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?

A PWE from 2x3 Heroes and Contest, Part II

First off, thank you to the folks who have already entered the card show Contest. I started thinking about the fact that there are a lot of folks who may never have been to a card show, and that I should try to make an effort to include them in some ways.  

Let's do that here: if you have never been to a card show, comment on this post and tell me what card or cards you would look for at a card show.  I'll do the same prize here as well -- $10 spent at my local card show trying to help you live out your card show dreams.  Please note: you are only allowed to win one time -- either on this post or the other one.  

Last week while I was roaming around the country's midsection, I received a PWE from JediJeff at 2x3 Heroes. I was happy to see it because I now can confirm that I am in his PWE club, in which he randomly sends out a PWE based on your collecting interests.  Jeff is the kind of guy who will take those miscuts off your hands -- yes, he collects them, and he even spelled out his criteria last year as to what it takes to be a true miscut.  He also tends to put songs on each of his blog posts, which is always a big win to me.

Songs? Sure, I overuse the song-introducing-a-card posts here, but dadgum it, I'm a big music fan. So, using whatever songs catch my ear today, here are the Brewers that Jeff sent my way.

2008 Upper Deck Ryan Braun

Wholly appropriate song to go with the card that popped into my head?

One of my wife's favorite artists:

The song is called "Before He Cheats," though I can't be sure that this card came before Braun cheated.

Carrie Underwood sure is easy on the eyes. The first concert my wife and I attended together was in Milwaukee at Summerfest in 2010, and it was Carrie Underwood. My wife was then just my fiance, and she had not met my family in person. When I saw that Carrie was playing the last day of Summerfest, I jumped on the tickets and made that our gift to ourselves for going to Wisconsin.

Oddly enough, that was the last show that Carrie did before she came to Georgia and Lake Oconee and got married to hockey player Mike Fisher at the Ritz Carlton Reynolds Plantation.

1991 Topps Tom Edens

What fits this card?

So, when I think of 1991 and the name Edens, I think of going back to college for my sophomore year at Vanderbilt. My drive to Vandy from where I grew up took me south on I-94 (eastbound, officially) from Milwaukee to Chicago before cutting into Gary, Indiana. I-94 in Chicago is the Edens Expressway.

What does that have to do with REM? Well, in the spring of 1991 and as happened every spring, the Southern Baptist Church has some sort of big get-together on campus at Vanderbilt and they rented out the 15,000 seat Memorial Gymnasium for it. It was my first time seeing that big meeting there.  As I was walking back to my dorm from that side of campus, I walked by the Beta Theta Pi fraternity house. Blasting from their speakers was the entirely appropriate "Losing My Religion."

2009 Topps Allen & Ginter Jeff Suppan

I'm not a Jeff Suppan fan. But, I'll make the best of this:

The Soup Dragons biggest U.S. hit was "Divine Thing." I listened to this song a ton a couple of years after it was released because the "New Rock" station in Milwaukee in 1994, New Rock 102.1, had this song in constant rotation at that time. 

It's still a pretty good song, I think.  It holds up well...and a lot better than Suppan did as a Brewer.

2000 Upper Deck Mark Loretta

I have few strong memories of Mark Loretta. He was a Brewer around the time they moved to the NL, and then he became an Astro.  Based on his Twitter feed, it appears that Loretta is drawn more to the Padres than anything else.  Loretta is only about 4 months older than me, and yet, he feels like he belongs to a distant past.

I guess if I were a pro athlete, I'd belong to a distant past as well.

When I think of Loretta, though...

There's only one Loretta Lynn. Even though she is 83 years old, the Coal Miner's Daughter from Butcher Hollow (that's pronounced "Holler", by the way), Kentucky, is still touring -- playing casinos and theaters from Tyler, Texas, to Tarrytown, New York.

Personally, I'll be lucky to make it to age 83.

Okay...last card to share, even though Jeff sent a bunch more.

2013 Topps Mike Fiers

Yeah, I had this card already. But I always get a particular song in my head whenever I see a card of the Astro's no-hit thrower:

I didn't start the Fiers.  He was always burning since the world's been turning.

Jeff, thank you very much for having me in your PWE club. I'll be on the lookout for some good Chisox to send your way.

Cards From The Other World

A few weeks back, I had a little extra time at work one morning to enjoy my second cup of coffee and casually read through some blogs.  From time to time, I scroll through other blog rolls to try to find new blogs that I don't otherwise read.  In that way, I finally came across a long-time blogger, Dan from The Other World.  

Dan was in the midst of a spring cleaning of sorts.  He put out a call on his blog for people to claim a division.  Seeing no one had grabbed the NL Central, I commented and asked for them.  Then I forgot about that.  

Somewhere around mid-May, a box showed up at my house from Dan. Having forgotten about my comment, I started going through the cards. The first team I saw were Cardinals, and I thought to myself, "did someone send these to me as a joke? Or a mistake? Was I hacked?"

Okay, I really didn't think I was hacked. 

Then the light bulb went on, finally, and I recalled everything. Thankfully, the cards that Dan sent to me are very memorable and filled some big gaps in my collecting.

Such as, early 2000s Bowman:

Any package that contains a Callix Crabbe (middle name: Sadeaq) has to be a good one.  Crabbe was selected out of junior college by the Brewers in the 2002 draft in the 12th round.  He got a brief chance to play in the major leagues when the San Diego Padres selected him in the 2007 Rule 5 draft. He failed to impress, and his career went back down the minors after that.  But come on -- Callix??

Strikingly, all of these minor league guys got chances to play big-league baseball.  Salome got three at-bats in 2008, Pember got a start in his four appearances in 2002, Komatsu appeared with St. Louis and Minnesota in 2012, and Logan Schafer is still in the Brewers system.  Of all of the minor league guys, Mike Adams may have had the longest career -- 3 years in Milwaukee, parts of four seasons in San Diego, parts of two seasons in Texas, and two years in Philadelphia before coming to the end of the road at age 35 last year.

There were other cards that I needed for PCs and the team collection as well.  Such as one final Bowman -- a Lucroy rookie:

A couple of Greg Vaughns -- a Fleer insert and a Flair checklist:

And even a Rickie Weeks 2011 Topps Update All-Star card:

The two biggest highlights from Dan, though, came in small packages:

The Braun framed A&G relic is interesting. I had one of these already, but the swatch of fabric in the card is pure white.  This one is gray.  I'm calling that a short-print variation.

I am joking, by the way.

The other card is a pink mini Parallel of Mike Fiers -- serial numbered out of twenty-five!  

Dan, thank you very much for the cards.  I'll do my best to distribute those Pirates, Cardinals, Reds, and Cubs around the blogosphere and, more to the point, I promise that this weekend your return envelope will be filled!

Thanks for being patient.

Christmas Cards from Too Many Verlanders

Dennis at Too Many Verlanders is one of the most generous bloggers around. I've gotten several envelopes from him over the past several months, and each one has great cards in them.  What did the Christmas package hold, other than the incredibly nice handwritten Christmas wish?

First off, a 2010 Topps George Kottaras card. Kottaras is Canadian -- from Ontario -- and got the opportunity last September finally to play for his hometown Blue Jays.  Here's his tweet about that. And here's the card.

The next card? Another catcher who got to fulfill his dream, perhaps, of playing for his hometown team. But for Damian Miller, the team he wanted to play for was the Milwaukee Brewers. Interestingly, Miller was not a member of the players' union because he was a strike breaker back in 1994. As a result, Wikipedia claims (without attribution...but it could be true) that his name was left off 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks memorabilia celebrating their World Series win.

Those union guys...sometimes they hold a grudge.

Next up, two lefty starters who bounced around the leagues a bit. Randy Wolf, who pitched 25 innings for the Marlins last season, appears on a 2011 Topps base set card.  And Doug Davis is pictured here on a 2010 Topps Update Gold card in his second tour of duty in Milwaukee.

Next, we come across two current Brewers.

First off, there is fourth/fifth starter -- and late season ace -- Mike Fiers. Everyone who talks about Fiers mentions that his stuff just isn't that great and that they are always waiting for the other shoe to drop when it comes to his pitching. I look at his results, and, outside of a tater-induced disaster in 2013, he has put up some impressive numbers in 200 innings of big-league work. Especially look at his K/BB ratio -- 3.75 in 2012 and 4.47 in 2014. Maybe that's a fluke, but he's always had good control and struck out a ton of guys at every stop in the minors. Something's working.

The other current Brewer is a Wal-Mart parallel of Jean Segura from the 2013 Topps Update set. It's always nice to add a card to a player collection, and my adding to my current player collections other than Ryan Braun has been slow this first year collecting again.

The final card from TMV was definitely the highlight. I mentioned a few months ago that Gorman Thomas was a guy who really never hung around to sign autographs after games. As a result, I never was able to add his autograph to my collection on anything. Either Dennis remembered that, or he just figured I would love this card because Gorman's a Brewer and a player collection. In any case, it was absolutely a fantastic Christmas gift to get!

Thank you so very much, Dennis, for the excellent cards and the holiday wishes.