requests - he wrote no he isn't doing well, "my left calf is [broken]."

TTM autographs received: Dave LaRoche

The longtime big league reliever from the 1970s and father of Adam and Andy signed my three cards in about a week or so - doing some digging around on the Night Owl Cards blog prompted me to pick up LaRoche's 1976 SSPC card among several other peculiar commons highlighted from the set.

I remember getting the elder LaRoche when he was a pitching coach with the Las Vegas 51s about 10 years ago - but getting the crooked hat LaRoche card in-hand was a trigger to send out a TTM request to him with a couple of other cards.

TTM autographs received: Marvis Foley

Foley falls into a group of rank-and-file players I wouldn't have a reason to be particularly familiar with, but I ended up with three of his cards filed away among my Colorado Rockies cards - in case I ran into him at some point during spring training or maybe if he randomly helped out with the Rockies' California League team.

As is it goes, my in-person autograph coverage has always been limited [pandemic or not], so there might not have been a realistic chance of seeing the baseball lifer - I saw Foley signed through the mail, so I sent the cards I had, including a 1981 Topps card I pulled from a pack break and they were finally signed in about a couple of weeks.

A fun Angels related factoid was Foley ended up the last batter Mike Witt faced when he threw a perfect game against the Texas Rangers in 1984 - Foley grounded out to the second baseman to complete the feat for the mid 1980s Angels pitching ace.

TTM autographs received: Ed Ott

The former big league catcher and one-time Angel signed my cards in about a couple of weeks - the pair of 1981 Topps came from a box of loose cards featuring one-time Angels [either pictured as Angels or in another team's uniform] I still need autographs of.

Just to have an Angels card to send, I dug out another 1983 Topps card from the hand collated set I purchased several years ago - while I hope to keep the 1983 Topps set together, I look to pull the occasional card [that may be a little off-condition] to send out, while thinking about replacing the cards with 'upgrades' at some unspecified point.

Featured autograph - Larry Harlow

The former big league outfielder from the 1970s and 1980s signed my two cards in black Sharpie - like my recent featured autographs, this was a TTM request I sent early in the year and got back as part of the mail that piled up when I wasn't home for 5 months.

Admittedly, just like about all the rank-and-file players in team history Harlow wasn't a familiar name to me - but against the Baltimore Orioles [his old team], Harlow was a Angels postseason hero for a game back in the 1979 ALCS, when his game-winning base hit gave the Angels their first playoff win.

Featured autograph - Dave Frost

Former Angel pitcher Dave Frost threw out the first pitch before Monday's Angels game against the Washington Nationals - I was able to get his autograph on his 1981 Topps card and his autograph represents another added to my Angels autograph collection.

A few old school Angels cards picked up

1968 Topps Bobby Knoop #271 - I got his autograph already but not on a baseball card I can easily file away in my Angels autograph box. He is scheduled to throw out the first pitch for the Angels 50th Anniversary on 8/18.

1968 Topps Tom Satriano #238 - he is the last scheduled former Angel to throw out a first pitch for the Angels 50th Anniversary on 9/26. It looks like he has been rescheduled to appear on 7/6 [which was a TBA date] instead of 9/26.

I also picked up a 1981 Topps Joe Rudi #701 for a quarter - I got his autograph at the 2000 National in Anaheim, but it was on a throw away ball of sorts I got during batting practice that I may not have discarded, but have long since forgotten about.

He is throwing out a first pitch for the Angels 50th Anniversary on 9/24 and I want to get him on a card like Knoop - so I can file it away with the rest of my Angels' signed cards.

Featured custom card: 1981 Topps Alex Avila update

Here is an update to an image I just put together - the font on player's name was off on the original rendition and I wanted to create a more faithful manipulation, so the card looks a little bit more authentic.

Featured custom card: 1981 Topps Alex Avila #455

Alex Avila had a pretty good debut season in the Major Leagues in 2009 - though it remains to be seen if he replicate his success, when given the opportunity to stick for a full season.

I don't particularly like the 1981 Topps design, but wanted to see if I create a 'card' of Avila - using a the graphics of a nearly 30-year old card release.