Autographs and No Hitters

I had to drive about two total hours today to take a deposition for work. It gave me time to think about whether I wanted to post today. I decided I did because depositions often suck. Today's pretty much did.

Depositions are sometimes fun, sometimes painful, and oftentimes frustrating. I sit in a conference room with a court reporter, another lawyer, and a witness -- in the simplest cases, that is...in more complicated cases, there may be 5 or 6 other lawyers in attendance in person or by phone and there may be a videographer present as well -- and I literally ask questions to the witness about events that took place one, two, or more years ago and expect the witness to have perfect recollection about seemingly inconsequential events that now have consequence. 

In the most frustrating cases, you end up with a witness who is long on generalities, short on specifics, but swears constantly that their generalities covered everything in the case perfectly. Then you ask them, "did you send an email about this" and their answer is "oh no, we did everything verbally."

No one does everything verbally anymore except witnesses who really didn't do what they said they did and are trying to claim they were perfect and your guys were the cheats, liars, scammers, and phonies.

It's a great system, let me tell you.

That said, last night about 12:45, the power flipped off in my house randomly for about 15 minutes. It woke me up, of course -- we have fans going in our room for white noise and to cool us off, and it gets deathly quiet without them. My nature is that I do not snooze or hit the snooze bar -- ever. Once I'm up, I'm up. That's a problem when I've only slept 3 hours, like last night. 

But, that inability to fall back asleep meant that I was awake at about 2:15 AM Eastern when Mike Fiers was trying to close out his second no-hitter of his career. I actually got to see the final out thanks to some guy on Twitter live streaming the TV feed using his camera on his phone, which was cool. 

It got me thinking today -- how many guys who have thrown no-hitters do I have autographs from? The answer was, "More than I thought."

There's the guy that started the discussion. Mike Fiers is one of only 35 pitchers to throw multiple no-hitters in his career, and he is one of only seven pitchers to throw no-hitters on more than one team -- Jim Bunning, Ted Breitenstein (1890s pitcher who threw a no-no in his first major league start), Randy Johnson, Hideo Nomo, Cy Young, and Nolan Ryan are the others.

Speaking of Nolan Ryan:

I'm pretty sure this is authentic. It was the result of an autograph request through the mail in the mid-1980s. While Nolan Ryan never threw a no-hitter against Milwaukee, he did win his 300th game against Milwaukee at Milwaukee County Stadium.

Speaking of the Brewers:

The one, the only is still Juan Nieves. Nieves threw his no-hitter in the middle of the 1987 Brewers 13-game season-opening win streak on April 15, 1987. He blanked the Baltimore Orioles 7-0 thanks to two great plays in the outfield -- one by Robin Yount and the other by the immortal Jim Paciorek -- and thanks to scattering 7 walks...

Two more Brewers ties. The first one is pretty weak, but hey -- I've got an autograph from the guy:

Carlos Villanueva never threw a no-hitter in the majors, but he was a part of a minor-league no-hitter as a Nashville Sound in 2006 in the Brewers system. I know -- kinda weak.

The next one is not weak, but he didn't throw his no-hitter as part of the Brewers:

Len Barker threw the first perfect game in the American League against a team using a designated hitter. He threw his perfecto on May 15, 1981 against the Toronto Blue Jays. Barker was never known for having good control, so his no-no may have been one of the most unlikely perfect games in baseball history.

Speaking of the Toronto Blue Jays:

Stieb returned the favor to the Cleveland Indians on September 2, 1990, throwing the first no-hitter in Toronto Blue Jays history. Stieb famously lost three other no-hitters previously by giving up hits with two outs in the ninth inning.

Many of us thought Dave Stieb had a chance for the Hall of Fame while he was pitching. He was good for a long time -- but not long enough.

Unlike the next no-hit hurler:

Hall of Famer Bert Blyleven threw a no-hitter on September 22, 1977 as a member of the Texas Rangers. He threw the no-hitter against the California Angels in his final start as a member of the Rangers. He was traded in the off-season to the Pirates in a four-team trade.

Blyleven was inducted into the Hall of Fame as a Minnesota Twin. This next guy never threw a no-hitter as a Twin, but he did combine on a no-hitter in spring training.

I got Viola's autograph in-person at a Brewers/Twins game in 1986 or 1987. Viola, Hrbek, Brunansky, Kirby -- all of them were incredibly nice guys even to Brewers fans.

Three more left, and all of these guys threw their no-hitters in the National League.

Fernando Valenzuela threw a no-hitter on June 29, 1990. Earlier that same day, his former Dodgers teammate Dave Stewart had thrown a no-hitter against the Toronto Blue Jays. Having watched that, he turned to his teammates and supposedly said, "That's great, now maybe we'll see another no-hitter." And Fernando went out and blanked the St. Louis Cardinals, scattering three walks and an error.

Perhaps the autograph most dear to me in recent vintage is this Charlie Lea card. I got this from Charlie about a year before he died. More importantly, I got the card because I was working at the time with his son Brian, who himself pitched some but who is an academic and legal stud who clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas on the U.S. Supreme Court. Brian passed along that his dad loved that I remembered him for this very card -- the huge wad of chewing tobacco in his mouth featuring, of course -- so Charlie sent me an autographed one and one of his 1981 Fleer cards.

And finally, a story about no-hitters and autographs would not be complete without this ball. It's a late-in-life autograph of the great Warren Spahn that my good friend Wes f/k/a Jaybarkerfan sent me a couple of years ago as part of our monster trading war. Those were fun days, what with seven priority mail boxes packed full of Brewers and Milwaukee Braves showing up in the space of less than a month.

So, what about you -- do you have any autographs from guys who threw no-hitters?

Unloading from My Childhood

I hope my tease yesterday does not lead to the wrong conclusions about what my mom sent to me.  I could only hope that everything came from the 1950s and the backs of cereal boxes.  Seriously, that Musial is one of the more awesome items I've come across in all my digging in my mom's house.  Most of the other items are much more recent in vintage and, generally, have a Brewer-centric twist.

For example....

I've mentioned many times in the past that I chased autographs frequently as a kid -- mostly after games and, as a teenager, before games -- at Milwaukee County Stadium.  But, there was another way to chase autographs.  Many local businesses in the 1980s would pay an appearance fee to a Brewers player or two to come sign autographs for a couple of hours in order to draw people into the stores.  Depending on who the player was, the line might be around the corner and down the block -- which was the case when Robin Yount and Paul Molitor appeared together at a Foot Locker -- or, more frequently, there might be a wait of 20 minutes or so.

Because most players had the 20-minutes-or-less wait, they could often be persuaded to take photos with fans and to sign several items at a time.  After all, they were being paid to be there, and if the line wasn't long, why not?

Geez, the 1980s were an easier time.

Anyway, that led to this photo...taken between 1982 and 1984, I'd guess:

You have to love the 1980s.  I haven't the foggiest idea what store housed this signing session -- it may be that the autographs were in an office, and the lines were in the store.  I can't recall.  But the blond goober on the left with the belt way too high and the blue shower-curtain-style shirt...yup, that is definitely me as a 10-to-12 year old.  As my wife said when she saw this photo, "Boy were you excited in that photo!"

And I was.  Because while Jim Slaton may not seem like an important guy to today's fans -- and he was never a great player -- he still is the pitcher in Brewers history with the longest tenure with the team (12 seasons), the most wins in team history (117), the most innings pitched (2025-1/3), the most shutouts in team history (19), the second-most complete games (69, behind Mike Caldwell's 81) and the second-most appearances (364, one behind Dan Plesac).  In other words, the guy really is a Milwaukee Brewer.  

While that photo was one of the items I got, it was far from the only one.  As a kid, I was also a media guide junkie.  Blame it on the long Wisconsin winters or on my obsessive streak, but I read those media guides from cover-to-cover, often memorizing middle names and places of birth.  While sometimes I have to think about how long it has been since I graduated from college (21 years...yes, that's it. 21 years), I can still rattle off the entire name for George Bamberger's pitching coach, Cal McLish:

Calvin Coolidge Julius Caesar Tuskahoma McLish

I did that from memory.  Check it against Baseball-Reference, and you'll see that McLish unsurprisingly went by "Buster".  Even McLish had no idea why he got named that.

But that little tidbit came from this well-worn, well-loved nightstand page turner:

I used to love to go through this book and read the Brewers All-Time Roster, wondering why Alabama native Don Mincher played only for the Pilots in 1969 and then never appeared again (answer: he was traded in January of 1970 -- ostensibly by the Brewers according to Baseball-Reference, but in reality, the Brewers were still the Pilots until literally near the midpoint of spring training).  That was before I read Ball Four, but probably not by much.

Another memory of my childhood was rummaging through the month's Baseball Digest when it arrived.  I kept a few of those in better shape than others, but even these had some wear:

I love the little Yount cameo in the background on Cooper's cover.  Obviously, with Baseball Digest, they didn't cover the Brewers all that often on the cover.  

In fact, the Twins showed up a couple of times.  I took a couple of those to a Brewers v. Twins game on one occasion.  I deduce this from the fact that I would not send a magazine through the mail in an envelope:

Sweet Music, Frankie V!  And Herbie was kind enough to sign for me as well.  Actually, both of them were very kind, as I recall.  I think Viola asked to read the magazine during the game, since he wasn't pitching.  

But, I might be mistaken. I might be giving him a good punchline that only I remember. Memory is a strange thing, after all.

Thanks for reading tonight.  There's more to come -- more Brewers items and some interesting trade bait to follow as well.