Another Must Have Autograph - Robin Roberts

Next in the series of autographs that every collector should have is Robin Roberts. Roberts is a Phillies legend, playing with the team from 1948 to 1961. He also played for a few other teams from 1962 to 1966, including the Orioles, Astros and Cubs.

A right handed pitcher, Roberts won 20 or more games in six straight seasons from 1950 to 1955, winning 28 games in 1952. He had seven All-Star Game appearances, retired with a 3.41 ERA and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1976.

Mr. Roberts signs through the mail for a small donation to B.A.T. (Baseball Assistance Team), which is an organization that raises money for retired players in need. For a $10 donation, he will sign a card, ball or picture.

I have several autographs of his including a ball with his HOF year, a 1953 Sport Magazine, and a few cards from the sets I collect (1958 Topps, 1951 Bowman, 1965 Topps).

More Hall of Fame Autographs Every Collector Should Have - Bobby Doerr

In my second installment of autographs that every collector should have, I'm highlighting Bobby Doerr.

Bobby Doerr started playing for the Red Sox in 1937 as a 19 year old rookie second baseman and played with them until 1951. He played in eight All-Star games and hit over .300 two different seasons, and never hit below .270.

He was elected to the Hall of Fame by the Veteran's Committee in 1986.

I have several autographs from Bobby Doerr including a ball inscribed with his HOF year, a 1949 Bowman, a 2004 Donruss "Timelines" game used bat card, a 2006 Allen & Ginter, as well as a couple of others.


When I sent my first request in October of 2003, he included a signed Hall of Fame postcard as well.


Mr. Doerr is over 90 years old but still signs everything sent to him and has a very nice signature.

More Baseball...

My two sons played five games each this weekend. My older son's team took second place in their tournament, and my younger son's team lost the second game in their consolation bracket.

At my younger son's game, there was a photographer taking pictures and selling the prints. When my wife and son went to go look at them, they saw a picture of my son in his wind up. The print was about 2 feet tall and a foot wide. It's very cool. I'll have it framed professionally. They also had a few other nice pictures, one of him hitting (which I've pictured here) and a sequence of four pictures of my son bare-handing a grounder and throwing to first. All very nice. I've pictured one of those here as well. I'll try to get a pre-made frame and mat with four horizontal pictures to put those in.

Busy With Baseball

Both my sons have tournaments this weekend. My older son's team has won both of their first games and is in the championship bracket tomorrow. My younger son's team won one, lost one and tied one, and ended up in the consolation bracket tomorrow.

Friday night I watched my older son's team play. It was a close game. My son hit a lead off triple over the center fielder's head one inning, but didn't score as the next three went down quickly. Today I went to two of my younger son's game. They lost the first and won the second. There was almost 4 hours between games so we had some time to kill.

We ended up at a card show in Bloomington (MN), where there was a table set up by the guy that runs Justin Morneau's fan web site (http://www.justinmorneau.com). My son's birthday is June 24th, so I bought him a Morneau autographed bat. The bat is a cracked, game used minor league bat, but not by Justin. It's pretty nice and my son liked it better than the new, plain Rawlings black bat that was also for sale. Considering how tough it is to get Morneau's autograph these days, even at the Autograph Party or TwinsFest, it was a bargain to be able to buy one without having to stand in line.

HOF Autographs Every Collector Should Have - Al Kaline

I finally sent out a couple of requests today. I sent a 1959 Topps to Duke Snider and the 1962 Topps Tribe Hill Trio card (already signed by Barry Latman and Jim Perry) to Dick Stigman.

I thought I'd start highlighting some autographs that I think new collectors should add to their collection right away. These are HOF players that sign with a high degree of success through the mail for a small fee or for free.

I've already written some posts about Duke Snider. He's the first request any collector should send. For a small fee ($5-$10) Mr. Snider will sign a card, ball, picture or magazine.

Another great HOF signer is Al Kaline. Mr. Kaline spent his entire career with the Tigers, 22 years, from 1953 to 1974. He was an 18-time All-Star, and Batting Champion in 1955. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1980, along with Duke Snider.


I have several autographs from Mr. Kaline in my collection. I have a 1964 Sports Illustrated that he signed for me about 5 years ago, a ball that he inscribed with his HOF year that I sent about 6 years ago, and several cards that I have sent over the years including a 1958 and 1965 Topps for my sets.


Always send to Mr. Kaline in care of the Detroit Tigers, not to his home address. He doesn't have a price list, but $5 per card, and $10 for balls and magazines seems to be successful.

A Return Today

I received a return today from Joe Azcue on a 1965 Topps. I included an extra card for him to keep, which he did.

I sent this card out on April 10th. I knew it was a bit old when I saw it in the mail box since I had begun printing my letters and envelopes and this one was handwritten.

There was a nice break between my boys' hockey season and baseball season where I sent out quite a few requests, but haven't sent many out since then. I have a nice 1959 Topps I want to send out to Duke Snider, as well as the 1962 Tribe Hill Trio card to be finished off by Dick Stigman. I'll try to get to those this weekend, but both my boys have baseball tournaments.

Lucky Winners

My youngest son David is very lucky. Lucky in that he wins things a lot. Things like drawings and raffles. This spring he won a new basketball hoop from a drawing at the local grocery store.


His luck helped us late in the summer or early fall of 2004, when my sons and I were shopping at a different local grocery store. There was a drawing being held in the meat section, sponsored by Hormel, which has also sponsored the bobbleheads given away at the Dome. The cardboard box in which the drawing slips were supposed to go seemed empty, and I thought I remember reading that the date of the drawing had passed. Yet, the box, drawing slips and a pen were sitting there, so we filled out and put in one slip.

I didn't think much about it after that. Then one day I arrived home to find a box sitting on my front step. The return address was listed as Hormel. I thought to myself, "What, my wife is buying meat products through the mail now"? When I opened the box, I was happy to see that it was filled with five bobbleheads. I took one out of it's box and was really excited to see that it was autographed!


In all, we had won five bobbleheads. Four of them were signed (Joe Mauer, Al Newman, Paul Molitor and Shannon Stewart) and one was unsigned (Walter Johnson, who passed away in 1946).


My sons and I were really excited to have won these. Thanks Hormel! The odd thing was that the box simply contained the five bobbleheads. No letter saying we had won, no correspondence of any kind, just the bobbleheads.

Joe Mauer Named AL Player of the Month for May

I went to the Twins/Indians game at the Dome on Thursday with some friends from work. It was a good time. Kubel hit two 3-run homers, Span had a homer, and Morneau had an upper deck blast which is by far the farthest I've seen someone hit the ball in person.

During the game, it was announced that Joe Mauer was named the AL Player of the month for May. Not surprising: he hit .414 with 11 home runs and 32 RBI. Joe had only 9 home runs all of last year. His career high was 13 back in 2006. He's added another one in June so far.

Joe was on the ticket I had to Thursday's game. I keep all my ticket stubs. I don't know why. I have the ticket stub to the game where Kubel hit for the cycle earlier this year. Maybe I'll have him sign it.

I have several Mauer autographs in my collection. I have gotten his autograph in person twice (on a baseball and on an 8x10), before he was really popular and before he started racking up the batting championships. Since then, I purchased a signed mini helmet from Iron Clad Authentics. They had a great sale and I bought one for my son for Christmas so I got one for myself as well.



I also tried getting him to sign some cards through the mail back in 2004. He didn't sign my cards, but returned a signed postcard with a note explaining he was too busy to sign all the mail he received.


We were also lucky enough to win a Joe Mauer signed bobblehead from a Hormel drawing at the grocery store a few years ago as well as a few others. I'll post about that tomorrow.

Anyone think Mauer can hit over .400 for the year? I doubt it, but if anyone can, I'd say it would be Joe.

1964 Topps Stand-Ups

I recently bought a couple of 1964 Topps Stand-Ups on eBay. If you're not familiar with these, they are a cool, small set of cards where the upper half of the player's picture is perforated, as is a horizontal line across the card.

This allows you to punch out the players picture and fold back the top of the card to get a free-standing, cut out of the player.

I bought two of the four Twins cards that were made: Camilo Pascual and Earl Battey. The other two are Harmon Killebrew and Rich Rollins. I paid about $10 each for these two cards. They are "unpunched".

I wouldn't mind find some that were already punched, but for some reason that seems to be tough.

A Gift of Bobbleheads

My brother-in-law got some tickets to a Twins game from a friend of his who purchased season tickets. As part of buying season tickets, the ticket holder gets a set of bobbleheads. My brother-in-law's friend didn't want them, so he was kind enough to give them to me. Thanks Greg!


The set consists of Ron Gardenhire, Delmon Young, Dan Gladden and Rick Aguilera. The season tickets bobbleheads have red bases, as opposed to the green ones used for the stadium give-away versions.


These will be great for getting autographed. I have a signed Gardenhire bobblehead, but it's the kind of bobblehead you buy at the Pro Shop, it wasn't a SGA (Stadium Give Away). I also have a signed Gladden bobblehead, which is part of the 1987 Twins set. But these will be great additions to my collection, and I've been watching for a Young bobblehead on eBay and never wanted to pay what they were going for.

Finally, a Return

I was surprised to get a return today considering I haven't sent out a request in almost two months! I can't believe it's been that long. Today I received a 1965 Topps signed by Tom Egan. He also answered my question regarding his career after his playing days, noting that he coached in the Mets minor league system for a couple of years.

I've been watching plenty of baseball lately. Between my two sons, we have a game almost every night, or at least a practice. My younger son had a tournament last weekend, where they played six games from Friday evening to Sunday afternoon. They took third place (out of twelve teams). My son (nine years old) pitched 9 innings on Sunday; three innings in each of three games.

Breslow Goes to the A's

The Twin's placed Craig Breslow on waivers (whatever that means) and the Oakland A's claimed him. Breslow had a 6.28 ERA in 17 appearances this year. Not great. Maybe he can turn things around and have more success for the A's.

We met Breslow at TwinsFest this year and got a few items signed.

The Twins called up Anthony Swarzak from Rochester, who's going to start Saturday. That should be interesting.

No Time

Every night this week one of my sons has a baseball game, and with Memorial Day weekend coming up, I don't think I'll have any time to update my blog for about a week. Really not much to say, and my basement is still a mess after the plumbing work, but hopefully next week I can at least start showing some other things currently in my collection.

Eddie Haas Return

The plumber has come and gone, leaving my basement ceiling with an eight inch gap running the length of the room where they replaced my copper pipes with plastic. Oh well.

I finally got some scans of the cards I received back from Eddie Haas on Tuesday. He signed his 1959 Topps "The Sporting News" Rookie Stars card, as well as his 1985 Topps Traded manager card.

More Work in the Basement

When we turned on the sprinklers this spring, we found yet another leak in the plumbing in the basement. The plumbers arrive tomorrow to replace all my copper lines with plastic to prevent this from happening again. My computer is still hooked up, but not the scanner, so I'm limited in what I can post.

I did get a return yesterday. Eddie Haas signed a couple of cards. When I can, I'll get the scanner hooked up and get those cards posted.

My older son received a Dave Winfield ball with Steiner holo and coa from Jim 'n Steve's Sportscards. A bargain at just $40 plus shipping.

My younger son pitched three no-hit innings tonight, striking out 8 and walking 4. No runs scored. His team ended up winning by the 10-run rule in the 5th inning.

Meanwhile, the Twins bullpen is beyond frustrating. They simply can't hold a lead.

A Return Yesterday

A surprising return yesterday since I don't have many outstanding requests. Hal Brown signed three cards for me: a 1955, 1960 and 1964 Topps.

Baseball Digest

I have a bunch of signed magazines, mostly "Sport" or "Sports Illustrated", because they have great color photos of players on the cover.

I also have a couple of "Baseball Digest" magazines signed. These magazines are much smaller, about the size of a Reader's Digest or T.V. Guide. The photos on the cover are black and white as well. Still, I like the looks of them and the black and white photo makes a blue ink autograph show up pretty well.

I haven't actually read the contents of the magazine, but the layout is quite boring. Just text on cheap paper that yellows quite easily. There are no photos in the articles either.

The two I have signed include Don Larsen, who signed this for me back in 2003, and Johnny Podres, who signed his back in 2004. Mr. Podres passed away in January of 2008.

These magazines are great for getting signed, but I would rate them pretty low as just an old magazine to read. I prefer the Sport and Sports Illustrated magazines, and much prefer the Famous Sluggers Yearbooks.

A Couple More 1965 Topps

Today I got a couple of cards that I sent of to gatexautographs to get signed.

Tony Cloninger signed his 1965 Topps.

And Bobby Bolin also signed his.


Both these guys are pretty tough signers ttm so I'm happy to get them. The charges were reasonable, $15 for Cloninger and $10 for Bolin, and an extra $1 each for return shipping. The low shipping is great because most places want $8-$10 just to ship something back.

Another Ticket

A while ago I bought an old ticket stub on eBay. I'm not sure what attracted me to it, other than it seemed to be a physical connection to history.

This particular ticket was for a game on June 20th, 1942. My Mom had just turned eight, the Battle of Midway took place 16 days earlier, and 7,254 people showed up at Cleveland Stadium for a game between the Indians and the Yankees.

Al Smith of the Indians threw a 1-hitter, with Joe Dimaggio getting the only hit. Cleveland won by a score of 1-0.

I'm not sure where section 29 was in Cleveland Stadium, but row 6, seat 2 sounds like a good spot to watch Joe Dimaggio and Phil Rizzuto take on Lou Boudreau and Bob Lemon.

1965 World Series Program - Metropolitan Stadium

A few days ago I showed off my 1965 World Series program that was sold at the Dodger home games. I also have the program that was sold at Metropolitan Stadium. The cover isn't nearly as interesting as the one sold in L.A.. The inside is pretty much the same with pictures and short bios on each of the players and coaches. The ads are similar, except they're for Minnesota companies.


Based on the partial scoring that was done on the score card on the inside, this one was purchased either at Game 2 on October 7, 1965, or Game 7 on October 14, 1965, because both Koufax and Kaat pitched in those games. The Dodgers won each of those.

I got a surprise when I received this one after having won it in an eBay auction. There are two ticket stubs taped inside. When I first saw them, I was really excited because I assumed they would be for the World Series game, but they aren't. They're from the game on August 24th, 1965, when the Twins lost to the Yankees 1-2.

Mel Stottlemyer was the winning pitcher for the Yankees, with Jim Perry earning the loss for the Twins. Killebrew didn't play. Tom Tresh hit a homer for the Yankees. Sandy Valdespino hit a triple for the Twins and Tony Oliva stole his 14th base of the season. Attendence was 33,772. I found this information on a great site that has old box scores: www.retrosheet.org.

Disappointing Return Today

I was excited to receive my package from the MLBPAA signing today, until I opened it. My Jim Kaat bobblehead was unsigned. My Ryne Duren 1965 Topps was signed, but I also received another signed Ryne Duren card that I didn't send, and I didn't get back my Tommy John 1965 Topps. What a mess. Hopefully I can get it straightened out.