August 31, 2013 Seven Returns Today

Seven back today.......

Tom Yewcic
When I first started searching my hard drive looking for images to make cards of Mr Yewcic, I was surprised to find football images in the search. I found out that Mr Yewcic played football and baseball at Michigan State. He played one game with the Detroit Tigers in 1957. He then played football with the Boston Patriots of the AFL from 1961 -1966. He was also a member of the Patriots 1960s All Decade Team. Maybe it's time to get into football cards too.

Corky Withrow
played in only 6 games for the Cardinals in 1963. He was a power hitter in the minor leagues.

Wayne Causey
played in the majors from 1955-1968 with the Orioles, Athletics, White Sox and Braves.

Jim Gentile
was originally signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1952 and was stuck behind Gil Hodges. He was traded to the Orioles in 1959 and in 1960 hit 21 homers and had 98 RBIs.In 1961 he hit 46 home runs with 141 RBIs and finished third in the MVP voting behind Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle.

Joe Altobelli
Mr Altobelli  played in the major leagues with the Cleveland Indians and Minnesota Twins but is probably more famous as a manager. He was the manager of the 1983 World Champion Orioles and also managed the SF Giants.

Ranson Jackson
Mr Jackson was the Cubs regular third baseman from 1951-1955. He was then traded to the Brooklyn Dodgers and then finished his career with the Cubs and Indians.

Jim Brady
pitched in 6 games with the 1956 Detroit Tigers. His nickname was "Diamond Jim" because of his signing bonus had to stay with the Tigers because of the bonus rule.

August 30, 2013 Nine Returns Today

Got nine more returns from my bulk mailing last week as well as getting back some 1956 style cards.

Dave Hillman
pitched for the Cubs from 1955 to 1959, then the Red Sox from 1960-61 and finally the Reds and Mets in 1962.

 
Dick Brodowski.....
pitched for the Red Sox in 1952 and 1955, then with the Senators in 1956-57 and finished with the Cleveland Indians in 1958-59

Bob Bowman.....
played outfield for the Philadelphia Phillies from 1955-1959. The Phils tried to make him a pitcher in 1959 and he appeared in 5 games.

Rudy Regalado....
played the infield for the Indians from 1954 to 1956. He also played in 4 games of the 1954 World Series.

Russ Kemmerer
pitched from 1954 until 1963 with the Red Sox, Senators, White Sox and Colt 45s.

Ike DeLock....
 pitched mostly with the Red Sox from 1952 to 1963 and then with the Orioles in 1963. His best seasons were from 1956-1960 when he won 56 games for the Red Sox.

Jim Nash....
started his big league career with a 12-1 record in his rookie year in 1966. He won 12 and 13 games the next 2 years. He finished with the Phillies in 1972.

Buzz Capra...
came up with the Mets in 1971 and played with them until 1973. The Braves purchased him and he went 16-8, leading the National League in ERA and making the All Star Team

Gordie Sundin
pitched in one game in his major league career. It came on Sept 19,1956 when he came into a game against the Detroit Tigers. He walked the two batters he faced and then was taken out. He never appeared in another major league game.

August 29, 2013 JACKPOT !!!!! 11 Returns Today

Hit the jackpot today as I got back 11 returns.... but then if you mailed out over 50 TTM requests a week ago like I did, then 11 back a week later is about right.

Pat Gillick.
was a minor league pitcher in the Baltimore Orioles organization in the early 1960s but he had arm trouble and that was that. He joined the Colt 45s in 1964 as an asst farm director and stayed with the Astros until 1974, then joined the Yankees, Blue Jays, Orioles, Mariners and Phillies. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2010.

Tim Johnson
I had made some customs of Mr Johnson with the LA Dodgers and Milwaukee Brewers but I got back 4 different items back. Not sure if Mr Johnson kept my customs and sent these back or he sent me someone else's items by mistake and mine to someone else. So if anyone has my customs, I may have your cards....

Chris Floethe
was a pitcher in the Oakland A's minor league system from 1968-1974. He tried to sign the front of the cards but his ink pen wouldn't work on the glossy paper.so he signed them all on the back.

Norm Bass
pitched for the Kansas City Athletics from 1961-63 before his career was cut short by rheumatoid arthritis. He also played football in the AFL with the Denver Broncos in 1964.

Nick Koback
was a bonus baby catcher signed out of high school so he was on the Pirates roster at 18 years old. He was mostly a bullpen catcher then spent the rest of his career in the minors.

Manny Mota
was one of the greatest pinch hitters of all time. He held the record from 1979 before Lenny Harris broke it in 2001

Ron Samford
played infield for the NY Giants, Detroit Tigers and Washington Senators from 1954-1959

Mike Hedlund
was a pitcher for the Cleveland Indians and Kansas City Royals from 1965-1972. His best year was 1971 when he won 15 games for the Royals.

Tom House 
pitched for the Braves, Red Sox and Mariners from 1971 to1978 and was the Texas Rangers pitching coach from 1985-1992 but he will always be remembered for catching Hank Aaron's 715th home run in the Braves bullpen

Chuck Hartenstein 
was a relief pitcher in the 1960s with the Cubs, Pirates, Cardinals and Red Sox whose nickname was Twiggy. He pitched in the minors from 1971 until 1976 when in 1977 he made the expansion Toronto Blue Jays. 

Scott McGregor 
was originally signed by the NY Yankees but was traded to the Orioles in a big 1976 trade. He would go on to win 138 for the Orioles in his career.

August 28, 2013 Hal Naragon

Only one today....

Hal Naragon
was a catcher with the Cleveland Indians, backing up Jim Hegan, from 1951 to 1959. He even got to play in the 1954 World Series. In 1959 he was traded to the Washington Senators who became the Minnesota Twins and then the Twins released him in 1962. He then became a coach with the Twins and later the Tigers in 1968 when they won the World Series.

August 27, 2013 Ray Miller and Norm Sherry

Got back two returns today.....

Ray Miller
Mr Miller never pitched in the major leagues, he pitched in the Cleveland Indians organization for 7 years, but he was a very, very successful major league pitching coach with the Baltimore Orioles and Pittsburgh Pirates. He also managed the Minnesota Twins in 1985-86 and the Orioles in 1998-99. He was inducted into the Baltimore Orioles Hall of Fame in 2010.

Mr Miller included 3 team issued post cards with my request.

Norm Sherry.....
played with the Los Angeles Dodgers from 1959 until 1962 and then the New York Mets in 1963.
It is said that Mr Sherry was responsible for turning Sandy Koufax into one of the greatest pitcher ever. 
He later managed the California Angels in 1976-77.

 

August 26, 2013 Joe Durham and Bob Farley

I finally mailed out a boatload of TTM requests last week and the first two came back today.

Joe Durham
Mr Durham was signed by the St Louis Browns in 1953 and was with the Orioles in 1954 for their first year in Baltimore. He then spent two years in the military in 1955-56  He came back in 1957, had a good year in San Antonio,  had a better 1958 in Vancouver and the Cardinals drafted him in the 1958 Rule V Draft. He played in 6 games for the Cardinals. He has spent most of his post playing career in the Orioles Front Office.

All three of the pics I used for the cards were originally back and white but I colorized them using Photoshop. Mr Durham also wrote a nice note requesting copies of the cards.

Bob Farley...... 
played with the Giants at the beginning and at the end of the1961 season. He played with Tacoma in between. He was one of the players involved in the trade that brought Billy Pierce to the Giants so he spent the beginning of 1962 with the White Sox before being traded to the Tigers in June 1962.

 

1956 Topps.... My Favorite Year

1956 Topps......was one of the first Topps sets that I completed back in the 1980s. I remember ordering , through an ad in the Sporting News, a complete Topps run, from 1952 to 1979 or so and the 1956 Topps card was Wes Westrum. Seeing that bald head tagging out a sliding Cardinals player and I was hooked on that set.  It is also my favorite set because of the action images in the backgrounds.

Since I'm on vacation this week, and I'm getting a little better with Photoshop, I decided to make some 1956s and will send some of them out TTM

Since he didn't have a Topps card in 1956 .my first attempt was Stan Musial. Finding head shots of the players is the easiest part, finding a decent background shot in color is harder. I'll more than likely end up colorizing black and white photos for some of the backgrounds.

Here are the first attempts at 1956s..... yea I know, the cards are 1956 but the backgrounds are the 1959 All Star Game and 1962 Polo Grounds, but beggars can't be choosy
 

Here are the rest of my 1956s

August 9, 2013 A Seattle Pilots Reunion...Ray Peters and Frank Kimball

Ray Peters and Frank Kimball
 Today's return is special  because of two old teammates reuniting. I have known Mr Peters for many years after sending a TTM request to him. He loves everything Seattle Pilots, having been in the organization as a pitcher.

          Ray Peters and Frank Kimball were teammates in the Seattle Pilots organization with the Class A 1969 Clinton Pilots in the Midwest League. In 1970 Mr Peters made the major leagues with the Milwaukee Brewers, pitching in 2 games. Mr Kimball left baseball after the 1970 season , making it to Double A.
          Mr Peters, who lives in Texas, has been contacting former teammates and opponents from his playing days and he found out his old catcher, Mr Kimball, also lives in Texas. He got in touch with him and met him for lunch and snapped this picture of them together.

Ray sent me a copy of the picture and when I saw it, it screamed for a  "Then and Now" card. Mr Peters told me Mr Kimball would be coming by for lunch last week, so I gathered all my Peters and Kimball images and added more from Keith from NYC and made up some custom cards for the occasion. I printed up extras for Mr Peters and Mr Kimball and 1 each for Keith and I.

Here they are....

and the others....

For any TTM autographers, you will not find a more nicer guy than Ray Peters

August 2, 2013 Al Raffo and Pete Varney

These 2 returns come courtesy of former 1970 Milwaukee Brewers pitcher and Harvard alumni Ray Peters who has been tracking down and contacting former teammates and opponents from his playing career.

Al Raffo
Mr Raffo pitched in 45 games for the Philadelphia Phillies in 1969. He started the season in Eugene in the PCL but was brought up a few weeks into the season. Mr Raffo included a very nice note with the return.

Pete Varney
Mr Varney, like Mr Peters, graduated from Harvard. He played for the White Sox and Braves in the 1970s. He has spent over 30 years coaching baseball at Brandeis University in Mass.