Autograph Addict

Billy Raimondi

esiason14 — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 03:02:51 +0000

Billy Raimondi never had an at bat in the major leagues, but Billy is what baseball is all about…playing for the love of the game. Billy was a catcher in the minor leagues from 1931 through 1952, which was longer than any other position player in Pacific Coast League history (Herm Pillette pitched 23 seasons). He is probably best remembered as a member of the PCL Oakland Oaks. I won’t rehash his career here as it has already been written about, but I encourage you to read his story.

Billy Raimondi biography

Billy Raimondi stats

Billy’s PCL HOF page

Billy’s brother Ernie Raimondi who was a WWII hero.

Billy is now 97 years old. I recently wrote to him and included 3 different photos with duplicates for him to keep. Today I received a package, which included a letter from his son, Billy Jr.

Billy Jr. said,

“My father appreciates that you are interested in his baseball career and that he is still remembered…..his handwriting isn’t as good as it used to be, but he still managed to sign your pictures. Thanks very much for the duplicates and your kind words…”

Full note

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Billy in 2007 at the PCL Reunion

Thanks Mr. Raimondi!

Latest vintage additions

esiason14 — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 00:49:43 +0000

I picked up a few cool vintage items today. To view full-sized images, just click on the thumbnails!

Cuban baseball identification card from the “ASOCIACION NACIONAL DE PELOTEROS PROFESIONALES DE CUBA”, and signed by the Association President Orestes “Minnie” Minoso. ID card is dated Diciembre 10, de 1959

1951 Cuban baseball “Guia de Fanatico” (Fan Guide). 40 pages of photos, records, statistics, and advertising

1934, 1935, 1936, 1937, and 1938 Sporting News Record books

Dizzy Dean on front cover

Hank Greenberg on front cover

Joe McCarthy on front cover

Ducky Joe Medwick on front cover

1949 Pacific Coast League News, Vol. 2, No. 9. 12 pages of photos and news. Front features PCL legend, Billy Raimondi, as well as Jack Graham, and Hillie Layne

1946 Winning Baseball by Ethan Allen Instructional Book. This is the 1st actual picture analysis of baseball fundamentals demonstrated by players like Al Lopez, Billy Herman, Ducky Medwick. There are 66 pages and contains a ton of old player photos.

Book Front

Book Back

Original 1947 Youngstown, Ohio Baseball team player release form. This was for a player named Patrick Aucoin. It is signed by Youngstown team president William J. Koval on the front and by Aucoin on the back.

1953 Baseball Major & Minor League Handbook. 14 page handbook includes all 1952 final standings for the Majors as well as the Southern, Texas, International, and Pacific Coast Leagues. Team photos for the Yankees and Dodgers along with complete 1953 schedules for all teams, major & minor and bio pages for 1952 MVP award winners Hank Sauer and Bobby Shantz

Latest signed 1962 Topps additions

esiason14 — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 17:56:04 +0000

Today was a great week. I was able to purchase many cards that I needed for my 1962 Topps set. After this weeks’ haul, I currently have 405 from the set. Here are the latest additions:

Joe Torre (future HOF)
AL Batting Leaders (Signed by Cash, Kaline, Piersall) (HOF)
Don Drysdale (HOF)
Tony Kubek
Elston Howard
Billy Williams (HOF)
Ken Boyer
Hoyt Wilhelm (HOF)
Norm Cash
NL Batting Leaders (signed by Moon and Pinson)
Casey Stengel (HOF)
Dick Howser
Billy Martin
Tim McCarver
Johnny Temple
Matty Alou
Al Scholl
Deron Johnson

…..and saving the best for last. This is my second Maris autograph for the set. This one is part of the “In Action” subset, which is titled “Maris Blasts 61st”. This card commemorates his record breaking HR feat in 1961. Maris signed in blue ballpoint pen.

Maris Blasts 61st.
Click to view full size.

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AL& NL HR Kings

esiason14 — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 16:40:18 +0000

I picked up a new addition for our 1962 Topps set. This is one of my favorites so far. The card features Roger Maris and HOFer Orlando Cepeda. This card is extra special because it commemorates Roger’s feat of clubbing 61 HR in ’61 (on the back of the card). Maris and Cepeda signed beautifully in blue sharpie.

Once I actually receive the card, I will post a better scan.

AL & NL HR Kings (Maris and Cepeda)
Click for full size

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Win Clark: 1897 Louisville Colonels Player

esiason14 — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 03:59:09 +0000

I picked up a neat piece today. Not the biggest name player. In fact, he only played in four Major League games. The cool thing is that he played for the 1897 Louisville Colonels, which were part of the National League at the time. This team had three future Hall of Famers: Rube Waddell, Fred Clarke, and Honus Wagner.

Win Clark went on to manage in the minor leagues for 22 seasons between 1900-1939. He later went on to become the Secretary of the Association of Professional Ball Players of America.

The APBPA currently gives out the “Win Clark Award”, which goes to the first year player who had the most outstanding season. Previous winners include: Lee Walls, Willie Davis, Johnny Callison, Jim Lefebvre, Ron Fairly, Tim Wallach, Mark Grace, Jeff Cirillo, Steve Kemp, Tony Gwynn and Jay Gibbons.

1947 APBPA Membership Card
Click for full size

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Weekly TTM and other additions (2/15 – 2/21)

esiason14 — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 23:21:05 +0000

Not a bad week. I received several autographs TTM including a couple for my 1962 Topps set.
Jake Gibbs (1962 Topps)
Ed Hobaugh (2nd auto on 1962 Topps Senators team card)
Ed Roebuck (1962 Topps)
Jim Landis (1962 Topps)
Mike de la Hoz (1962 Topps)
Chuck Essegian (1962 Topps)
Jim Thome (2003 Upper Deck Vintage)
Ty Cline (1965 Topps)
Ty Cline (1966 Topps)
Ty Cline (1966 Topps Cubs team)
……
and my favorite return this week was from Marlan Coughtry. I have been looking for Mr. Coughtry for quite some time. Every once in a while I check to see if he is doing any signings. Each time I come up with nothing. I was finally able to locate Marlan and I wrote him a letter asking if it was ok if I sent him a card to sign. He wrote back in under a week giving me the okay. I was thrilled when I got this card back today along with a nice letter. I was able to finish off this Rookie Parade card for my set and met another nice former player TTM. Thanks again!

1962 Topps Rookie Parade Infielders

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I also made a couple of small purchases:
1951 Dell Sports Album signed by Bob Lemon, Stan Musial, and George Kell.

1951 Dell Sports Album (Lemon, Musial, Kell

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1959 Topps Pitching Partners (Pascual / Ramos

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1959 Topps Pitching Partners (Camilo Pascual / Pedro Ramos)

Mantle/Mays multisigned, NL HR Leaders and more

esiason14 — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 22:38:09 +0000

I just received the latest additions to my 1962 Topps set. Some amazing cards here including a “Braves’ Backstops” card signed by Joe Torre/Del Crandall, “1962 NL Homerun leaders” signed by Willie Mays/Frank Robinson/Orlando Cepeda, and my favorite….Mickey Mantle/Willie Mays dual signed “Managers’ Dream”. Plus several more including a few of HOFers (Yogi Berra, Eddie Mathews, Ernie Banks).

Mickey Mantle/Willie Mays

1961 NL HR Leaders

Braves' Backstops

Yogi Berra

Eddie Mathews

Ernie Banks

On top of these, I also received: Tom Tresh, Harvey Haddix, Bill Kunkel, Chico Fernandez, and Mack Jones.

1969 Phillies Scorecard

esiason14 — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 01:14:21 +0000

I picked up a pretty neat 40+ year old, 22 page Phillies scorecard today. It’s in great condition. I love finding stuff like this. It’s full of some great old ads (I wish a new car was still $1895), player info, and stats. This scorecard was actually scored. Some people don’t like that, but I do.

This particular scorecard was from a Phillies – Giants game. That day the Giants hit back-to-back-to-back homeruns.

The Giants lineup included: Bobby Bonds, Willie McCovey, Dave Marchall, Hal Lanier, Ron Hunt, Ken Henderson, Tito Fuentes, Bob Barton. Mike McCormick was the starting pitcher.

The Phillie lineup included: Tony Taylor, Johnny Callison, Dick Allen, Deron Johnson, Larry Hisle, Cookie Rojas, Don Money, Mike Ryan. The SP was John Boozer.

I plan on sending this out to a few of the old players. First up: Woodie Fryman. Woodie pitched in the majors from 1966-1983. In 18 seasons, he put up a record of 141-155.

1969 Phillies Scorecard Front

1969 Phillies Scorecard Back

1969 Phillies lineup and scoring

1969 Giants lineup and scoring

1962 Topps Rookie Parade

esiason14 — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 03:56:22 +0000

Added a couple of really nice Rookie Parade cards today. These cards are hard to find unsigned and I managed to find a couple fully completed…and another couple that were partially completed. I hope to finish those off over the next few months.

Rookie Parade Infielders with Joe Pepitone

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Rookie Parade Pitchers with Jim Bouton

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Rookie Parade Infielders 1962 Topps

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Rookie Parade Catchers 1962 Topps

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Questionnaire page added

esiason14 — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 04:14:26 +0000

With many of the requests that we send TTM, we like to include a short Q&A for some of the older players. My son usually chooses the questions and we try to limit them to three. Sometimes we get back the questionnaire and it’s blank and other times we get them filled out…or even a hand-written letter. Whether they only answer one or they take the time to write a full letter, we are always more than happy to read their responses.

I decided to add a page to share these with fellow collectors. Right now I have ~40 up and I have more than 200 others that I will be posting shortly. I apologize for the poor quality, my scanner kicked the bucket. When I buy a new one I will post better quality images.

Baseball questionnaires
Football questionnaires

If anyone else has any stories about their correspondence with former players, we would love to hear about it.

UPDATE 1/07/10: Better scans of questionnaires have been uploaded!