TTM Success & Interview Failure: Mark Grace

It took almost 2 months, 57 days to be exact, when I saw a very familiar envelope in my mailbox.  It was the envelope I sent to Mark Grace, Bobby Bonilla, and Shawon Dunston when I sent them interview requests along with hefty stacks of cards as a token of appreciation.

So when I grabbed the envelope out of the mailbox, I knew that it was from Mark Grace based on the Post Office’s stamp.  The envelope felt light and I knew quickly that the interview was not inside.

But these three cards were!!!

Mark Grace added his flawless autograph to three cards for me and they look GREAT!!!

And while it would have been incredible to get my interview questions acknowledged, I know that these guys are bombarded all of the time and have little time for themselves.  It was worth a shot and I will do it again at some point in the future.

But for now, I am going to enjoy these three great autographs of one of my favorite Cubs players of all-time!!!

Thank you Mr. Grace!!

Uncle Moe Delivers A Perfect Stack Of Cards!!!

Uncle Moe was the second reader of my blog to respond to my ‘Help Me Complete My Greg Maddux And Darryl Strawberry Collections‘ post.

He offered up a 1986 Donruss Highlights card of Darryl and I quickly accepted and provided him with shipping instructions.

Well, the card has arrived and it’s a great one.

But, Uncle Moe did not stop there.  He sent me a handful of cards of the guys that I collect.  He was generous and spread the wealth as he sent me some more Strawberry cards as well as a few Eddie Murrays a Dave Winfield an Andre Dawson and some Maddux cards as well.

And if that was not enough, he also sent me 3 Andre Dawson Zellers cards too!!!  These are sweet and vintage – exactly my taste!!  The cards are part of either a 9 or 12 card set put out by Zellers department store out of Canada.  Produced sometime in either the late 1970’s or early 1980’s, the cards feature a young Andre Dawson from his days playing for the Montreal Expos.

Thanks Uncle Moe – you really outdid yourself on this one!!!

And for any of you that have not visited his blog, you should take the time to do so.  He and his son are on a mission to collect the entire 2008 Topps set – SIGNED!!!  That’s right, their goal is to obtain each and every of the 990 cards from the base and update sets and have all of them autographed.  Amazingly, he is closing in on #200 already!!!

Did You Know…

On April 18, 1956, Ed Rommel was the first umpire to wear glasses in a regular season game.

**factoid courtesy of ‘Armchair Reader – Grand Slam Baseball’

My take – I can hear the crowd now after Rommel missed his first play with his specs on – ‘Hey Ump, Are You Blind!!!!’

1984 Topps Jim Palmer Career Victory Leaders Card

 1984 Topps Jim Palmer Career Victory Leaders Card

This card is part of a series of cards that Topps added to their 1984 base set.  The set honors the active leaders in most of the prominent statistical categories for both offense and pitching.

This one specifically pays tribute to the active wins leaders entering the 1984 baseball season.

At the time, Jim Palmer had more wins than any other pitcher in the American League with 268.  Right behind him was Don Sutton with 266, and in third place was Tommy John with 248.

And here is a quick look at how these three guys ranked once their playing days were complete:

1. Don Sutton – 324
2. Tommy John – 288
3. Jim Palmer – 268

The tides turned a bit, huh??  Maybe Topps had ‘The Jinx’ before they turned it over to Sports Illustrated and Madden!!!