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.

=======================================

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.

Orioles Rise and I'm Falling Behind

I spent most of this weekend cataloging my oddballs on Trading Card Database. My card count of just Brewers that I have is up to 21,773...and I haven't really gone through my binders to catalog those properly. This is not to mention the fact that I probably should have been doing some work this weekend.

Oh well.

Of course, that means that I've been a bit of a quiet hermit today, even though all that cataloging has been a really good time.

Yeah, something good. 

Someone who always seems to be into something good is my pal Cliff a/k/a @oriolesrise on Twitter. Cliff is always going to auctions and sales and seems to always come away with tons of great, eclectic stuff. He says he collects everything, and when you follow him on Twitter, you know he is not exaggerating to say that. 

I was lucky enough to receive a package of random items from him around the beginning of the year, so let's see what showed up.

These "Baseball Rub Offs" are ones that seems like they should be easier to find than they are. In my four years back in collecting, I've gotten two Robin Younts and ... these two. For some reason, these two dredged up some hair metal from its last death throes in late 1990/early 1991:

The song: "Screwed Blued & Tattooed". The band: Sleeze Beez.

Embarrassingly, I actually owned that tape for a while. It had a song that seemed appropriate for one's freshman year of college: "When the Brains Go to The Balls."

Soon thereafter, I first heard Nirvana and life was much, much better musically.

Believe it or not, I did not have these two Mollys in my team collection. You'd think that major-brand cards from 1989 literally would be tumbling out of my closet (and they are) but these two were only in my Molly collection.

Thanks for Molly, Cliff. These two songs are not, however, 16 candles down the drain.

After these cards and tattoos, things got a little weirder. Much cooler too. Because oddities are the best.

Cliff took the matches out of these old matchbooks from the early 1980s. You have to love these things. So, the back stories? 

Merle Harmon was the first lead announcer for the Milwaukee Brewers when they first moved to town in 1970. He started up "Fan Fair" in Milwaukee around that time, and built it into a 140-store chain before selling the business. Harmon left the Brewers in 1980 to go to work for NBC. He ended up working with the Rangers after that. He passed away in April of 2009 at the age of 83.

Parker Pens are awesome pens, in case you're not familiar with them. They are high-end pens -- Wikipedia calls them a "luxury" pen -- which is now owned by Newell Brands/Newell Rubbermaid. The plant in Janesville closed in 2009 thanks to corporate downsizing.

Music to go with matches?

Of course, my head went to the very end of this song with the lighting of a very loud match starting a fire and burning this damn place down...ooh hoo...down to the grounds. Heh heh heh heh heh heh....

I love schedules. Back in the 1980s, I think I read an article in Baseball Cards Magazine that talked about collecting schedules, so I wrote to a number of teams and got schedules from them. I also grabbed as many schedules as I could find at local retailers. And yet, I don't think I had any of these. 

I was looking at the 1976 schedule and noticed that there was a Scout Day that year. I have a very faint memory of being at that game because my older brother (who would have been 8) was in Cub Scouts at that point. It's a faint memory because, well, I was only 4 years old.

If you're going to go to the game, you'd better know what time it is. I recently watched a documentary on Netflix about the band Chicago f/k/a Chicago Transit Authority that was fascinating. I have been watching a bunch of music documentaries lately there -- it's a fun way to hear the backstories of the bands that otherwise would have made a VH1 "Behind the Music" except that show doesn't exist anymore as far as I know. 

But I ramble.

In any event, if you like music and documentaries, check that one out.

The final item in the package from Cliff was this awesome 8x10 autographed by Don Money. Money is a PC, and I have a couple of his autographs from later in his career. Money is a guy whom a lot of fans today don't know but who had a really good career. He was with the Phillies from 1968 through 1972, when the Brewers traded Ken Brett, Jim Lonborg, Ken Sanders, and Earl Stephenson to Philadelphia and, in return, got Money, Bill Champion, and John Vukovich. 

He arrived in Milwaukee at the age of 25 and got plugged in at third base for the most part. He was a four-time All-Star for the Brewers, and while he was never going to be a Hall of Famer, he was an excellent player through 1978 for the team. From 1979 to 1983, he was a platoon DH with Roy Howell and occasionally played some third base, second base, and first base. He got the short end of the stick when the Brewers got Sal Bando and Cecil Cooper in 1977 and, then, lost his spot at second base thanks to Paul Molitor's emergence in 1978.

Don't mind if I take the Money and run at all.

Thanks, Cliff, for the great package and for the patience in my not even writing it up for 6 weeks! 

Word Association Games: A Zippy Zapping

I sometimes think that I have an oddly organized brain. It stores random trivia and song lyrics at a frightening pace, for instance. Weird connections between the two make it so that the song generator in my head kicks off if you say a random word to me. Do that, and pretty soon I can't stop hearing the song "Requiem for a Dying Song" in my head for hours. 

For whatever reason, one of those word associations in my head has attached Pearl Jam's song "Whipping" to the card-collecting-world-famous Zippy Zappings from Kenny, the proprietor of Torren' Up Cards. 

Other than the ending of each word being "pping", I have no idea why my brain ties these two disparate things together. Hell, the song is almost as old as Kenny is. But, that's the way things work for me. 

So, after a long week away in planning meetings and, also, a fair amount of fun too, let's see where my brain goes with this Zapping. 

Kenny sent me a package with four portions: three "packs" of cards, and a "loose" pack. Let's start "loose" and go from there:

These are from a 2008 Upper Deck/Kellogg's promotion from Japan. Ryan from "This Card Is Cool" mentioned this set (along with the related sets from 2007, 2009, and 2010) on his blog in March of 2015. I am not surprised that, as best I can tell, there are not any Milwaukee Brewers in any of these sets. Disappointed, perhaps, but not surprised.

In typing that paragraph up, my brain went to a very dark place. 

Now, let me defend my brain. I spent Wednesday through Saturday this week at a planning retreat for the American Bar Association Forum on Construction Law group. I'm a division chair within that organization, and our planning retreat was held at the Pinehurst Resort in Pinehurst, North Carolina. I'm not a golfer, so on Friday my wife and I headed to the pool -- not to bake in the sun, mind you, but rather to get a beer, hang out, people watch a bit, and generally decompress. 

It didn't suck. Well, until this damn song came on over the music at the pool. So, for the first time in about 8 years, I heard it and it got stuck in my brain for a little while. Then, the dark thoughts about no Brewers come up and there you are.

Next!

This is the 1990 version of the ACE Novelty MVP pin. Like most things that are Robin Yount items, I need not look any further than the Cynical Buddha for more information to share with you. CB's post shows the full packaging in which this pin came. Indeed, I have an unopened package that I purchased somewhere and at some point in the last two years.

Where's this go? 

My wondering where I got the unopened pin leads me here. Someone apparently took a digital video of the movie "An American Tail" as seen through a fishtank and posted this video.

Next?

I love the Sega Card Gen cards, and Kenny sent me two Jonathan Lucroy cards (from 2011 and 2012) along with this K-Rod card. K-Rod features, though, because seeing the card flipped a switch in my head.

If you listen to a bit of the song, you'll know why I couldn't avoid this link. 

This Kraft Singles Superstars is from Canada. I swear that Kenny's mailings might cover the most actual countries of origin than nearly any other trader I've ever met. I'm just waiting for him to unearth some Korean cards.  

Another natural association. Canadian. Kraft Dinners. It's nearly a Pavlovian response in my head. It seems so obvious to me that I'm afraid people will think my head is filled with cliches.



Topps's airbrushing in the 1970s was often clumsy and terrible. This is as opposed to its Photoshopping in its current cards where it's not quite as obvious that the photo has been changed except for the actual facts about the player pictured -- you know, showing game action of a draft pick in the major league uniform, for existence. 

Making the 1970s clumsiness more obvious is that Money is in pinstripes. Milwaukee's uniforms did not have pinstripes until 1978; Money's team in 1972 -- the Phillies -- did. Ken Berry's change on his uniform isn't as obvious (though Milwaukee did not wear gray any year that I can see), but that hat is a clear airbrush job since Berry had not played for Milwaukee when the card was issued in 1974.

The satin hats led my brain to old, old school country music and Jeannie Pruett's signature song, "Satin Sheets." I guess the oddity is that this song is in my head at all in the first place, though it did spend three weeks atop the Country Music charts in 1973. My mom's listening to country music in the 1970s must have put it into my RAM around then.



In prospecting circles, most people recognize 21-year-old Brewers prospect Orlando Arcia as one of the top prospects in the minor leagues. Intriguingly, the Brewers have been playing Orlando at second base in the past week, leading me to wonder if the team might keep Jonathan Villar (currently leading the National League in stolen bases...and also in caught stealing...but generally having an excellent season) at short for a little while and break Arcia in at short. But, in the story about Arcia, Brewers GM David Stearns denied any position change was in the works.

We'll see.

But, where does my head go with that Bowman yellow Orlando staring at me?

Of course. It's Tony Orlando and Dawn with their song about coming home after three years in prison, "Tie a Yellow Ribbon." There's nothing like a good soft-rock song about an ex-con making demands on his girlfriend/family, is there?

After listening to the song and knowing its words, it strikes me as a bit off that this song -- and its yellow ribbons -- got co-opted to become a national symbol for soldiers off at war or even people being held as hostages. As that Library of Congress website explains, its symbolism extends well back into the U.S. Civil War, so it's not quite as obvious or crazy as it first may seem.

Thank you, Kenny, for the great cards -- only a few of which I've shared here. They are excellent!

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!