I made it a mission to send a couple of loose cards to be signed by Fingers TTM [$15 per item] and they came back in 10 days - I am tempted to send the 1984 Donruss dual card off to Gaylord Perry, but perhaps old age has made him a spotty signer at best, even though he was doing TTM for a fee for the longest time.
However, my request was sent back to me 'return to sender' and wondered what happened, when it seems like he's been a reliable signer - to piece things together after the fact, I sent to an Arizona mailing address when Manning was probably back in Ohio, working as a color commentator for Cleveland games during the MLB season.
In the offseason, I tried the Arizona mailing address I had for him again - after 2 or 3 weeks, I finally got my items back signed.
I thought I was good with the pair of purchases [Jacob Barnes and Jim Ganter], but the next time I'm scrolling through my feed - but I saw another f/s post, which was more certified autographs from some 'prominent' Brewers stars of the early 2000s i.e. Ben Sheets, Richie Sexson, etc.
Ganter doesn’t register as a guy whose autograph I had to get, but his playing career went through the junk wax era, so at least I'm familiar with the name - the oddball Milwaukee Brewers police set issue from 1992 caught my eye and while I don't really consider it vintage [despite all the years that have passed], the yellowed top loader certainly is.
A second baseman for most of his career, Gantner spent 17 years with the Milwaukee Brewers - he wasn't the type who put up big offensive numbers like teammates Robin Yount or Paul Molitor, but was solid for the era he played in.
Jenkins was a hard hitting outfielder who had starred for the Brewers for most of his career before ending up with the Philadelphia Phillies for the their World Series championship run in 2008 - I remember where he had a little cult favorite following in Milwaukee because he resembled NFL star Brett Favre.
Unfortunately, he only hit .212 this past year, though I’m inclined to give players who struggled through a 60-game MLB season a pass - the 24-year old has the talent and presumably the aptitude to bounce back, though contact issues [16 walks / 85 strikeouts] may prevent him to be a hitting star outright.
Digging around through COMC in the winter of 2019, I sought out the Hiuras while passing over some similar types of cards - featuring Vladimir Guerrero Jr. [he was okay, but probably underwhelming] and Fernando Tatis Jr. [do’h, he was the second year big leaguer who actually broke out as a superstar].
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.
The signing is only for one year and if Lucroy can bounce back just a bit, he probably helps the Angels - though many catchers tend to run into a wall, once they are on the wrong side of 30.
I guess he was a decent signer between his time in the Arizona Fall League and maybe in spring training his first couple of years in the big leagues - I found some signed cards of his, so I can add him to my all-time autograph collection once he plays in a regular season game for the Angels.
FWIW, I remember Lucroy was going from field to field during a spring training Texas Rangers workout I went to in 2017 - presumably he was done for the day, but still wouldn't stop for just about anyone.
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.
While Brett's playing career was a bit more larger than life and his rookie card seems to be held in higher regard than Yount's - both players are one-team franchise legends who each got their 3,000th hit in 1992 and were part of the same Hall of Fame class in 1999.
While I was superficially aware of Yount as a HOF legend with all these accomplishments - I had to dig through his numbers to see how his playing career evolved since I somehow believed he was more of a compiler as opposed to being a dominant player at various points of his playing career.
Getting to the big leagues as an 18-year old really helped boost Yount's counting numbers - maybe if he'd come up at 23 or 24 like a more typical big leaguer, his playing career would be more like J.J. Hardy's than Derek Jeter's.
If somehow I'd be aware of baseball when Yount was really putting up the numbers, he would have been a fun player to follow, reminiscent of offense minded shortstops who would come of age in the late 1990s - guys like Jeter, Alex Rodriguez and Nomar Garciaparra.
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.'
Maybe my favorite card was this 1984 Topps Traded 'XRC' - I probably dated myself with 'XRC' reference but I think that's what you called the first cards of players included in late season update sets as opposed to just referring to them as rookie cards [that were supposed to come from a nationally distributed card set].
Topps used a cleaner, thinner card stock for the traded set - the backs are brighter as opposed regular 1984 Topps cards.
Who knows what he has or hasn't done or might look to be doing - but as long as I don't hear, watch or read any slobbering over him like he never did anything in the first place [post 65-game suspension and all that jazz with the PEDs], then maybe he becomes a star to watch again.
As a MLB fan in general, I'm a numbers guy and I'm entertained by the guys who tear it up - even though I don't play fantasy baseballs, I like players putting up gaudy numbers and I want to see if Braun can hit over .300 again and perhaps hit 30-35 home runs and/or drive in 100 or more runs.
If his stats tumble or he doesn't quite lead the Brewers back to the playoffs, then he's just another fallen star - but it maybe fascinating to see where his numbers will end up at the end of the season.
Waits pitched in the Major Leagues from 1973-1985 and while he wasn't great [79-92 won-loss record], he hung around for 12 years - I usually laugh and scoff at the cards of rank-and-file guys, but there are players [maybe lefthanders since they tend to hang around even past their primes] whose careers are a trip.
Even though I might not have been around [literally] to follow their Waits' career first-hand - having his cards and doing a little research makes me think about what he did as a professional baseball player.
One of the cards he signed was his 1985 Fleer [which shows him at Anaheim Stadium] and while it's not a big deal - it's ironic I got him to sign where he was pictured on the card, even though the stadium is now called Angel Stadium and the place has probably gone through a bunch of cosmetic changes since 1984.
Gomez had sort of his breakout season in 2012 where I kind of noticed for a guy putting up some bad stats [20 walks / 98 strikeouts / .260 batting average] - he played with a certain fire and if I was rooting for a below average MLB player, it might be him.
I pulled a card of Ryan Braun from a break recently and was going to include the following, though it's been about a year since his PED flap and people stumbling onto the blog might consider the comment uncouth, so I edited it out - it might be unfair but the only differences between clean PED free athletes and dirty ones is when they take their meds and whether their law firms can beat the rap if their test results are found suspect.
I was kind of shocked [or took some delight in the schadenfreude] when I heard Braun was caught up in another PED flap - but kind of pissed I took out my prescient jab just a day or so earlier.
Comparing Braun to A-Rod, at the very least the guy in his late 20's still had his MLB career ahead of him - unlike the guy in his mid 30's whose baggage has out for everyone to see and whose career is towards the bitter end.
Still, I find this whole thing sad for Braun and in the same boat - there is a part of me that is ambivalent towards apparent PED use, thinking fan sentiment is kind of stupid about guys suspect but are playing for their home team or are media, golden boy jocks.
However, past the supposed Steroids Era from the early 1990's to the early 2000's - it makes me feel some authenticity and transparency is still missing, that regardless of hardships in playing through a full 162-game season, I can't trust in MLB players in general as far as the numbers they put up and how they go about things.
The Man likes Ryan Braun, as do I, but for guys who find themselves in the news in dubious ways - I can't think of two other athletes in Major League Baseball who have been handled with such kid gloves like Braun and the one-time crackhead in Texas who had some sort of alcohol relapse Josh Hamilton.
What I really want to say is it pisses me off the media and fans are so fickle - they build up a Braun and a Hamilton, so even when they mess up, fans aren't as eager to turn on them, like they do with certain types of professional athletes.
Along the lines of how I see things, this author at this Texas Rangers SB Nation fan Web site talks about how Braun's case played out in the court of public opinion - the perception totally would be different if it was one of the 'black eyes' in the sport having successfully appealed his failed PED test on the grounds the sample wasn't handled correctly after it was secured.
Actually, that's not quite true. Braun is someone who is well-liked and well-regarded around the game, someone the mainstream media seemed more than willing to believe when he professed his innocence.
Could you imagine how different the reaction would be if this were, say, Manny Ramirez, who had gotten out of a suspension by challenging the test on chain-of-custody grounds? Or Alex Rodriguez? Or Hanley Ramirez? Or (when he was playing) Barry Bonds? Or some other player who is seen as a phony, or doesn't treat the press right, or is a jerk in the clubhouse, or doesn't play the right way, or otherwise doesn't fit the mold of what the mainstream baseball media believes a good and proper baseball player should be?
So yeah, it could be worse.
For better or for worse, Braun will probably get a standing ovation in his first at-bat in Miller Park this season - I guess I can't really hold anything against him except I think he did cheat, he was caught, got off on a technicality and now doesn't have to explain anything to anybody.
It's great that Prince Fielder finally signed with a team - as a baseball fan who likes to read the occasional baseball forum or Web site, I was tired about reading the doubt generated by skeptics about how the free agent market had shrunk for the fat slugging first baseman and how agent Scott Boras' tactics had finally been dismissed as bunk.
By landing a 9-year, $214 million deal with the Detroit Tigers - Fielder gets the contract that pays him like a superstar and his agent proves once again to be the grand wizard of professionals who can negotiate contracts for these pro athletes.
After having Ryan Braun in left field and Prince Fielder at first base as sort of their power core in the middle of the lineup through the last four seasons - I'm sure the Milwaukee Brewers are looking forward to having new Japanese import Norichika Aoki in left field [maybe for the first 50 games of the 2012 season, maybe not] and someone like Mat Gamel at first base.
I liked Ryan Braun as much as I did any superstar in the MLB - sucks he apparently tested positive for PEDs, but now I'll have one less reason to collect his cards for practical purposes and it's off the Brauny bandwagon for me.
A quick apology and a probably 'one and only' presser regarding whatever he did or didn't do that set off his positive test - maybe the most likely course of action for Braun and the Milwaukee Brewers.
The worst thing would be to deny and challenge - he was entrenched as the Brewers 'face of the franchise' and he is still has a 'lifetime' contract with the organization.
If Braun lets it be and owns up to his supposed mistake, the 'white knights' of the media will have no choice but to bury his story - he can be back playing without much scrutiny after his 50-game suspension is over.
With the news of Ryan Braun's extension, it is fascinating to see Major League teams make value judgements as to which player they have otherwise annointed their face of the franchise - to maintain their organization's brand.
A player like Braun is a public trust more than ever before and making sure he is a a lifelong Brewer was something important to that franchise - to build fan confidence.
Maybe I used to think Major League Baseball players produced and got big contracts and little else mattered - but someone like Braun sort of becomes royalty and their status becomes even more inflated among fans, advertisers, media.
If a team spends $100 million to extend Braun - it means they view him more that just a guy who is obviously expected to be an All-Star performer.
I don't know what it says for the wishy/washy way the Brewers have dealt with Prince Fielder's contracts - I guess they don't consider him as special with regards to his value to the organization and will have no problems 'not being able to afford his demands' when it comes down to paying for him.
However, the lament of 'modern day' professional athletes in Major League Baseball not staying with one team anymore seems antiquated - bitching about a young player getting squeezed such as being kept in the minors due to service time / arbitration issues seems out of place when even seemingly non big market MLB teams are willing to step up and lock up their franchise guys.
Jody Reed c/o Gulf Coast Yankees - signed my four cards in blue Sharpie.
This autograph request took about three years or so and showed up in my mailbox with a $0.41 stamp on 2/10/11 - I knew I'd sent to Reed at some point long ago, though the actual record of what was sent, where and when was probably scratched out on some loose piece of paper long discarded.
I actually found the Word document with my letter to Reed however - the letter was dated July 11, 2007, so I assume that is around the time when I sent the letter.
Reed was a second baseman with the Boston Red Sox who came up in 1987 and spent five full seasons in Boston - before bouncing around with several other teams for the rest of his 11 year Major League career.
For this upcoming season, he was named the manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers' Arizona League team - the postmark on my SASE was from Denver, Colorado and apparently that is where Reed and his family currently lives.