RBI (63) More 365 TTM goodness...

Yup the replies have slowed a bit but they're slowly making their way back as I send them out. This time I was able to get a reply back from from Tigers catcher Mike Heath.

Mike was drafted in the second round of the 1973 draft by the New York Yankees at only 18. The high level prospect was given time to develop and made his debut for the Yankees in 1978. Heath was included in the trade that brought Dave Righetti to the Yankees and sent to Oakland for a substantial portion of his career. While he was with the Oakland A's in 1983 he caught rookie Mike Warren's no-hitter on his final start of the season.

He eventually moved again via trade and eventually caught on with the Detroit Tigers. While he was with the Tigers he was part of their banner 1987 season where they advanced to the ALCS after a 98-64 season. As a Tiger Heath was known for his strong arm and defense that helped the club as well as a reasonable bat that kept him fighting his way on base. After the Tigers Heath went on to play a final year of baseball for the Braves.

When he retired Heath had played for 14 season in the MLB across 5 clubs. He had appeared in 1325 games and crossed the 1000 hit mark. With only 86 Home Runs and 469 RBI, Heath still maintained a respectable .252 average to go along with a .300 OPB. What's surprising is that as a catcher not known for too much pop Heath ended his career with an impressive 27 Triples.

Mr. Heath was nice enough to sign this 1987 Topps card sent to his home address and get it back to me after only 14 Days.

Balk 8 - This guy is kinda famous...

I've always thought it would be really cool to end up in the background of a player's trading card. I'm kinda in the background of Bobby Abreu's 2012 Topps card seeing as I was at the game sitting 6 seats to the left 15 rows back, but the crowd isn't in the actual photo. I know I was there though seeing as Abreu made 18 appearances in left field all season and the photo may look cool, but he almost missed the catch AND after he made the catch almost fell down into the bullpen wall. Hence his very not so confident face in the picture. So yeah. I was there for Bobby Abreu's 2012 Topps photo. Cool.

Anyways. My friend David was on TV for the Albert Pujols press conference and is pictured on Yahoo's fantasy summary of the 2012 Angels AND is in Sports Illustrated. Did I mention he got Pujols to sign his ball too? Some guys get all the luck. David has a blog that many of you are already reading, but those not reading can find it see his goodies at David's Autograph Signings.

I guess since he was in SI I should get his autograph too. Just another thing to put on the to do list.

Oh and ps. Moneyball was robbed at the Oscars. Billy Beane was there though to see it happen supposedly. I wonder if he went to check out the remnants of Mannywood too.

RBI (62) More 365 TTM inbox goodness...

Yup that's right folks another reply for the challenge, and it's an especially cool one. With spring training just beginning one of the big 2012 story lines has been a fairly regular one, who's healthy. This is especially true for the San Francisco Giants who hope Buster Posey will hold up through the season and Brian Wilson will as well. Did either reply to me TTM? Nope, but the photos of Brian Wilson dominating the blogosphere made me "fear the beard" 1989 style a la the original beard, Jeff "Terminator" Reardon.

Reardon was a amateur free agent signed by the Mets in 1977, and eventually broke into the bigs with them in 1979. He was very consistent for the Mets and they ended up trading him to the Montreal Expos where he would make a name for himself as a dominating closer. For 11 consecutive years of his career Reardon would Save at least 20 games and twice hit the 40 Save mark. For the next 16 seasons he would be a linchpin closer for several clubs such as the Twins, Red Sox, before slowing down in the end of his career with the Braves, Reds, and Yankees.

When he finally walked away from the game Reardon was at the time the All Time Saves leader with 342 career Saves before his record was broken and eventually shattered by others along with Trevor Hoffman and Mariano Rivera. He was a 4-time All-Star, World Series Champion with the Twins, and was the NL Rolaid's Relief Man of the Year. His career line in 880 appearances would be 73-77 with 877 Strikeouts and a 3.16 ERA.

Jeff Reardon autographed this 1989 Topps card sent to his home address and return it to me quickly after only 10 Days.

RBI (61) The 365's 8th TTM reply...

And it's a pretty good reply from a durable player. Former Tiger's pitcher Mark Thurmond was nice enough to still be a consistent performer, but this time as an autograph signer.

The Houston native Thurmond was taken in the 5th round of the 1979 draft by the San Diego Padres. He would eventually make his debut in 1983 for the club, finishing in the top ten for the NL Rookie of the year. He was a pretty consistent starter for the Padres but eventually traded to Detroit for Dave LaPoint. With the Tigers he was part of the 1987 bullpen that had the Tigers put up a banner year 98 Wins and advance to the ALCS. After his time with the Tigers he went on to play for the Orioles, Astros, and Giants.

When he finally retired from baseball he had a respectable career line after his 8 seasons. After 97 starts in 314 games he finished with a 40-46 record, 3.69 ERA, and 320 Strikeouts. Thurmond's time in the bullpen also gave him 21 Saves as an occasional closer in the later part of his career. Interestingly despite playing in 314 over 8 seasons and being shuttled repeatedly between the rotation and the bullpen Thurmond never spent time on the disabled list. Besides his time in the MLB Thurmond was also a member of the 1978 Amateur World Series where his team took the Silver.

Mr. Thurmond was nice enough to put a really nice signature on this 1989 Topps card sent to his home address after 8 days. He added the inscription "Romans 1:16" under his pretty interesting but very legible signature.

4th batch of the 365

With baseball season right around the corner I started to think back to all the great milestones and games I saw the past season. A few highlights I was there to see CC Sabathia collect his 2000th strike out, Jordan Walden tie the franchise record for saves by a rookie, and Dan Haren reach 100 wins. I'm excited to see what sort of milestones and accomplishments I'll be there for this year.

Thinking about 2011 made me think about the big stack of 1987 Topps cards and what went on that year. I started to research the season and found out the '87 Tigers had a huge season and powered their way to a MLB best 98 Wins. '87 was their last post season until the 2011 season. I decided to write a few letters to key guys from that team.

1. Jack Morris, Morris was a linchpin in 3 World Series Championship teams and one of the dominating pitchers of his era. I'm thinking he's advancing to Cooperstown in the next year or two after drawing 67% of the vote this year.
2. Mike Heath, Pitching was a big part of the Tigers success that year and Heath caught 90 games while batting a strong .280 I'm curious as to how he saw the club that season.
3. Mark Thurmond, a consistent piece of the bullpen that helped the club grind through the season as an occasional closer and late inning guy.
4. Justin Masterson, Today is when pitchers and catchers reported across the league and I wanted the first current player I write to during the beginnings of 2012 baseball to be one I have a connection to. I was at Masterson's first career start and am really big on him. I wear his player shirt to every game of his regardless of it being a Sox tee and him being on the Indians. Really hope he write back.
5. Jerry Dipoto, I'm not really sure why, but I felt really inspired today an wrote a fairly lengthy letter to the Angels GM.
6. Mike Cameron, Cameron just announced his retirement and I wanted to send a letter offering him my best wishes for his life after baseball.
7. Brandon Morrow, I've wanted to write to Morrow for a while after seeing him for so long with the Mariners, but was always hesitant about sending a letter to Toronto. Now that he's in the States for spring training I want to get him.
8. Jaime Moyer, My thoughts about Mike Cameron and Tim Wakefield's retirement made me think about the old guard moving on, and Moyer is trying to fight father time and do the opposite of his peers attempting a comeback at 49. 
9. Ron Roenicke, While writing the letter to the Mr. Dipoto I started to think about the previous championship of the Angels and an unsung hero in their performance former 3rd base coach turned manager chasing his own ring Roenicke.

RBI (60) More 365 TTM letter responses...

I was pleased to open my mailbox and see a quick reply from former Angel pitcher T.R. Bryden. I was pretty excited to see the reply from his as it's another step closer to working on the 1987 Angels team set. I think the most difficult person to get from the '87 Angels team will be Reggie Jackson which could prove to be ironic.

Bryden was signed by the California Angels in 1981 as an amateur free agent, but didn't make it to the show until 1986. The Washington native's career only lasted through the '86 season in which he appeared in 16 games. While with the club he posted a 6.55 ERA with a 2-1 record, but was then returned to the minors for 2 final years in baseball.

Mr. Bryden was kind enough to sign this 1987 Topps card for me in only 10 days from his home address. I think he has a great signature, and considering how short his cup of coffee in the bigs was I really appreciate him taking the time to sign with such care and promptness. He was also nice enough to answer the questions in my letter and share about his MLB experiences:

How did you find out you were being called up in '86?
I probably should have checked his lone season's game log before I asked this question, but I think it's a testament to his abilities that he "Made the team out of spring training!" especially when looking at his minor league stats you see Mr. Bryden was productive, but not dominant before making the team. He must have given the club quite a dominant spring to earn his roster spot.

What was it like pitching to Bob Boone?
I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Boone through the Angels 50th Anniversary celebration, and it was great to meet the 7-time Gold Glover. It's easy to understand why he was so well regarded as a catcher when you add how he called games since Bryden admits "I shook him off 1 time!"

What was it like to collect your first win?
Considering he was only able to collect 2, I'm sure each one was special to him especially since he came into the game as a reliever so he never knew what the result be besides "Shock!"

Did any player especially try to help you adjust to life in the MLB?
"Reggie M. Jackson" Needless to say I was a little shocked when the sure Hall of Famer was the player named to welcome the career Minor Leaguer into the bigs, but it only adds to what it means to be a man of Hall quality.

RBI (59) My foray into 2012 Topps was a hit...

That's right folks. I went to my local card shop and bought 2012 Topps. I highly doubt I'll buy any more now that I've wet my taste buds and have been pleasantly surprised but honestly not all that interested in the set.

Not only did I buy 2012 Topps, but I invested in a hobby box of 36 packs. I know some of you may be surprised seeing as the pack hits I've always shown were blaster, jumbo, or even rack pack hits, but I decided to live a little. With 2012 being so mixed and me already being able to secure a few Angel cards to work on this season I decided if I were going to get a taste I may as well invest in something that would leave me happy. The major selling point for me though was not only the Gold Rush Wrapper Redemption going on, where I was pretty intrigued in the design and autograph possibilities, but my card dealer offered to give me the final 14 hobby wrappers I'd need to finish my required 50 for FREE.

I scored a fair amount of parallels to try and get in person or mail out and went right on the average with the redemption cards online. I was able to get a nice pair of cards out of the box.

A Detroit Tigers Ryan Rayburn black parallel number 57/61.

And more importantly a Jordan Zimmermann Golden Moments autographed card. I'm big on Zimmermann in general and I think the card is a pretty nice looking one as far as the inserts go. Jordan is a key part of the Nationals' resurgence into relevance providing a strong 1-2-3 punch with Strasburg and Gio Gonzalez. Last year was his first season back from Tommy John surgery and he posted a respectable 8-11 record with  3.18 ERA before he was shut down to watch his innings. I'm looking forward to big things from the former second round pick.

Not a bad pair of items to find in my box. I'm pretty pleased with them both and fairly sure I'm done buying series 1 of 2012.