March autograph pickups

[Scott Garner]

A "rare" Bob Feller autograph? C'mon, you've got to be kidding...

Actually, (HOF) Bob Feller on a signed personal check is quite rare.
As with many players, their wives frequently did all the check writing.
Bob Feller was one of these guys, except for the time shortly after he divorced his first wife in 1971. What few checks that he wrote were, for the most part, during 1972.

I believe Mr. Feller took up residence at the Sheraton-Cleveland Hotel in downtown Cleveland after the divorce. At the time he was employed as the Director of Sales-Sports for the Hilton Hotel in downtown Cleveland. I suppose, during this period of time in his life, it probably made good sense to simplify things.

Thankfully Mr. Feller did remarry again, to his second wife Ann, and they moved to a Cleveland suburb.

Anyway, I just picked up this twice signed 1972 personal check made out to the Sheraton-Cleveland Hotel.

I'm very happy to add this to my collection of signed checks of pitchers that threw a no-hitter or perfect game. Currently I have checks to 45 different no-hit pitchers. It's been quite a while since I added any new ones.

[7nohitter]

Cool back story, Scott...I guess you do, indeed, have a 'rare' Feller auto!!

[Scott Garner]

Originally Posted by 7nohitter

Cool back story, Scott...I guess you do, indeed, have a 'rare' Feller auto!!

Thanks Andrew!

[esiason14]

Very cool!

[gregr2]

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[esiason14]

[gregr2]

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[Scott Garner]

Originally Posted by esiason14

Very cool!

Thanks Kyle! I like your signed cards, too.

[esiason14]

Scott,
Just out of curiosity, was there a reason you chose checks for your project? Who are the toughest no-hit guys that you have?

[johnmh71]

Originally Posted by esiason14

Scott,
Just out of curiosity, was there a reason you chose checks for your project? Who are the toughest no-hit guys that you have?

As a collector of checks, I was wondering the same thing.

[btcarfagno]

WW2 hero Elmer Gedeon signed 1939 Senators mini bat. Just added it to the B/S/T for anyone interested.



Tom C

[Scott Garner]

Originally Posted by esiason14

Scott,
Just out of curiosity, was there a reason you chose checks for your project? Who are the toughest no-hit guys that you have?

Hi Kyle and John,
Great question both of you!
I actually collect many themes related to no-hitters.
Collecting checks of no-hit pitchers is one subset of one of the major themes in my no-hit collection.

Big picture: I actually collect the signatures of all no-hit pitchers dating back to 1893. 1893 was the year that they changed the mound distance to the modern standard of 60' 6". I am about 19 away from completing this collection. I mostly collect GPC's, 3 x 5's and cuts in this collection.

As far as checks go, I always have liked checks, and especially personal checks, as a signed medium.
Overall, I would not say that many no-hit pitchers in the check portion of my collection are scary tough. Many of these guys are HOF, but many are not as well.
Here are a few that I think are somewhat tough:

-A signed payroll voucher (somewhat similar to a check) for Frank "Noodles" Hahn. Noodles Hahn threw the first no-hitter of the 1900's in 1900 for the Cincinnati Reds. Tough sig. This is dated 1903.

-A signed Yankees payroll check for Samuel Pond "Sad Sam" Jones. This is dated 1923.

-A personal check of Leslie Ambrose "Bullet Joe" Bush.

-A 1960 personal check for Don Larsen (World Series Perfect Game) made out to the KC Athletics when he played for them.

-Not a check, but a $20 money order filled out and signed by "Tom Terrific" Seaver 1992. Unusual and cool.

-Payroll checks for Tom Phoebus (minor league) and Ken Johnson (major league).

-An endorsed check for $104,840 to David Cone (Perfect game) dated 1999.
It pays to pitch a perfect game for the Yankees- yikes!

To date I do not own a Walter Johnson personal check although I would like to add one at some point. I also do not own a Christy Mathewson. The cost of this check is probably out of my reach $$ wise.

For this portion of my collection, I do not have any great strategy other than adding new ones as I find them.

Thanks for your interest!

[gregr2]

Nice collection...and nice to have a focus.

[thetruthisoutthere]

My Tom Tresh signed bat.


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[johnmh71]

Scott-

Very nice. Believe it or not, I think the Seaver money order may be the rarest with exception of the Hahn check. I have never seen a HOF money order.

[esiason14]

Scott,
Thanks for sharing. I dig the Noodles Hahn. I've been looking for his auto for my collection as well.

[Scott Garner]

Originally Posted by johnmh71

Scott-

Very nice. Believe it or not, I think the Seaver money order may be the rarest with exception of the Hahn check. I have never seen a HOF money order.

Hi John,

Thanks for the info, I wasn't aware of that at all.
This scan is for you. Twice signed! Enjoy.

[Scott Garner]

Originally Posted by esiason14

Scott,
Thanks for sharing. I dig the Noodles Hahn. I've been looking for his auto for my collection as well.

Thanks Kyle! Frankly that's my favorite piece in this portion of my collection.
Like I stated before, 1st no-hitter of the 1900's!! Early vintage is way cool.

Check out the note from Noodles on the back of a signed 3 x 5 that net54's Jim Stinson had recently. If he hasn't sold it, I believe that this may be the nicest Noodles signed piece in the hobby. I love this inscription!

[johnmh71]

Holy cow. That is sweet.

[jgmp123]

Picked these three up last week, including a nice Clark Griffith (free of the shakes) that I picked up from Jim (Thanks Jim!) This pushes my HOF number back up to 204.

[GoCubsGo32]

Original snapshot and nicely signed! edit Photo now in B/S/T board.

[Scott Garner]

Awesome Ban Johnson, James!

[jgmp123]

Originally Posted by Scott Garner

Awesome Ban Johnson, James!

Thanks Scott! It was courtesy of Mr. Stinson of course.

[esiason14]

[gregr2]

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[esiason14]

[gregr2]

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[GrayGhost]

Just picked up and for sale in the BST. great card

[gregr2]

Nice^^^^ I came so close to buying that, congrats!#

[milkit1]

two signed, one to go
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[GrayGhost]

Originally Posted by gregr2

Nice^^^^ I came so close to buying that, congrats!#

Its for sale sir

[Bosox Blair]

From the last Love of the Game Auction:

[TheBig6]

My favorite Catcher growing up

[thxforthebp]

Picked up a very unique Tommy Holmes trophy ball from 1945 his best season. Appears to be all in his hand and looks to be game used. Any input would be appreciated.

[esiason14]

Cool ball!

Got this one back today from a private signing:

[Scott Garner]

Signed at the Reds Caravan in WV recently.

[gregr2]

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[koufax1fan]

Originally Posted by Bosox Blair

From the last Love of the Game Auction:

Those Gateway cachets are always nice! Is Tom still at it in Florissant, Mo..
Phil

[Scott Garner]

Neat surprise!

A very good friend of mine from Canada was recently in Cuba on vacation with his teenage son.

He called me after returning home from the trip and let me know that he was going to be sending me a present. He attended a memorable game on 2/17/14 between the Matanzas Crocodiles and Villa Clara. Other than the Cuban National team, the Matanzas Crocodiles are currently the best team in Cuba. Many of the players on this team also play on the Cuban National Team.

What made this game particularly noteworthy is that the pitcher of the Villa Clara team started hitting batters on the hometown Crocodiles after serving up a long home run. After 2 or 3 batters in a row got smoked by high fastballs, one of the Crocodiles came flying out of the dugout with a bat and took a swing and connected with the Villa Clara pitcher. Yikes! Shades of Juan Marichal and Johnny Roseboro...

Here is a link if you care to take a look:

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-bi...175231255.html

For those of us that don't live north of the US border, here is a view of Cuba at it's finest as well as some photos of the game my friend Ron attended with his son.

Anyway, my package from Canada arrived today. Inside was this 2014 Matanzas Crocodiles team signed game used Cuban baseball. Apparently in Cuba, fans in the stands are still required to return foul balls because new balls are so hard to come by (like early ML baseball). Here are photos of my Crocodiles team ball.

Cuba Libre!

[parker1b2]

Seating Arrangement/Program/Dinner Menu from 1/18/87 the 64th Annual Dinner the NY Chapter Baseball Writers Assoc. Of America autographed by Monte Irvin, Bobby Thomson, Mel Allen, Lee MacPhail and Steve Garvey(one of the honorees that night).

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[parker1b2]

One side of the program opened up

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[sbfinley]

Originally Posted by Scott Garner

Neat surprise!

A very good friend of mine from Canada was recently in Cuba on vacation with his teenage son.

He called me after returning home from the trip and let me know that he was going to be sending me a present. He attended a memorable game on 2/17/14 between the Matanzas Crocodiles and Villa Clara. Other than the Cuban National team, the Matanzas Crocodiles are currently the best team in Cuba. Many of the players on this team also play on the Cuban National Team.

What made this game particularly noteworthy is that the pitcher of the Villa Clara team started hitting batters on the hometown Crocodiles after serving up a long home run. After 2 or 3 batters in a row got smoked by high fastballs, one of the Crocodiles came flying out of the dugout with a bat and took a swing and connected with the Villa Clara pitcher. Yikes! Shades of Juan Marichal and Johnny Roseboro...

Here is a link if you care to take a look:

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-bi...175231255.html

For those of us that don't live north of the US border, here is a view of Cuba at it's finest as well as some photos of the game my friend Ron attended with his son.

Anyway, my package from Canada arrived today. Inside was this 2014 Matanzas Crocodiles team signed game used Cuban baseball. Apparently in Cuba, fans in the stands are still required to return foul balls because new balls are so hard to come by (like early ML baseball). Here are photos of my Crocodiles team ball.

Cuba Libre!

Amazing story... love it.

[esiason14]

Picked these up with the help of a couple of members.

[Scott Garner]

Terrific Kyle! I especially like the signed Bob Lemon. That's a keeper!

[gregr2]

Great stuff Kyle!! Congrats!

[gregr2]

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[Mr. Zipper]

Thus far, March has been a good month!

[gregr2]

Haven't removed the plastic from it so that's why it looks odd.

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[MikeGarcia]

...you should see the grin on my face right now....


...fountain pen on a 1931 Metropolitan Studios St. Louis Cardinals Photo/Card Set.....rare enough just as a ratty beater card but period-signed too.....sometimes ya juss gets lucky....

[gregr2]

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