Johnny Bench Rookie Card and John "Boog" Powell Return

For being as slow as it has been lately, today was a huge day at the mailbox.

I finally got my Johnny Bench 1968 Topps rookie card signed!  My previous attempt last year resulted in the USPS taking about 11 days to send my card a couple states over and I missed the cutoff.  But I was able to get it done and am happy with the results.  I had the JSA Witnessed sticker on the back, which they put on crooked.  I don't know why, but that bothers me a little :-).  You had one job...

In my previous submission, which arrived too late, I had requested that he sign it above his head.  At the time, I had seen many like that on eBay and thought it looked nice. I know it looks a little squished beneath his face, but it just seems like the right place to me now, so that's the upside of having missed the first signing.

I will include this with my next authentication/grading submission, along with his 1969 Topps, which is a much nicer card than his 68, in my opinion.

I also received my Boog Powell items back today from the Dugout Zone.  They did a great job again.  I had sent these back in April since he was supposed to have a signing earlier in the year, but it got postponed to August.  

I had him sign his 1966 Topps, which I thought is just a nice card.  I'm not working on the set, although if I were to go back 15 or 20 years, I probably would have included more of them along with my requests while working on the 1965 Topps set.  The design is fairly simple, but I like the colors they used in the areas for the name and team, and the photos are better than most years, I think.

I also had him sign a couple post-season cards, of which he has many.  He signed the 1970 Topps American League playoff game 3, and the 1971 Topps World Series Celebration card.

He signed the 1971 Topps World Champions Orioles team card.  I should have been more specific and asked him to sign it bigger.  He signed it nicely, and left room for others to sign it, but I don't intend to have other players sign it.

I had Brooks Robinson sign that card as well.  Like many old-timers, he avoided signing over the pictures of the players, so it's a little hard to see.  I thought about having Powell sign the same one as Robinson, but decided it was nice to have just Brooks on it.  I miss sending my monthly request off to Mr. Robinson!  That's about the frequency I was sending at the time he passed away.  It was getting harder and harder to find cards for him.

The last card I had Powell sign was the 1972 Topps MVP Award card.  He was voted MVP in 1970.  His tenth year in the big leagues at age 28.  That seemed to be the peak of his career, and his stats drop off after that, with a bounce back in 1975, his first year with the Indians.

I had (and still have) a lot of items for Boog to sign.  I even have a bobblehead that, for some reason, I decided against sending.  He was pretty popular around 1969 - 1971 and I sent a couple magazines from that period

The October, 1969 Sports Illustrated has Boog's teammate, Frank Robinson, on the cover.  I bought this magazine already signed, with a PSA/DNA authentication sticker on the inside cover.

The front cover has a fold out section, and Powell's photo is on it.

 

The medium Staedtler struggled a bit to keep up with the fierce signature that Powell provides.  He signed this one with his real first name (John) as well as his nickname.  I didn't ask for it that way, but I like it.  As I mentioned, the PSA sticker under Boog's photo is actually for Robinson's signature on the front cover.

I also had him sign a copy of the 1970 All Star Sports magazine.  Part of his signature gets lost in his black sleeve on this one, which is a little unfortunate.  I think I'll send it off to Koosman now.  I kind of have to, right?

I also received more vintage bobbleheads, which I'll post about separately in a day or two. 

Thank you to everyone who checks in on my blog now and then!  I appreciate that you take the time to see how I'm spending my kids' inheritance.  As I mentioned a while ago, my wife and I finally bought a lakeside cabin and much of our spending has shifted to getting it furnished and updated a little.  But, I hope to still send out a lot of ttm requests as well as the occasional paid signing.  Even if I fail to send out many requests, I'll try to update this blog frequently, even if it's just highlighting parts of my collection from the past.  It's been almost 18 years since I started this blog and don't intend to just let it sit idle!