the Autograph Corner
CARAVANS AND A FANFEST
If you're like me, the 7 months
between the start and end of the minor league baseball
season plods along pretty slowly. Fortunately January
brings some baseball related outings that help remind us
fans that the sport will be coming again in the Spring.
January brings the Iowa Cub
fanfest to Des Moines. This is probably the off-season
event that I most look forward to. Five Hall of Famers were
to be present (Lou Brock, Paul Molitor, Dave Winfield, Kirby
Puckett and Bob Feller). The first 4 were charging $30 each
for their signatures. I thought this was expensive, but was
quickly assured by other collectors I know round the country
that this was not (Hmmm).
Anyway, I opted to get Molitor,
Puckett and Winfield on Hall of Fame plaque postcards and
Winfield and Puckett on bat cards as well. I'd gotten Brock
at other events, so didn't really need to purchase any of
his. I opted not to attend Friday, since the same free
autograph guests would be there Saturday as well, so I had
my son Dylan, who lives in Des Moines now, go to Drake
University where the event was held to get my Puckett
autographs for me Friday night. We both lived in Minnesota
till 1987, and still consider ourselves first and foremost
Twins fans, so Dylan was especially saddened at how Kirby
has deteriorated physically. He's put on A LOT of weight.
Dylan said that he looked as though he was having trouble
walking, and it was sad too to notice how badly his one eye
has deteriorated. We'd like to always associate Kirby with
his Series winning heroics in 1991. Hopefully we always
will.
Nancy and I drove to Des Moines for Saturday's show.
Besides catching Molitor and Winfield, I took liberal
advantage of the free autograph guests. The morning started
with Pat Listach & Mike Quade, the hitting coach and manager
respectively of the I-Cubs. I only needed a couple of
Listach items signed for myself, so I got some signed for a
couple friends as well. The next two guests were Joel
Hanrahan and Wes Obermueller. By that time Dylan had joined
us, so I got everything signed that we brought. Casey Blake
was the next freebee, and I was fortunate enough (since he
was a last minute addition) to get hold of a card dealer
friend and we had a pretty good assortment to get signed of
him too. Even if a person wasn't into paying for
autographs, you could still walk away with some nice
additions for your scrapbooks. I also stopped at the table
for the Bob Feller Museum, where "Bullet Bob" was signing
items for a $15 dollar donation to his museum. I got a
couple of his cards signed including the one that shows him
standing in front of his HOF plaque at Cooperstown. I also
browsed the dealers.
My best find was a dealer who'd done
shows featuring Johnny Schmitz and George Thomas. Thomas
I'd never had any luck with via mail. He had a show
special, 5 different 8 x 10s signed by the two men for $15.
Two were in color, showing Thomas in Red Sox and Tiger uniforms, and the three Schmitz were in B&W and made nice
additions to my Cub, Yankee and Dodger scrapbooks. He
also
had signed cards for sale (Schmitz $8 and Thomas $5) but
since I bought 1 each of all 7 Thomas cards that he had he
sold them to me for $3 each. I think that if I were a
dealer there though, I'd be a little miffed. With the
average attendee spring for $100 to $300 dollars for
autograph ticket for the HOFers, it really didn't leave too
much extra money to be spent at the dealer tables. There
are players with an Iowa connection that I'd like to see
there down the road, How about Former Minnesota Twin Mudcat
Grant who put up a tremendous season in Keokuk when he was
with them, or the Quad Cities Gene Oliver, a tough autograph
by mail, who not only played with the Cubs and the
Cardinals, but managed in the Quad Cities as well. How
about youngsters Jeff Clement from Marshalltown or Mike
Sweeney from Cedar Rapids? Just a thought. Still, the
I-Cubs staff is to be commended for putting on again, a
great outing.
The Cardinal Caravan let me down
a little bit this season. It was disappointing that the two
biggest names that came down our way were both former
players. The big name was Jack Clark, who as a Twins fan I
had to restrain the urge to thank him for sitting out the
1987 World Series. His absence probably made the difference
between the Twins winning and losing. Danny Cox, their
gritty pitcher from the 80's was there as well. The two
current Cardinals that came through were Bo Hart and Adam
Wainwright, two of the nicest kids you'll ever care to
meet. Regrettably for both of them, the team position
charts both look as though they'll be spending the season in
AAA Memphis unless they both have outstanding springs.
The Cubs came through too, but
being a nice guy turned and bit me on the ass in this one.
When Dylan came home for XMAS, his car was acting up. It
was obviously on its last legs. He was going to come back
home the weekend of the 23rd or his birthday to buy a
replacement, but he wanted to get a couple more checks under
his belt first. I told him that I'd use his car until he
came back home, and that he could use mine. Well, it was
running fine, until of course, I went to drive to the Cub
Caravan. The transmission gave out on me on the way there.
No Cub Caravan for me. Ryne Sandberg was the headliner
(I've still yet to add an autograph of his to my scrapbook.
Iowa Cubs fanfest, can yo hear this? I'd love to see him
show next year). Duster Baker was there as well as was Jim
Hendry, Omar Flieta, Todd Wellmeyer and Bob Brenly. Not a
bad line-up. It hurt to miss it.
Bob Feller is coming to
Galesburg on February 16th. I'll be there. I'm debating
going to the Cedar Rapids winter dinner on the 10th where
Lee Smith is appearing, but that will depend on the
weather. No news on the Burlington Winter dinner yet. I
suspect they're looking to be far enough along to show off
the new stadium work on the site before they announce it.
RECOMMENDATIONS ON A COUPLE SETS
Just Minors has put out a new
set called "Just Rookies," $13.95 ($19.95 with 2
autographed cards) for the 90 card base version. Three
Burlington Bees will be in it (Billy Butler, Billy Buckner
and Miguel Vega), They have a pretty good assortment of
Midwest League players in it, Including Ryan Harvey and
Landon Powell. Team USA has put out their 2005 Team set.
Five autographs per set for approximately $30 a set. If you
missed out on past years sets, don't miss this one. These
are the earliest cards you're likeley to find on many of
these palyers.
BALTIMORE BETTER OR WORSE?
Well, looks like Sammy is going
to Baltimore. The big question, is....Who will the Cubs
get? Jerry Hairston Jr. looks as though he'll be one of
them. I'm very interested in seeing who else they might
get, seeing that if they are prospects, the odds are that I
will see them in Des Moines.
Big question? Will Baltimore be
better or worse for having Sosa? Will Chicago be better or
worse without him?
altimore be
better or worse for having Sosa? Will Chicago be better or
worse without him?
Anyway, I've rambled on long
enough. Time to call it a letter. Have fun with the
hobby. I always try to.
~Rich Hanson
