Did You Know…

The 1987 Minnesota Twins are the only World Series champions to be outscored in the regular season.  Despite scoring only 786 runs while allowing 806, the Twins finished the 1987 regular season with a record of 85-77, two games ahead of Kansas City in the AL West and then shocked the favored Detroit Tigers in the ALCS and beat St. Louis in seven games for the title.  Their .525 winning percentage is the lowest ever for a World Series champion.

**factoid courtesy of ‘Big League Trivia’

My take 0 I remeber that team very well.  And they were a ton of fun to watch!!!

Did You Know…

The 1991 World Series between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves is considered one of the toughest and tightest ever.  To some, this series was the greatest in history.  Three games went into extra innings, four games ended with the winning run scoring on the final pitch, and five games were decided by one run.  Best of all, the series brought together the previous season’s last place teams, the first time in modern major league history that a team had gone from worst to first.

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

My take – Each of these rosters were loaded with stud players.  I too have a ton of fond memories of this incredible ‘Fall Classic’!!!

15 TTM Autograph Attempts Are Out In The Mail…

Now that my Spring Training attempts at TTM are over, I wanted to jump right into the regular season.  I probably won’t send out a lot to active players but there are a ton of veterans still hanging out around the league disguised as coaches, announcers, and managers.  You better believe I am going to go after them with some gusto.  I’ve also got a nice stack of former Cubs that I want to try to get autographs from as well.

So here is my first attempt for some ‘regular season’ autographs.

The guys – Tom Browning, Damon Berryhill, Scott Sanderson, Ken Holtzman, Don Zimmer, Greg Gagne, Dan Gladden, Doug Dascenzo, Cris Carpenter, Terry Steinbach, Billy Hatcher, Jim Presley, Tommy Hutton, Cookie Rojas, and Dave Martinez.

As always, I will be sure to post my successes with you as they roll in.  And pics too of course!!! 

Spring Training Review – Twins VS Orioles

Man, it was hot at the game yesterday.  The sunburn on my arms is going to last for some time…

I wanted to go see the Twins for a few reasons.  I had been reading quite a bit that most of the Twins legends had been at their Spring camps, but I wasn’t sure if any of them traveled to away game with the team.  I was hoping to see Rod Carew, Paul Molitor, Terry Steinbach, Dan Gladden, and hopefully a few others.  Well, the answer is no, they do not travel with the team, at least not to Ft. Lauderdale.

So as for autographs, I walked away with 0.  This was by plan though as I don’t have any cards of any of the current players or coaches for either they Twins or Orioles.  Many of them signed, and I could have walked away with at least 12-15 autographs, but many of the players that the Twins brought down that signed for the fans were non-roster guys.  With Justin Morneau playing in the WBC and Joe Mauer rehabbing an injruy, the biggest stars that Minnesota brought down were Joe Nathan, Joe Crede, and Michael Cuddyer.  Of the 3, Nathan signed a few, but I did not see Crede or ‘Cuddy’ pick up a pen all afternoon.

Here are a few of the sights from the game: 

 The Twins players preparing to take the filed for practice.

 Ryan Freel getting ready to sign some autographs.  The Orioles are great with their fans – most of their players signed along that line prior to the game starting.

 Joe Crede at the plate!

 Former Phillies All-star Juan Samuel and Twins player Joe Crede exchanging pleasantries in between innings.

New Twins player Carlos Gomez at bat.

Tearing Into Another Pack Of 1990 Fleer – Pack #2

 I received 4 packs of 1990 Fleer in the contest I won on the Autographed Cards blog.

Here are the results from Pack #2

Dan Gladden, R.J. Reynolds, Pat Borders, Von Hayes, Ron Hassey, Fred McGriff, Devon White, Glenn Wilson, Dave Winfield, Sandy Alomar Jr, Danny Tartabull, Andres Galaraga, Scott Coolbaugh, Rick Dempsey, and Scott Hemond/Mark Gardner.

Of the cards, the Winfield, McGriff, and Galaraga cards stand out.  In this pack, there weare a few doubles from this pack that I got in pack 1.

Ripping Open A Pack Of 1990 Fleer – Pack #1

I received 4 packs of 1990 Fleer in the contest I won on the Autographed Cards blog.

Here are the results from Pack #1

Mike Pagliarulo, Mark Gubicza, Dave Martinez, Geno Petralli, Jose Gonzalez, Kelly Mann/Dave Hansen, Bruce Hurst, Frank Tanana, Dean Wilkins, Al Newman, Dante Bichette, Ted Higuera, Greg Maddux, Dan Gladden, R,J, Reynolds, and Pat Borders.

Of these cards, the Maddux cards is the gem!!!