However, the Tanana that pitched through the 1980s and early 1990s was way different from the one that paired up with Nolan Ryan in the 1970s as California Angels' aces - it might be fascinating to look back at how great Tanana was for a time, before injuries sidelined his career and he had to reinvent himself as both a person and a player.
I probably got Whitaker through the mail 20 years ago, but had not really thought about getting him again - even though his name is thrown out as someone who should join his longtime teammate in Cooperstown.
The lure of getting a dual player card completed by an iconic keystone combination was too strong - I finally finally took a chance and sent Whitaker a request with $20.
Despite wondering if something would come back - it only took about three weeks to get a response.
A fun fact was Walewander actually had a 12-game stint with the Angels in 1993, which wasn't on my mind as I put together a request for him - now, I can count one of his cards I got back as part of my Angels all-time autograph collection.
With MLB in-person autographs not really a serious thing for me the past 5 or 6 years, along with COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 - I wanted to see if I can track down former MLB players from the junk wax years [1986-92], who've ended up being scratch the itch curiosities for me.
Results are likely to vary when sending off cards TTM, but maybe it adds to the charm and quaintness to see something - signed in another color Sharpie besides blue or black or a glossy card signed in ballpoint pen or some other odd pen.
For the most part I want things in blue Sharpie or blue ink - but I'm reminded of going through my friend's book of autograph cards 20 years ago, where he would get stuff back in all sorts of colors and pen types.
As a manager, Molitor just got fired by the Minnesota Twins - but I’m trying to find a narrative as far as my recollections of him as an active player.
Seeing a loose junk wax era card of his, I might have thought 'The Ignitor' was a minor star at best, winding down his playing career with the Milwaukee Brewers through the end of the 1980s - he had a 39-game hitting streak in 1987, but there wasn’t as much attachment to him as any kind of ‘real star’ when I first started collecting.
With no particularly feelings attached to any particular player - I look at his numbers, how good he was, how many home runs hit, how high the batting average was and how many runners were driven in.
I thought there might have been a pronounced decline of some sort in his 30s, but Molitor was quite productive - looking at his stats from 1988-1992, he was putting up ‘Paul Molitor numbers’ and played in over 150 games in all but one of those seasons for the Brewers.
As is, he was pretty familiar as a junk wax era guy - maybe it doesn’t mean anything at all but he was also pretty accommodating about signing, the times I’ve gotten him as a retired player, so he gets a thumbs up in my book.
Presumably he can still hit for some power, defend, run a little bit and all things considered, otherwise be Dustin Pedroia lite - if Kinsler stinks it up, there is no team commitment past 2018.
It's refreshing to see Jack Morris and Alan Trammell, a pair of longtime teammates whose accomplishments seem more recent and tangible [they starred in the 1980s and played through the mid 1990s, not the 1880s] - get elected the Hall of Fame through 10-name Modern Baseball Era ballot.
I didn't think either Morris or Trammell were getting into the Hall of Fame any time soon but their candidacy was given second life after falling off the ballot - in particular, I guess something had to give in Morris' case.
While Morris' numbers was scrutinized by the sabermetric movement as inferior to retired star pitchers who aren't getting any serious consideration - there was enough push back [particularly among the people that put him in now] that Morris eventually was able to sneak into the HOF.
Trammell was destined to become the next Bert Blyleven or Tim Raines among sabermetric inclined baseball experts - Trammell was a guy who was part of a shortstop evolution, putting up strong offensive numbers that combined with everything else, were too hard to dismiss.
I've been holding off on sending to him, but he isn't getting any younger, so I finally scrounged up a TTM request - with the appropriate amount of cash money for Kaline to sign three of his Topps Allen and Ginter cards and a relic card I pulled out of a $50 pack of cards.
Because the card had a shiny, glossy surface, I wanted to prep the card with more effort - trying to make it so an autograph has less of a chance of getting smeared or streaked, especially when I'm trying to get the card signed randomly TTM as opposed to an organized signing.
Relic cards are usually thicker and I didn't want to take a chance that the card would get wrecked using a regular envelope - to help insulate the thicker card in the 6x9 manila SASE envelope I enclosed with my request, I cut up a piece of a bubble mailer used as a 'holder' when my cards were sent back to me.
I could probably sit through a minute MLB highlight at best, rather than get lost watching significant parts of game - that has already happened and is otherwise ancient history.
At the very least, I'm thankful for what the streaming video era has brought over the past 10-15 years - to help form a better idea of players I might have only read about and/or remind me how just good certain players were, besides just glancing at Baseball Reference and checking to see who had the biggest WAR.
There is a ESPN Sunday Night Baseball broadcast of a game posted where Lovullo, a journeyman who played in parts of 8 seasons in the majors - hit a home run off Roger Clemens as an early season highlight in what would be a 91 loss season for the Halos.
In the grand scheme of things, that home run means nothing except to Lovullo and perhaps his family - however, seeing the clip as a fan it helps me picture at least one neat thing this otherwise anonymous guy did as an Angels player.
However, Maybin never lived up to the hype and has only put together a modest big league career - the best case scenario for Maybin is to play in 130-140 games, while showing enough good things [with the bat, as a base runner and defender] to get some long-term contract offers somewhere else.
Prince had sort of a bounce back bounceback year in 2015 and while I hoped he would continue slugging his way back into prominence - he labored for much of this year and a neck injury cuts his big league career short at 32.
Unlike his father, Prince swung the bat from the left side and while the body type was similar, Prince was a bit shorter than Fielder the elder - while father and son each hit 319 home runs for their careers, Prince seemed to be a better all-around hitter, with four seasons of 150 OPS+, compared to one for 'Big Daddy.'
I think the scan ended up a little lighter than what the card actually looks like in-hand - but I wasn't planning on sending the card to the 87-year old former big leaguer until I realized I'd rather have it signed sooner than never.
Maybe a gripe about Hunter was he was not always PC when it came to things like Latin players and also gays - though I doubt he is the only professional player to have those beliefs, I think writers and bloggers will always try to exploit apparent faults with 'athletes' who end up talking too much for their own good.
As is, I should have gone with my better judgement and left the blasters where I found them in the card section - the cutesy Archives inserts are missing from years past and I'm also vaguely aware that the short prints are harder to pull.
Pulling mostly base cards, I didn't care how thin the card stock was and the cards look fine - maybe I can't be making snap judgements busting only one retail box, but I felt like these should probably be $10 blasters i.e. like 2015 Topps Opening Day.
Pack one
#248 Catfish Hunter
#66 Dalton Pompey
#192 Matt Barnes
#WF-2 Will Ferrell - Seattle Mariners
#175 Masahiro Tanaka
#211 Kenley Jansen
#33 Oswaldo Arcia
#134 Duke Snider
#213 Brooks Robinson
#35 Eddie Murray
Pack two
#261 Gary Brown
If nothing else, I want to pick up more funny, quirky baseball cards that are highlighted on various blogs / galleries online - to have a mini collection in-hand.