As you can imagine, it took me almost no time to dispatch those Giants autographs that I opened on Christmas morning.
The average time for me sending out cards in response to cards I've received is verging on between one and two months these days (March is a particular brutal month for this). But I was shipping out those Giants uggos within a week.
I found the perfect victim ... er, recipient in Adam. I sent him almost all of the signed cards I received, with the noted exception of the Bobby Thomson. Despite his history against my team, I can't part with it, although I could be convinced.
Adam then passed on some of the signatures to mr. haverkamp, and now you know the only two Giants card collectors that I know in the world. Then, both of them, sent me some Dodgers autographed cards in return!
Boy, I think this blogging thing is going to turn out all right.
I received seven autographed cards of seven different Dodgers.
These days, I'm looking for autographed cards of Dodgers that I don't already own. Four of the seven cards met that criteria. And for at least two of the other cards I can definitely make an exception. Heck, I can make an exception for all of them.
So, let's see the four new signers in my collection:
Rick Monday, owner of one of the most epic home runs in in Dodger history. Monday is a longtime Dodger broadcaster, so I think his signature would be relatively easy to land, living on the left coast.
Super-utility man Derrel Thomas signed his terrific 1981 Topps card that lists his position as "OF-2B," not one of the more common combinations. Thomas played for three teams that don't get along at all, the Dodgers, Giants and Padres. I don't know how many other players have done that, probably more than I want to believe.
Ken Landreaux, an adopted favorite when he came over from the Twins. He didn't do everything I hoped he would during his Dodger blue days, but I'm so glad he became a Dodger (P.S.: Is that Pedro Guerrero on deck?).
By the way, the "T" in his signature confuses me. According to a few online sources, Landreaux's middle name is "Francis". But that is definitely not an F. Perhaps "K.T." was a nickname or he has an aversion to adding the second horizontal line in an "F"?
Here's Kenley Jansen, and I sure was pleased to see this one show up, modern-signature aside (I do appreciate the "74" in the little Dodgers baseball). It's unusual to get current-day Dodgers' signatures on non-certified cards unless you're lucky enough to be at the ballpark or an appearance in which they're signing. I can't do that all the way out here, so this is cool.
The other three players I own signed cards for already, but I can't quibble with these three.
This is my third Brett Butler signed card, but it's my first with Eddie Murray on the card, too. If I was one of those hard-core autograph hunters, I'd try to get Murray to sign it, too. I have no idea whether Murray signs cards. I'm not about to find out.
This is also my third Jerry Reuss signed card. The other two I received from him through the mail. I will make an exception for any Reuss-signed Dodger card because his signature is tremendous and he's still the only player to comment on my blog.
This is like the 15th or 16th Ron Cey autograph card I have. Absolutely none of them that I owned previous to this card featured a signature with a three-inch tail. I wonder what caused that?
As I've mentioned before, Cey is the only player for which I wouldn't mind a signed card for all of his Dodger cards issued during his playing career. For the record this is what I have:
1975 Topps mini
1976 SSPC
1978 Topps
1980 Topps
1981 Donruss
1981 Fleer
1982 Donruss
Autographs are way down on my card priority list, so who knows if I'll get to doing this, but it would be pretty awesome to complete the run.
No need to acquire a Ron Cey-signed lamp, though. I have one of those.
So, despite the sucker-punch on Christmas day, it all worked out. I got rid of those Giants signatures and expanded my Dodger signature collection.
I love stories with happy endings.
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