Private Signing: Nick Madrigal

It pains me to write this post. I was no great Nick Madrigal fan. In my opinion he didn’t seem to fit in with the rest of the team. He seemed like he had never had fun in his life. But he was a solid player, with the potential to be more. He almost certainly wasn’t going to become a star, but a consistent 3-4 WAR player is very valuable, especially while they’re cheap.

If we had traded him in a package for a legit star, I wouldn’t have been too upset. But we traded 5 years of a good player for 1.3 years of a flaky reliever. Kimbrel has been great this year (at least until he got here), but he has been very inconsistent in his career. We already had a great, consistent, closer in Liam Hendriks. Aaron Bummer and Michael Kopech are more than capable of locking down the 7th and 8th. Ryan Tepera was a fine addition, and would have helped to solidify the middle of the bullpen, along with Garrett Crochet. So we traded something like 15-20 WAR (plus Codi Heuer) for a reliever we didn’t really need that will be lucky to be worth 4 WAR during his time here.

The only way I’ll come around on this trade is if Madrigal’s injury ends up being career-altering in some way, or if Kimbrel is a vital cog in winning the World Series this year and/or the next. Otherwise, I think we got fleeced. I guess this is payback for the Jose Quintana trade.

BM Authentics posted a Nick Madrigal signing shortly before he was injured. It was a very expensive signing, relative to what Madrigal has accomplished. My first inclination was to get a 16×20 done with a “Nicky Two Strikes” inscription, but Madrigal refused to do that inscription. So I ended up sending in just 2 cards. His rookie refractor, and another really nice refractor. At a cheaper price, I would have likely gotten 10 or so items done.

After the trade, I’m glad I only sent in the two items. In fact, I wish I had only gotten the rookie refractor done. I’d be pretty upset right now if I had paid through the nose to get 10 items done.

The two cards turned out great, and I’m glad to have them done. If Madrigal goes on to an All-Star career with the Cubs (UGH), at least I got a couple of cool items done.

           

Sases for Sox: Richie Zisk

In a recent Sases for Sox post, I mentioned that I was surprised Thad Bosley had started signing his mail again. Well, that surprise was nothing compared to my utter shock when Richie Zisk starting signing again! I don’t know why it took me so long to send to him. Now that I’ve finally gotten a rare Sox card signed by Richie, I might risk sending him a baseball for my “Southside Hitmen” collection. The 1977 White Sox are one of my very favorite Sox teams that were before my time, and Richie is really the only guy I still need on a baseball with the “Southside Hitmen” inscription. In any case, I’m really thrilled to add this card to my collection. Thanks Mr. Zisk!

Send Date: 7/23/21
Receive Date: 8/2/21
Total Days: 10
Items Sent: 1 card
Items Received: 1 card
Fee: $5
Pen Used: Blue Sharpie

     

Sases for Sox: Thad Bosley

I was surprised to see that Thad Bosley started reliably signing his mail again this year. He is better known as a member of the Cubs, but he played for the Sox first! He never quite broke through as a starting caliber Major League player, but he did play 14 years in the big leagues. Not a whole lot of people can say that!

Send Date: 7/23/21
Receive Date: 7/31/21
Total Days: 8
Items Sent: 2 cards
Items Received: 2 cards
Pen Used: Thin Blue Sharpie

     

National Sports Card Convention – Part 2

During my time at the National I also made some purchases. I was pretty disappointed in my haul. With the show being in Chicago, I was hoping there would be more Sox autographs and memorabilia. I probably missed some stuff, but what I did see was pretty underwhelming. In any case, here is my haul.

     

           

           

           

           

           

           

           

           

           

           

           

           

           

           

           

           

           

           

           

     

     

Last but certainly not least, I got one more autograph while I was in town. I won’t go into the details, but I met up with Carlos May to get this 16×20 signed. I’m terrified to send it through the mail, so I am extremely grateful to Carlos for agreeing to meet with me to sign it. Now I just need to figure out how to get Bill Melton without the photo being damaged in the mail.

National Sports Card Convention – Part 1 (Thome, Gossage, & More)

I’ll never forget the first National I ever attended. It was the 1991 show in Anaheim, CA. Just my luck, it had the largest crowds of any National in history. I remember standing in line outside in the heat for hours to get in. I don’t remember a whole lot about the show itself, but I do remember thinking that this place was basically my mecca. I didn’t really have any money back then (I was a 12 year old welfare kid), so I probably left the show with some great memories and not much else. Now that I think about it, I think I picked up a Steve Sax signed 8×10 and a Willie Stargell signed Donruss Diamond King card. Probably some junk wax too.

I don’t think I attended another National until the Chicago show in either 2008 or 2011… maybe both. I went to a few other card shows in between, all in the 90s.

I was able to attend the show in Chicago this year. It was something of a last minute decision. It turned out I was going to be in the Chicago area on business the week after the National. So I took a few days off work and flew into Chicago on Wednesday night. By the time I knew I’d be able to attend, all VIP type passed had sold out. I was pretty bummed about that. So I ended up buying single day tickets for every day but Sunday. I pretty much slept all day on Sunday, lol.

I don’t really collect baseball cards these days. For the most part, I pick up Sox cards to get signed. I might put together Sox team sets and whatnot. But I can’t remember the last time I opened a pack of baseball cards. So I wasn’t really at the show for the cards. I was there for some of the autograph guests, and I hoped to find some Sox autographs at the tables. I’ll go over the autographs I got from the guests in this post. I’ll go through everything I picked up at the tables in another post.

Before I get to that, I guess I can talk briefly about the show. I was lucky enough to get a room at the Crowne Plaza right across the street. It seemed like every single person staying there was going to the show. I didn’t attend the show Wednesday night, but I was there about an hour after the show opened on Thursday. The place was absolutely packed. It was difficult to navigate the aisles and look at the tables. On top of that, the A/C either didn’t work or was way too weak, as it was like a sauna in there. I’m so thankful that I was staying right across the street, as after about an hour I was miserable and soaked with sweat.

So I would walk around for a bit, and then head back to the gloriously cold A/C of my hotel room. I did this off and on all day Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. I did run in to a few notable people while walking around. I bumped in to Ron Kittle at one of the big auction house booths. He was there to discuss selling some of his sports memorabilia collection. I was happy to chat with Ron for a bit, as he’s always been a super nice guy. A couple of minor film celebrities had booths set up, and I chatted with both of them a bit as well. One was Ari Lehman, the first person to play Jason Voorhees. The other was Scott Schwartz, who played Flick in “A Christmas Story”. Both were very nice guys.

Thursday evening I went “behind the curtain” to drop my Thome items off with Sean Morgan. It’s absolutely bonkers back there. There is table after table filled with memorabilia for the athletes to sign. When I got back to Sean’s area, he was just finishing up a signing with Lawrence Taylor. I hung out until LT finished signing, and dropped off my items with Sean.

Jim Thome was the main reason I decided to attend. I need Thome on about 25-30 items. His prices are pretty high, starting at $119, so there was no way I could get everything done in one shot. I contacted Sean Morgan from Famous Ink and was able to negotiate a bit of a bulk discount, so I ended up getting 14 items done. 8 cards, 2 baseballs, 3 16x20s, and a mini helmet. I had a difficult time deciding which cards to get signed, as I could only afford 8, but needed about 20. I ended up going with his other rookie (I already have the 91 UD Final card signed), the rest of his A&G cards, three of his remaining UD cards, and one card that I just really like and thought would look cool signed.

Just about everything turned out great, though I am slightly disappointed with the signature on the Blackout 16×20 with John Danks. It’s not terrible or anything, I just wish he’d signed it with a thicker sharpie and placed the signature a bit more the lower left. Overall though, I’m very satisfied with the Thome haul.

                 

                 

           

           

     

           

     

Goose Gossage was also a signer at the National. Since I was already there, I decided to get a HOF baseball signed. Goose was friendly as always.

There were also a few VIP signers that I had some items for, but didn’t feel like they were necessarily worth the signing fee. Luckily, Donnie Macey had a deal worked out where he could get a lot of these guys for a very reasonable rate. So I sent in some items for Stan Bahnsen, Ron Kittle, and Greg Luzinski. Donnie did a great job (as always) and got them all signed perfectly.

                 

           

                 

     

           

           

All in all I had a great time at the show. I didn’t find anything too exciting at the booths, though I did pick up a few things that I’ll show in the next post. I did eat some great food while in town. I got more than my fill of Portillo’s, Al’s, and Giordano’s. Also, there is a Fogo de Chao right behind the hotel I was staying at. I’m not ashamed to say that I ate there twice while I was in town. Just thinking about it gives me the meat sweats all over again!

Tim Raines Private Signing

Tim Raines has been one of my favorite players ever since I started paying attention to baseball in the mid to late eighties. If I recall correctly, I first truly became aware of Raines on May 2, 1987. After being one of the very best players in the National League in 1986, Raines was a free agent. He was 27 years old and one of the best players in baseball. Yet no team other than the Expos made him a serious contract offer. This was the famous summer of collusion, when owners banded together to try to limit free agent contracts. Tim Raines and Andre Dawson were probably the two most famous cases of collusion.

Due to a silly rule, because Raines didn’t resign with the Expos by January 8, 1987, he was ineligible to resign with them until May 1. Since no other teams made a real offer, Raines completely sat out Spring Training and the first month of the season. He finally resigned with the Expos on May 1. He made his season debut on May 2, and what a debut it was! He went 4 for 5 with a triple and a game winning grand slam in the 10th inning. It has to be one of the most badass games in baseball history. To miss spring training and the first month of the season due to collusion by the owners, to be put in the third spot in the batting lineup against David Cone the day after signing his contract, and then to have a day like that. The immortal Vin Scully called the game for NBC (which is the first regular season game I can remember watching, though I’m sure I watched some before that). As Raines rounded the bases, Scully said “Would you believe a grand slam for Tim Raines? That has to be one of the most incredible stories of the year in any sport!”

I was thrilled when Raines signed with the White Sox after the 1991 season. He never quite reached his Expos heights while he was with the Sox, but he was still a very good player. He was also very fan friendly. After one game against the Angels, he tossed me one of his wristbands as he entered the dugout. He also signed many autographs for me during batting practice of various Sox@Angels games.

Somebody posted a Raines cards-only signing on SCN for a pretty reasonable price, so I got 6 cool cards done. I don’t need Raines for any sets or anything, as I got all of those done ages ago. But I really like how these cards turned out.

                 

                 

Brian Anderson Private Signing

I have a category of favorite player that doesn’t really get talked about very much. Every Sox fan likes Frank Thomas, Jose Abreu, etc. I’m sure players like Juan Uribe and Ray Durham that had substantial careers have plenty of fans. But there are a few players that didn’t have very successful careers that I am very fond of. Some of these guys may not have gotten the opportunity they deserve. Or maybe they just weren’t any good. But for whatever reason, I consider myself a big fan. I’m talking about guys like Jordan Danks, Joe Borchard, Norberto Martin, and yes, Brian Anderson.

I’ve been a Brian Anderson fan ever since he first got called up. It drove me nuts that DeWayne Wise was getting playing time at BA’s expense. I really felt he just needed to be left alone and his bat would come around. The defense was always there, as evidenced by his catch to end the “Blackout” tiebreaker game in 2008.

I met Brian on numerous occasions. The first time I met him was at Soxfest in January 2009. He showed up looking like a movie star. He was so well dressed, and let’s just say my wife was swooning. We met him again at Picnic in the Park, also in 2009 I believe. My wife and I told him he reminded us of Michael Buble. The player sitting next to him (for the life of me I can’t remember who it was) turned to BA and said “Who is that?”.

BA answered “You know…” and started singing the Buble song “Feeling Good”, which is a really great song. And BA did the song justice! It was a fun moment that really cemented him as a favorite of mine.

So when I saw that Dana Dominion was doing a mail signing with him, I had to get some of my favorite BA cards signed. And much to my surprise, I had somehow neglected to get his 2007 Upper Deck card signed previously. So I knocked that out as well.

I have to say, I am absolutely thrilled with how these turned out. Every card is signed perfectly in bold blue sharpie. It seems like most of the recent signings have had something wrong. Some of these things were very minor, some were worse. But I have zero complaints about these!