Who's Wicked?: Twins Winter Caravan

The high today in my part of the country is 1 degree. For most of the day it'll feel like -15 or so. Either way, that wasn't going to stop me from hitting up this year's Twins Winter Caravan.

I had unfinished business from a few years back when, announcing I was going last minute, Wicked Ortega desperately tried to hook me up with a ROMLB to get a Tony O signature for his collection. I'm a big Tony O fan, too, (Tony O for the Hall!) so I was determined to see this one through. I grabbed a friend to take along, offering to pay for his lunch as bait, and we went through the snow and cold out to the Wild Hog. At first they said the players would hand out cards (bummer), but they gladly signed anything and everything.

So, Wicked, here ya go:

As for me, in addition to picking up signed cards of Glen Perkins and Scott Diamond, I treated myself right.

#6, Tony O!

Have a good one everybody and goodnight Pumpsie Green, wherever you are!

Update: from the Twitter account of Scott Diamond:

Yup. Right after I left Tony O lost a tooth on a chicken wing at one of the finest establishments in town. Does one laugh or cry?

Twins Caravan: Tony Strikes Again

The original plan was to hit the Twins Fest in Minneapolis next week to get out of town, relax, and see if we could get a few more autos.

Well, when we moved from NC we ended up renting out our place because we couldn't sell it. No big deal, but the heating and air unit crapped out in mid-December. A lot of cash, all on credit. Then, maybe two weeks ago, one of our dogs got sick. I'll spare you the details, but by sick I mean "sick as a dog." Getting her taken care of (she's fine now) took the last of the cash on hand.

So no Twins Fest. Which kind of stunk because Daddy D had taken it upon himself to find me this card, Tony Oliva's first where he's by himself:

But that card is signed. Well, since the Twins are after a regional presence they have a Winter Caravan with different circuits from here to Montana. And, believe it or not, Tony was on our leg, as were Nick Blackburn, Matt Guerrier, and TC Bear. (No offense to TC or the Twins, but "TC" is begging to have an "H" put in the middle, at which point hippies start following the Twins around all summer and having drum circles and selling grilled cheese sandwiches in the parking lot before games)

Compa got her Tony fix and got him to put a great sign on this '65. I even got a picture of her giving it to him. No offer of mini donuts this time, so hopefully things are settling down on that front.

Have a good one everybody and goodnight Pumpsie Green, wherever you are!

Tony Oliva: I'm Glad He's Got a Few Years on Me

I've scored some nice cards from 50 cent boxes lately. Last Friday I scored this '69 Tony Oliva for the compa. In general, though, the card shop in town doesn't do the best job of helping me out with my player collecting needs. There are several 5000 count boxes you can pick through but nothing is in order and yes, as a player collector it absolutely drives me nuts.

"Do you have...?"

"Check the box."

It kills me, but sometimes they have some beat up vintage I'll gladly take off their hands for 50 cents. Not what I went in for, but after going through 1000 cards I'm not remotely interested in for any reason I'll take it. Tony definitely fits that bill and even fits the player collections.

First, the photo is nice. It's a typical posed shot but Tony's not looking at the bat, the cameraman, or the viewer. He is looking somewhere off to his right at who knows what. In fact, it gives the photo a playful quality better suited for a GQ shoot than your typical Topps baseball card.

As for the card itself, what can I say? It's straight off off POBC's dream list. Wrinkles? Check. Creases? Check? Tape stains? Check. Massive piece of half-torn scrapbook page still glued to the back 40 years after it was first put in? Check.

In short, it's everything a well loved card should be.

It also nicely compliments this card, which I scored out of a 5/$2 box when we were last in Iowa.

Jay Ward played parts of three season with Minnesota and Cincy, and let's be honest: there couldn't be a bigger contrast in demeanor between these dudes. Ward is deathly serious and has a Marine's haircut. He's out to make the team, not taking any prisoners, and will not be denied. Oliva is sticking his tongue out at us, just having a good time. That's the kind of screw it whatever, happy go lucky self-confidence we could all use a little more off. You get the feeling the Oliva just knows he belongs, just know he's good, and that he'd be that way if he were playing ball, acting Shakespeare, or flipping burgers. The kind of guy who will offer your compa mini-powdered donuts, which will then have her taking about said donut offer for, oh, the next seven months.

I mean, that guy on the XX commercials has NOTHING on Tony Oliva.

Have a good one everybody and good night Pumpsie Green, wherever you are!

Tony Oliva Wishes You a Happy Labor Day Weekend

filled with mini-powdered donuts and bright toothy smiles.

And in case you were wondering, this card was gifted to the compa (not me) by Daddy D. Once again, I'm glad that Tony Oliva is 71 years old, because even at 71 the compa says he'd give me a run for my money.

Have a great one, everybody!

Vintage Twinsfest autos

You'll find the Cy contest here.

So, the wife and I were so busy running around and enjoying ourselves at Twins autograph-stock we overshot the mark to get in the Harmon Killebrew line. We got there a full HOUR before he was scheduled to sign, but Twins fans are as serious about their Killebrew as they are about their Mauers and Morneaus. Harmon is also a big talker who likes to speak with everyone, which significantly affects his autos per minute.

No worries, though. After weighing our options for about 45 minutes we bolted for another line.

First up, Dick Stigman, a  1961 Topps Rookie award winner as voted on by the youth of America. He was also an All-Star his first year in the bigs, as voted on by whoever used to decide such things before the intertoobs and "vote early/vote up to 20x." What's that? Dick Stigman signed with a BIC?! Dick Stigman is so old school he laughs at your fancy markers and mint 10s. Bar the door, Katy, Stigman will show you how they rolled back in the day. (And yes, I did have a heart attack when he did this, but this obviously wasn't Dick's first rodeo)

Sitting next to Stigman, Julio Becquer. Here's an awesome article on Becquer (found on Baseball reference). We forget that players are also people as caught up in events as we are, as powerless as we are over the events that shape their lives. In 1961, the year after this card was produced, Becquer and other Cuban ballplayers saw their lives radically changed due to Cold War politics.

His might be my favorite auto from the day. He's got this fantastic, mobius strip like signature that winds its way across the card. I was in utter awe as he worked on it. Then he scratched his number in the bottom right corner and I guess he sensed I was puzzled because he said, "You know, so you don't have to turn that card over for the number." (!)

And finally, the man, Tony Oliva. This is also an awesome card, but what's more important was the signing. Oliva is a smooth, smooth guy who was enjoying himself, relaxing in the June heat and eating a bag of mini-donuts. I hand him the card and he turns to my wife, standing clear of the line off to his left, and says, "Would you like the last donut?" Wife: "I'm fine." Tony O: "C'mon, it's got your name on it..."

That pretty much did it for my compa. Thank God he's got me by a few years, because my spouse now has a huge crush on Tony Oliva. We talked about the donut episode the whole way home. Very, very cool.