March autograph pickups
 

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

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. :cool:

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

Thanks Andrew!

Very cool!

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Thanks Kyle! I like your signed cards, too.

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.

Elmer Gedeon
 

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

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Tom C

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! :eek:

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! ;)

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

Tom Tresh Autographed Bat
 

My Tom Tresh signed bat.


Attachment 135190

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.

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

Hi John,

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

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!

Holy cow. That is sweet.

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.

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

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Awesome Ban Johnson, James!

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

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

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

two signed, one to go :)
Attachment 135729

Its for sale sir:)

From the last Love of the Game Auction:

My favorite Catcher growing up
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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.

Cool ball!

Got this one back today from a private signing:

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Homer Bailey signed 2nd no-hitter ticket
 

Signed at the Reds Caravan in WV recently.

Gateway Cachets
 

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

2014 Matanzas Crocodiles signed game used Cuban baseball
 

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!

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).

Attachment 136244

One side of the program opened up

Attachment 136245

Amazing story... love it.

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

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

Great stuff Kyle!! Congrats!

Thus far, March has been a good month!

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

Attachment 136415

''The Old Flash''
 

http://imagehost.vendio.com/a/204295...CHAUTO_NEW.JPG

...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....

Nice pickups Kyle! The guy you are buying those from must be a good guy!! ;)

He's ok I suppose :D

I just picked up 2013 debut Luis Garcia. Why is this significant to me? He was the last player I needed to complete my 2013 debut project. Now I have an autograph of every major league player who has debuted from 1946 to 2013. Thats 10,392 different players, thats 68 years in row. Now on to the 2014 debuts.

Wow!!! ^^^^^

Giovanni,
You're an animal. Congrats on that epic accomplishment.
When are you starting 1945?
mark

Incredible accomplishment, Giovanni! Congrats! :cool:

Lots of people collect HOFers, tough signatures, etc and have incredible collections....but you are the first I have known to have had such a comprehensive collection of baseball autographs. It almost seems impossible although I have seen many of the scans you have posted. It's a crazy feat. Just wondering how long it has taken you to amass 60+ years of players.

Wow. I would love to see the Roger Holt signature.

Thanks for the replies.

Mark - I was going to do other years but decided it would be a better investment to collect signed Goudeys, Diamond Stars and Rookie Hall of Famers. So if you know anyone who has lots of Goudeys and may want to sell some let me know : )

Kyle - Basically took me from 2000 - 2012 to put this together. Now its collecting all the new players as they debut. Thats why in spring training I get more excited getting a minor leaguer on the 40 man roster, who has never played in the majors then an established star I already have. If you are ever in south florida and would like to see my collection, feel free to contact me

Alex - Even though Roger Holt only played a couple of games he is not that hard of an autograph. He actually signs by mail. If you need his address let me know.

Roger Holt was one my baseball coaches growing up. His sons and I have been friends for years. I remember him saying that people would occasionally mail him something to sign and it cracked him up.

This arrived in the mail today. It is a menu from the S.S. Manhattan for July 18, 1936. It was one of two ships that took the U.S. Olympic team to Europe for the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. It is signed by:

Ernie Crosbie - 1932, 1936 & 1948 50km walk
Al Mangan - 1936 50km walk
Harold Manning - 3000m steeplechase - 5th
Glenn Hardin - LSU star 1932 silver and 1936 gold 400m hurdles
Archie Williams - 1936 gold 400m. Also a world record holder at the distance. He graduated from UCal/Berkley. Flight instructor at Tuskegee Institute during WWII (the Tuskegee Airmen). Later a bomber pilot and retired as a Lt Col.
Foy Draper - 1936 gold medal in the 4x100m relay with Jesse Owens, Ralph Metcalfe and Frank Wykoff. Set a world record and the first 4x100 relay to clock under 40 seconds. He ran a 10.3 100m in 1935 losing to Owens. Killed in action during WWII. His plane went missing while flying over Tunisia during the Battle of Kassarine Pass on January 4, 1943.

Draper is the only U.S. Olympian who died during WWII that I have owned. This is my second one, the first was signed during the 1934 AAU championships.

Interestingly I have owned signatures of a Filipino medalist who died during the Bataan Death March, a Japanese gold medalist and army officer who died on Iwo Jima (suicide), German medalist who died on the Russian Front, German medalist who died in a POW camp in France just as the war ended and a Polish gold medalist soldier and resistance fighter who was executed by the Gestapo.

Picked this one up tonight. Ronald Reagan wrote this to instruct his staff how to respond to general congratulation letters, kind words, etc. that he would receive. His staff would type up the reply and generally affix a Reagan autopen to the letters. Here's the original, all in his hand. Shows the attention to detail that Reagan had for this type of stuff, as well as an apparent willingness to micromanage the little things.



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Very cool and interesting item, Mike. :) Any idea of when this was used?

thanks Steve. My gut tells me probably as Cal governor but that's pure speculation on my part. Haven't had time to research yet. The next lazy Saturday I have I'll Google search until I find a typewritten match with date

Mike

I think you are probably right. Likely not presidential, but not old enough to be when he was the president of the screen actors guild.

#209
 

This one is a beauty, the example used in Ron's book:

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x...ps7b8e5b58.jpg

Congrats. That's an awesome pick up.

Vander Meer 1937 signed rookie scrapbook pages
 

Here are two of four early 1937 rookie signed Johnny Vander Meer pages that came from a fan's depression-era scrapbook.

The guy that put this scrapbook must have been a true fan as Vander Meer still hadn't thrown his first regular season major league pitch when he assembled it based on the article contents.

Many thanks to net54's Rhys Yeakley. :)

Scott, he's got Walter Johnson's 'J' going - I've never seen that before.

Very nice pick-up.

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He sure does, especially the earlier ones.

Picked up a few checks.No big names,but Roy Hutson played 7 games for Brooklyn in 1925. He was 4 for 8.A life time .500 hitter!

Some really cool stuff this month! Nice pickups Scott and Steve

Love the haircut

got in baseball hall of fame autographs 41 and 42. 42 different and counting.

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Thanks Kyle! Great early Pedro sig, BTW.

+1

I'm really excited about these two, both came last week. Finally a Moe Berg! I know it's rough, but it displays as a single.

As for the Newt Allen, it's getting rare that I can add a NL single without breaking the bank!

Ken