Brewers Autographs: A Follow Up

My post yesterday was okay. Not great in my mind, but okay. What was wrong with it?

A few things. You see, I put together my list looking both at statistics and through going with my gut or my heart. Sometimes, when you do that, it gets disjointed. What I mean is this: the advanced statistics like WAR put the four starters I had (Ted Higuera, Ben Sheets, Yovani Gallardo, and Mike Caldwell) higher than a guy who should have been on this list.

The guy that should have been on the list was Jim Slaton. Slaton is still the team's leader in career wins with 117. He's only one appearance behind Dan Plesac for career pitching appearances with the team. Plesac, though, was a reliever for all but 14 of his career 365 games with the team and only threw 524-1/3 innings. Slaton threw nearly four times as many innings -- 2025-1/3, which is still tops in team history. He is #4 in strikeouts, first in shutouts, and first in batters faced by exactly 2000 over Mike Caldwell.

He's also the only player with whom I have a photo as a kid:

My only defense is the disconnect of thinking of him as a starter, I suppose. From 1971 (as a 21-year-old rookie) through his trade to Detroit after the 1977 season and then his return as a free agent in 1979 and his shoulder injury three starts into the 1980 season, Slaton made 255 appearances as a Brewer. Of these, just 15 were relief appearances. Even in 1981, he made 21 starts in 24 appearances. But in 1982 and 1983 -- the seasons most ingrained in my brain -- Jim started only 7 times and actually had more saves (11) than starts. 

Still, I should have included him somehow -- not only for his place in Brewers history, but also because he was one of the most consistently nice guys and good signers on the team. And, also because he indulged me with an hour of his time in January of 2017 thanks to Ray Peters introducing me through telephone calls and the like to Jim. Slaton returned to Milwaukee after the 1978 season as a free agent because he loved the people and the club and the players on the team, so the least I could do is thank him for all of that.

So, Jim, thank you once again for being one of the good guys -- the patient one with obnoxious Wisconsin kids like me who dressed terribly and were loud and always wanted autographs and, maybe forgot to thank you every time. Thank you.

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The other thing I should have done but didn't was to look outside of my autographed baseball cards for autographs. In looking through old programs and yearbooks, I surprise myself with the number of random autographs I have found. 

I would often find the yearbook reasonably early in the year on the newstand at the local grocery store and talk my mom into springing for the $2.50 to buy the thing. Then, I'd take the yearbook to one game and end up with random autographs in it or on the cover. For example, Ted Simmons was drawn jumping into Rollie Fingers's arms on the cover of the 1982 Brewers Yearbook. 

If you look closely at Simmons's large hindquarters, you might see some handwriting:

Apparently, 10-year-old Tony thought it was a good idea to have Charlie Moore autograph Ted Simmons's drawing.

On the bottom right, you'll see former pitching coach Pat Dobson's autograph. Dobson was a Buffalo guy who played in the majors for the Tigers, Yankees, Padres, Orioles, Braves, and Indians and, most notably, was one of the four members of the 1971 Baltimore starting rotation to win 20 games (Mike Cuellar, Jim Palmer and Dobson all won 20, and Dave McNally won 21) on a team that was put together by then Orioles General Manager Harry Dalton. Dobson passed away in 2006 in San Diego from leukemia one day after being diagnosed with the disease.

Inside the yearbook, there are two player autographs and one broadcaster autograph. It is not a surprise to see that one of the player autographs is that man again:

The other two autographs are from Ned Yost and broadcaster and former first baseman Mike Hegan.

A similar story is told from other yearbooks and programs from that era. 

• My 1983 Official Yearbook is signed by Paul Molitor, Charlie Moore, and Pete Ladd. 

• Two 1982 World Series Programs: one is autographed by Charlie Moore and the other is signed by Paul Molitor, Pete Ladd, and Mark Brouhard.

• My 1982 ALCS program is signed by Pat Dobson, Jerry Augustine, Sal Bando, Tommy John, Mike Hegan, Bowie Kuhn, and Jim Slaton. 

• My 1981 Team Yearbook is signed by Paul Molitor, Jim Gantner, and Jim Slaton.

• Even my 1984 Yearbook is signed by manager Rene Lachemann. 

By 1984, I was focused on getting cards signed, so that ended my chasing with the yearbooks. I wish in many respects that I had focused on filling up the 1982 Yearbook with autographs on every player photo in the book. That would have been a very cool keepsake.

One more item from 1982 saddens me more than anything thanks to the deterioration of its condition. At a signing in 1982, I won a free Brewer-logo baseball. Jim Gantner was the first to sign it. Thereafter, I added tons of autographs to it, including: Ned Yost, Robin Yount, Marshall Edwards, Bud Selig, Buck Rodgers, Paul Molitor, Rollie Fingers, Don Sutton, Mark Brouhard, Bob Uecker, Dwayne Mosley (radio guy), Steve Shannon (TV guy), Mike Hegan, Sal Bando, Pete Ladd, Don Money, Mike Caldwell, Bob McClure, Bob Gibson (the white guy again), Charlie Moore, Roy Howell, and even Ted Simmons:

You can see, though, the problem. The autographs written in blue pen have nearly completely disappeared from the ball's surface. I mean, you have to squint to be able to see Bob Uecker's autograph across that MB logo. I will even admit to trying to trace over some of the autographs in sharpie in a vain attempt to resurrect those autographs. 

It was my pride and joy as a 10-year-old, but 36 years later, it's just something I wish I had done a little differently by using a sharpie with all the autographs. 

As a final postscript, I purchased a program from the 2002 All-Star Game on eBay several years ago because Robin Yount is on the cover. I don't recall seeing any mention of this in the sales description for the program, but inside, there were several autographs:

Thanks to the holograms and other exemplars in my collection, I know that the top autograph is Gorman Thomas. Under that is Dennis Martinez, Don Money, and Sweet Lou Johnson. Martinez was the only one who did not play for a Milwaukee team, as Johnson played in 61 games for the 1962 Milwaukee Braves. 

I then turned the page, and in the middle of an adidas advertisement, there was one more autograph:

Cubs and Rangers great and baseball Hall of Famer Fergie Jenkins!

So, if I go back to my original autograph post, how about giving me a starting rotation of Warren Spahn, Fergie Jenkins, Bert Blyleven, and Don Sutton and maybe Blue Jays great Dave Stieb as my fifth starter? 

I'd take that. 

Thanks for stopping by, and perhaps sometime soon I'll go through some cards that some of my trading friends have been nice enough to send my way.

Twitch Sends Me Cards

Interacting with collectors by way of anything other than face-to-face interaction can have its awkward moments. For instance, when you're way behind on sending out response packages to people, you feel a little awkward interacting with them because you feel like you want to say, "sorry, man, I know, I'm way behind." 

Other times, there is some awkwardness when you can't remember who sent you cards. I have solved that problem for myself by scanning the cards as soon as I get them in and then saving them in a scan folder named for the person who sent them to me.

Then, there is the awkwardness I felt recently. I know Twitch of Twitch Collects Cards. By that, I mean, I interact regularly with him on Twitter, watch his creative process in drawing all kinds of awesome sketch cards, and read his insomnia-filled tweets that make me feel awful inside for him. 

The fact is, though, that I never really knew Twitch's name or address before getting cards in the mail. Well, I probably did know CC is really Twitch (I mean, I did read Gavin's trade post), but still -- I didn't want to give credit for a package based on a hunch.  

To make up for my gaffe, I will first show you some of the fantastic art that Twitch is working on. 

I colored 7 #SketchCards today! Haku, Kitty, Karai, Jason/Lono, Gizmo, Rocketeer, BB-8. #collect #art #commissionme pic.twitter.com/vzacHZs5sl

— #RecallRauner (@TwitchWasHere) June 16, 2016

As the hashtag says, you can commission some of these great sketch cards or other items by contacting Twitch via Twitter. This is just the tip of the iceberg on the great art that Twitch is creating. I wish I had even one-tenth of this artistic ability. As best I can tell, my creativity is limited to words.

And, as you probably know if you've read this blog, that is a pretty limited creative streak for me. 

Twitch was kind enough to send me a ton of Brewers. I admit that I am now at a loss as to what to send back, but I'll figure that out soon.

Here's the highlights:

Liquor-fractors and pizza. Yummy. I Googled "Liquor and Pizza" and it turns out that El Cajon, California must be the best place to live in America. I found that Shinar Pizza there allows you to order a fresh pizza, liquor, beer, or wine, smokes (if you're so inclined), or even groceries all at once and they will deliver.

Sticking with shiny and 2011, how about a few of those diamond anniversary parallels?

Two player collections for me in Jonathan Lucroy (now at 147 Lucroy Cards/items) and Corey Hart (lagging behind at 103).

As best I can tell, Hart is done as a player. He tried to play last year with Pittsburgh, and he just could not get through all of the injuries. 

An interesting sidelight is that there is another baseball playing Corey Hart who is a coach in the Blue Jays organization. He stands 6-feet tall and has a shaved head (as opposed to the 6'7", shaggy haired outfielder).  

That Corey Hart and this Corey Hart both played in the Brewers organization together at Nashville in 2005. Now-Coach Corey Hart's first at-bat in the Brewers organization was to pinch-hit for the tall Corey Hart. Coach Corey Hart also told the story that he was asked to sign a baseball card of the other Corey Hart in 2008 or 2009. The card had the facsimile signature on it, and the card company had screwed up -- they put Coach Corey's signature on OF Corey's card.

Perhaps appropriately for Twitch's art is this story in which Craig Calcaterra talked to OF Corey about his extensive superhero action figure collection!

Next up: A&G Minis!

Another J. Corey Hart card -- a 2009 "Old Planter" back -- and a 2011 Mark Rogers Bazooka parallel hand-serial-numbered 2 out of just 25.

Rogers is the rare Mainer major leaguer. I don't know if he is still pitching now (he tried and failed to catch on with Texas in 2015), but he pitched last year in the Independent Atlantic League for Long Island and Bridgeport with not a whole lot of success (39 innings, 6.23 ERA, 25 walks, 9 HR allowed). At one time very early in his career -- based entirely on being the 5th pick overall in the 2004 draft, almost certainly -- Rogers was the 55th and then the 44th best prospect in baseball according to Baseball America in 2005 and 2006 respectively.

Then injuries caught him. Remember everyone and repeat after Baseball Prospectus: There Is No Such Thing As A Pitching Prospect. 

Rogers was smart and invested his bonus money wisely, according to this Portland Press Herald article. So, he's financially okay. But, Rogers really was a guy who never lived up to his high draft pick status.

On the left is Chris Dennis. Dennis was born in Windsor, Ontario, and was drafted by the Brewers in the 13th round of the 2007 MLB Draft from St. Thomas of Villanova High School in LaSalle, Ontario. He got as high as High-A Brevard County in 2011 before he couldn't keep up enough with his bat (in 96 plate appearances, he slashed .169/.274/.253). I don't know where he went from there -- perhaps he decided to go to college or try something different since, after all, he was 23 at the end of 2011.

On the right is a 1984 Topps Sticker of Larry Bowa. But ignore that. The important guy is the one in the middle -- Birmingham, Alabama, native Charlie Moore. While Moore was pretty much done as a player in 1987, it would have been nice for him to get to stay in Milwaukee for his final season in the majors rather than ending up on Chris Dennis's eventual stomping grounds in Ontario. Moore made it to the majors in 1973 at the age of 20, but he played over 120 games in a season just three times -- 1977, 1982, and 1983.

It's Yovani Gallardo times four -- three shiny cards (two chrome and one "Prizm") and one Turkey Red. Gallardo signed in the offseason with Baltimore to a two-year, $20 million contract with a $13 million team option for 2018 or a $2 million option buy out. Gallardo hasn't pitched much this year for Baltimore thanks to injuries. He'll get every opportunity to claim a rotation spot there, though. 

These cards helped push my Gallardo collection up to 153 cards.

For me, it's always good to add to my ever-burgeoning Ryan Braun collection. The first one is the base "O-Pee-Chee" (put in quotes in deference to the fact that, well, these cards are just Upper Deck in O-Pee-Chee name with a wannabe 1976 Topps look) from 2009. The next actually goes in my 2010 Upper Deck team collection. The "20th Anniversary" card is one I needed too -- even though I have one that looks almost exactly like it already, I still needed it. Finally, that fancy Topps High Tek thing from 2014 is actually a "Spiral Bricks Gold Diffractor" and it is serial numbered as number 22 of 99.

Thanks to this infusion of Brauns, my Ryan collection has now reached 564 different Ryan Braun cards/items.  

Twitch, many thanks for the great package of cards -- to be fair, there were at least 10 more cards I could have included here.

Okay, one more:

Thanks for the cards and thanks for the great art you post, CC!

The Right Honourable Gentleman from Ottawa

When last seen, my Canadian co-conspirator in war and peace, Angus, was dropping bombs on Jaybarkerfan in a fitting finale to the war whose coda appeared yesterday. Out of the blue on Friday, though, Angus dropped a package on me.

While I didn't receive any action figures of past Prime Ministers, I did receive some fantastic Canadian goodies and a bunch of more recent cards for my Milwaukee Braves collections. With it being a weekend and a package that began its life in another country, I think it's time for another Off Hiatus travelogue. 

I will not get to Montreal probably until the Fall of 2016 -- and I am truly looking forward to that. But, I traveled to Toronto in 2008 over the American Memorial Day holiday weekends. I loved the city immensely. Despite not being more than an hour's drive outside the United States,Toronto has a different vibe to it that is unmistakably Canadian.

Without further introduction, here are highlights from the cards that Angus sent with highlights from Toronto.

The CN Tower

The CN Tower is a huge communications platform that was built in the 1970s. When it was finished, it topped out at just over 1,815 feet tall and was the tallest man-made structure on earth from 1976 until April of 2008. 

The Wikipedia article on the Tower says that the Tower held that "Tallest" record through 2010 when the Canton Tower (in Guangzhou, China) and the Burj Khalifa/Burj Dubai were finished. However, I know for a fact that the Burj passed the CN Tower in early April of 2008 -- because I was in Dubai the week after that happened. I mentioned that to a woman at the CN Tower when I was there, and I was greeted with the response, "Not yet it isn't."  I didn't argue with her, though.

When you're talking about giants in baseball, you can't help but think about Warren Spahn. It is fair that the winningest left-handed pitcher in baseball history -- a record that may never be topped -- be celebrated with this tall tower:

We've got Topps Archives Reserve Chrome from 2001, three Upper Deck products (SP Legendary Cuts, Origins, and Sweet Spot) and two Donruss products (Studio and Timeless Treasures).  Each of them was needed for my player collection.

Inside the CN Tower

One of the coolest parts of the lower observation deck is a thick window to the ground that you can stand on. Even though the signs reassure you that the glass is really thick, that it's thicker than the floor (probably), etc., I'd be lying if I didn't say that my knees were shaking standing on this window.  I snapped the photo and got off the window about as fast as I possibly could.

What goes with this kind of "leap" of faith to believe in modern engineering?  Nothing, really, but let's go with a Brewer legend who made the leap to play in Toronto:

For Paul Molitor to leave the protective cocoon of Milwaukee for Toronto at what seemed the end of his career -- who knew he'd play another six highly productive years for Toronto and Minnesota (.313/.374/.457, 1038 hits in 3724 plate appearances, 339 walks, 362 Ks, 74 HR, 92 SB) -- it was a true leap of belief in himself to do it. It sucked from a Brewers' fan's perspective, but it had to have motivated Molitor some to show that he could play without missing time, without injuries, for several years beyond what Bud Selig thought he could.  

What in the Hell is this?

I went to three Blue Jays games while in Toronto. During pregame, they had a dance troupe perform a traditional Greek dance in centerfield. Having the grounds crew in the foreground made complete sense for this performance.

These look normal. Of course, if they were just your usual Topps cards, I already would have most of these in my collection.  Of course, because they came from Angus in Canada, these are not Topps....

Meneurs pour les points produits can only mean one thing -- well, it could mean that the Card Papoy decided to release his own card sets in French, but here it means that Angus sent me a ton of O-Pee-Chee cards from 1975 and 1976.  These are the non-player collection cards; here are the player collections:

Gorman Thomas

Charlie Moore

Don Money

Rogers Centre

I was pleasantly surprised by Rogers Centre. For being a dome with artificial turf, it actually was a great place to see a game. I watched the Friday night game from the hotel bar above the left field stands. On Saturday, this was my seat.  On Sunday, I went to the Hard Rock Cafe above the right field stands. I even stayed in the hotel at Rogers Centre, though I did not spring for the "field view" room.

Still, the sightlines in each location were great, and it was an experience I will never forget.

This guy will never be forgotten in Milwaukee sports history either. The length of his career, the winning attitude he brought, and the quiet confidence he had will probably never be replicated in Milwaukee -- or perhaps anywhere.  

Teams don't bring 18-year-olds to the major leagues after a half-season in the minors at low-A and say, "okay, kid, you're the starting shortstop." The nattering nabobs of negativism on the MLB network and ESPN and in the national media and on Twitter (et cetera) would never stand for that. "Let him get more seasoning! There's no need to rush him!"

The Serenity of Lake Ontario

This photo of a sailboat on Lake Ontario is one that an interior designer friend of mine printed out and put on my wall when she helped redesign and spruce up the condo I lived in back in 2008. It's one of my favorites that I have ever taken.  

Just like Eddie Mathews will be one of my favorites always as well. The second-greatest third-baseman ever -- behind Mike Schmidt -- deserves more acclaim than he gets these days. He was the seventh player in major-league history to reach 500 homeruns. He did it exactly 2 months after Mickey Mantle did it in 1967, and he reached 500 homeruns exactly one year before Hank Aaron did -- July 14.

Angus, thank you very much for the cards and the help in the trade war with Wes. I consider myself very lucky to have been on the receiving end of several packages from you, and I am looking forward to the day when I can finally send you something!