Harmon Killebrew Living Legends Portrait

I've added one more Ron Lewis Living Legends portrait to my collection.  I was fortunate to find a PSA/DNA authenticated Harmon Killebrew signed portrait on Ebay.

On field access at the Twins game.

Just by chance, my sons ended up with passes to go on the field prior to the game to watch batting practice.

Scott Baker Signing Wrap Up

We made it through Scott Baker's line twice in about 25 minutes.  After we left, there were about 20-25 people still in line so I think everyone that wanted an autograph got at least one.

The signing was sponsored by Blue Bunny Ice Cream and they were handing out samples.  They were pretty nice sized individual containers.  My son got one which was a nice bonus.

My son got a couple of cards signed: a 2009 Topps Heritage and a 2010 Allen & Ginter.

I got a picture signed first, and a 2010 Topps 206 signed the second time.

It was quite a long drive for us, but since the line wasn't too long, it worked out okay.

Waiting in Line for Scott Baker

My older son and I are waiting in line for Scott Baker at Cub Foods in St. Louis Park. We're about 50 minutes early and are about 15th in line. Maybe we'll make it through twice, but he's only signing for an hour.
My younger son wasn't up for the 45 minute drive and hour wait in line so he stayed home.

Grzenda and Burnside

Today I got back a return from Joe Grzenda that had me a little confused.  I've sent to Mr. Grzenda twice now.  Once last September, and again this July.  When I received a return from him in July, just 10 days after I sent him my second request, I assumed he had sent back the request I just sent him.  It turns out,t he return I got back in July was the request I sent last September, and the return I got back today, was from last month.  However, this time, he didn't sign or return the 1971 Topps I had included.  In September, I had enclosed an extra 1972 Topps for him to keep, but he signed and returned that.  Any, today I received my third 1972 Topps signed by him.

Last week, my son received a 1958 Topps signed by Pete Burnside.  My son was out of town so he just opened it a couple of days ago.

Los Angeles Angels Program - June 18, 1963

Here's another program I picked up at The Ballpark yesterday.  This one was originally owned by someone who was very thorough.  There's lots of writing on it, but it's pretty cool  They even wrote a narrative of the game-ending play on the cover: a walk-off wild pitcher by A's reliever John Wyatt with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 11th inning, that allowed Angel runner Bob Perry to score.

The cover shows the Angels playing at Chavez Ravine, which is Dodger Stadium.  The Angels shared the stadium with the Dodgers from 1962 - 1965.

For the Angels, Jim Fregosi was 3-4 with a walk and a triple.  Ken McBride was the winning pitcher and pitched all 11 innings!  You don't see that these days.

The Kansas City A's managed only three hits, coming from Wayne Causey, Jerry Lumpe, and catcher Haywood Sullivan.  Moe Drabowsky was the losing pitcher and didn't help himself out much by striking out four times.

Attendance was only 7,290 for this 8:00 pm game.  You can see the box score here.

The great thing about this program is that it also came with the original ticket stub!  It must have been stored for years in the program because you can see the browning outline on the paper where the stub was.

This was another $4.99 purchase which seems like a bargain to me.

Another Program - Angels Spring Training - 1966

While at The Ballpark today, I also picked up a nice California Angels Spring Training program and scorecard from March 19th, 1966, when they played the Giants.  The original owner of this scorecard was kind enough to write in the date and the fact that the Angels won 4-1.  The scoring isn't very complete, but the roster is filled in.

For the Gaints, stars such as Willie Mays, Willie McCovey and Bobby Bonds played that day. 

The Angels had Jose Cardenal, Jim Fregosi and Lew Burdette.  Looks like this fan might have spilled a little ketchup on the program.

The ads in this program aren't as interesting and don't have much for graphics, mostly text.  I like the cover art though.  I've never seen a Spring Training program, much less a vintage one like this, so I grabbed it.

A Trip to the Ballpark

Today I visited The Ballpark, a cool little card/memorabilia shop in Apple Valley.  My main goal was to try to find some 1970 Super Valu giveaway John Wheeldon prints of Ron Perranoski and George Mitterwald.  I didn't find either of those, but I did come away with some very cool programs and magazines.

First, I found a couple Kansas City Athletics score books from 1960.  I was about to pass on them until I opened them up and found out that the two programs were scored, and were games against the Yankees.  The names Mantle, Maris and Kubek jumped out at me so I snatched them up.  Clicking on the images below will display larger versions.

 

The first game was on Saturday, August 6th, 1960.  Dick Hall started for the A's and Bill Short started for the Yankees.  It was a blowout, with the Yankees winning 16-4.

Roger Maris hit a pair of 2-out home runs and Mantle went 4-5.

Bill Tuttle hit a pair of homers for the A's.

It was a 97 degree day in Kansas City, a hot one for the 24,039 fans that showed up to watch.  You can see the box score at baseball-reference.com.


The concessions seemed pretty reasonable.

25 cents for a large Coke, 15 cents for popcorn and 25 cents for a Reitz Red Hot.  A fan could have a pretty good time at the game for about $2, including a program and pencil, cigar and a couple of Schlitz beers.

There's also a somewhat disturbing ad for Reitz, supplier of the hot dogs.  Do those pigs really know what they're advertising?  Maybe they were granted amnesty in exchange for their participation.

 

The second Kansas City program was for the next day, Sunday, August 7th, 1960, where the A's got their revenge, and beat the Yankees 13-3.  Bud Daley was the winning pitcher for Kansas City, and Ralph Terry took the loss for the Yankees.  The complete box score is here.

At $4.99 each, these programs are fun to look through.  I suppose the value is lower, but I prefer the program to be scored so I can see which game the fan actually attended.  Both of these programs are in amazing condition considering their age and the fact that someone had to hold it at a ball game and get it home.  No creases, very flat and the covers are still glossy.

Valencia Signing

Here's a picture of Danny signing my 2011 Topps Heritage.  How convenient to have him show up right at my work!

Danny Valencia Signing

On Tuesday, Danny Valencia appeared at a Subway Restaurant grand opening in the building in which I work.

Rich McKinney Return

Another return today!  I wasn't expecting anything but was happy to get back a 1971 and 1972 Topps that I sent to Rich McKinney back in April.

Mike Roarke Autograph Return

Just one return today, and considering how few I have sent out lately I was happy to get it.

Mike Roarke signed his 1961 Topps for me.

Glen Perkins Signing

Between my son's baseball games in Bloomington today we went to the Best Buy in Apple Valley to get Glen Perkins' autograph.  We got there about 15 minutes before he was to begin signing and were about 40 people back.

We got his autograph within 15 minutes, headed over to Wendy's for lunch (worst service ever!) and then went back to Best Buy and got his autograph again.  There were only 5-6 people in line in front of us the second time.

My older son got a baseball signed the first time and a 2010 Topps Heritage signed the second time.

My younger son got a 2010 Topps Heritage signed the first time and a 2007 Topps Heritage signed the second time.

I got a 2007 Allen & Ginter signed the first time and had him sign the 2011 Topps Heritage team card the second time, since he doesn't have his own card in the set.

I think we would have had time to drive up to Richfield to see Span if my son hadn't had to get back for his second baseball game.

Manny Mota and Tom Brewer

Finally a couple of returns.  I sent both of these requests out on July 11th.

Tom Brewer signed a 1961 Topps.

And Manny Mota signed a 1971, 1972 and 1973 Topps for me.  I sent my request for Mr. Mota to the Dodgers.

 

I'm up to 287 signed 1972 Topps.  I need just 13 more to hit my goal of 300 for the year.