Birthday sigs

 

It's the ol' birthday again, which is why I was pleased to pull the Shoeless Joe Jackson card in my box of Diamond Kings the other day as he's probably the most notable sports person born on my birthday.

I've done all that "born the same day as me" stuff already in past posts and I've done a lot of "how the Dodgers did on my birthday" stuff, too. I don't have a lot of creativity left for this day -- maybe I'll think of something for 365 days from now.

But I do have some cards to show that I like. I'm calling it a birthday gift and since they're from Rod of Padrographs, it's possible they actually are. He's a good guy and he's sent stuff my way for my birthday before. You all remember that birthday card signed by Ron Cey, right?

There were more signatures in this package, a whole bunch of them, in fact. Just about all of them were Dodgers, because I'm not collecting scribbles from some inferior team.

He sent some signed cards of players whose signed cards are already in my collection.

These two signed Bill Russell cards double my collection of Russell autographs. It's nice to get his only All-Star card signed.

I have several Brett Butler sigs, too, but this one is notable for the silver signature and that it's on a '93 Select card, a set that I like a lot. 

 

This is about my 21st or 22nd autographed Penguin card, although I am highly suspicious of this one. I have yet to see a Ron Cey autograph on a Dodger card that does not include his uniform number "10" with the signature. All of the ones in my collection have that "10". The only time he doesn't include the number is on cards where he is playing for other teams (which are all fakes and lies, by the way).

So how is it that he didn't sign this with the 10? Was he disgusted with the person who asked him for the signature? Was he in a hurry? Was he afraid the ink was running out and he didn't have enough for the 10?

Anyway, I didn't have a signed '76 Cey card yet so I'm happy to add this, but I'm going to be giving it the eyeball every time I see it.

 

OK, now for the first-time autograph Dodgers from Rod:

 

 

Welcome to the collection boys!

Super-pleased about the McMullen and Brock cards, they're long overdue. The Danny Heep contains some peak late '80s authentication on the back:

Hologram legitimacy right there. But if you want to read the back you're out of luck. "He'll always be the player the Astros traded to get a then-struggling -- tune in next week for the answer!"

 

You don't see a Tony Cuccinello autograph every day. He passed away in 1995! But is it a Dodger card? Cuccinello was an All-Star with the Dodgers in 1933 but he was also an All-Star for the NL's Boston Braves in 1938. So which is it? The back doesn't say. I suppose I need to compare old photos.

 

This is another case against generic All-Star uniforms. If he was wearing a Dodgers or Braves uni, I would know. How did Nike go back in time to create 1930s All-Star uniforms?

 

If I include the Cuccinello card as a Dodger autograph, I now have 188 different Dodgers with an autographed card in the collection. On the verge of 200! And I don't even actively seek out signed cards. Maybe I should to get to that magic number.

 

One last autograph from a completely different sport. This is my first '70s Sabres autograph. I always have to show these cards to my wife because she watched the Sabres with her older sister when she was a little kid in the '70s. She knows all these names. But it was long before I started following hockey.

 

So that's a great birthday card package if that was Rod's intent. If not, it's a great card package period!

OK, it's cake-eating time. See you when it's just some boring old day again.