TTM autographs received: Jim Walewander

The former big leaguer signed my cards in about three weeks and included a signed two-sided custom card he added an inscription on - I have nothing cool to add about Walewander that hasn't been mentioned somewhere else, though I was aware of his story as a pro ballplayer who was a little offbeat and marched to the beat of his own drummer.

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.

Random pick-up - Rocky Perone

Back when the team was still kicking, I might have casually followed the Fullerton / Orange County Flyers baseball team [of the independent Golden Baseball League] - I tried looking up one of the standout players [Rich Pohle] on the team to see if he'd had any history with a MLB organization [Pohle played in half a season with Ryan Howard on a Philadelphia Phillies short season A ball team in 2001].

As is, I became vaguely aware of the story of his father, a ‘Rocky Perone,’ who was actually a one-time minor leaguer named Rich Pohle Sr. - the elder Pohle had a short, cursory stint as a professional ballplayer with an affiliated big league organization in the 1960s, but actually tried to make it back to the pros as a 36-year old disguised as a 21-year old Australian in the 1970s.

Pohle Sr.'s story got him some notoriety and if taken at face value, Pohle Sr.'s story wasn't an entirely unsavory tale - I’ve never heard of these Broder like, custom ‘home brewed style’ Monarch Corona cards, but I caved in and picked this one up.