Kirby Puckett

Today I received a Kirby Puckett autograph I bought from a fellow member of sportscollectors.net.  It's a team-issued postcard that I believe was returned to people who sent in an autograph request and instead of signing their item, the team returned these pre-signed postcards. I received a similar card from Mauer a few years ago.

This is my first Kirby Puckett autograph.  Although I think he was probably the best Twins player, I was pretty turned off by his off-field issues after his retirement involving women.  If you're not familiar, you can read about it on Wikipedia here.

Frank Baumann

One return today: Frank Baumann signed a 1961 Topps ERA Leaders card for me.  I believe I can get all four players on this card and will send it on to Jim Bunning tomorrow.

Wade Boggs (!) and Others

I was out of town this week and came home to several returns.

First, I've seen a lot of Wade Boggs returns posted on SCN over the last several weeks so I jumped in and sent off my request (along with a donation to a children's hospital).  He signed a 1987 Topps and 2008 Goudey.

Roy Sievers signed his 1959 Topps.

Tom Kelley signed a 1967 Topps.

Bud Daley signed his 1961 and 1962 Topps.

Finally, I added another Twin to my Topps Heritage collection.  Craig Monroe signed his 2008 card.  Mr. Monroe is doing some broadcasting with Fox in Detroit these days.

Broglio, Wright and Brewer

I received an old request as well as two recent ones over the last couple of days.

I received a few cards back from Clyde Wright that I sent last October.  He signed three of the four cards I sent.  I hope to complete the 1971 ERA Leaders card.  Segui signs through the mail and I'll get Palmer at a mail in show.  Wright also his 1972 and 1973 Topps.

Ernie Broglio signed 1961 Topps card of National League 1960 Wins Leaders.  Spahn and Burdette have passed away, but I'll send it off to Vern Law.

Finally, Tom Brewer signed his 1956 Topps for me.

Liam Hendriks - 2012 Topps Heritage

I recently purchased a 2012 Topps Heritage signed by Liam Hendriks from a fellow member of sportscollectors.net.

Hendriks is doing well at AAA Rochester, but didn't do too well when he pitched for the Twins earlier this season.  Maybe we'll see him again this year.

This card joins my Revere and Marquis signed cards from this set.  I hope to add Willingham in a few weeks.

1970 Twins Yearbook

I recently bought a 1970 Twins Yearbook on Ebay that was "...signed by Tony Oliva, Frank Quilici and others".

It was the "others" that drew my attention.  I had visions of Danny Thompson, Cesar Tovar and Bob Allison.  I also like to try to figure out who the unknown autographs are.

Well, I didn't get any rare autographs, but it was still fun.  It turns out two of the autographs are from Red Sox players: Gary Peters and Chuck Hartenstein.

The Twins autographs are: Dick Woodson, Brant Alyea, Frank Quilici, Paul Ratliff, Tony Oliva and Stan Williams.  None of them are tough to get with the exception of Paul Ratliff, who doesn't sign through the mail much at all.

It appears the pen that was used didn't work to well, since the Chuck Hartenstein and Tony Oliva autographs have spots where the ink is missing, but you can see the indentation on the magazine itself left by the ballpoint pen.

More 1972 Topps

Today I received four 1972 Topps back from a Chris Potter Sports signing.

Although I had purchased a Joe Rudi card on Ebay from Mickey's, I had one signed via this signing as well.

I also had cards signed by Chuck Dobson, Alex Johnson and Gene Tenace.

 

All of these players are tough signers through the mail so I was glad to get these signed for a reasonable price.

This brings me to 367 different signed cards from the 1972 set.  Just 33 to go by the end of the year to reach my goal.

Former Twins

I've been working on some of the Allen & Ginter and Heritage Twins team sets casually, mostly through the mail and at TwinsFest.  It gets tougher when players start leaving the team!

I bought a 2012 Topps Heritage signed by Jason Marquis from a fellow SCN member.  Jason didn't last long with the Twins.  I did see him at TwinsFest last January, but at that time, there weren't any cards of him in a Twins uniform.

I also bought several Allen & Ginter cards from an Ebay seller.  These aren't tough cards to get since Cuddyer and Nathan are pretty good through the mail signers, but they were relatively cheap, so I bought them instead of sending them out.

I don't know where Brian Bass is now, so I bought his card as well.

Liriano is really what got me started looking for these on Ebay.  I wanted to get a few of the cards that I wasn't able to get signed when he was here.  He wasn't at TwinsFest last January.

The Mick!

I finally broke down and bought a Mickey Mantle autograph.  I've been working on the Ron Lewis Living Legends portrait set, and came across one on Ebay.  It's PSA/DNA authenticated and comes with the full letter of authenticity.