1961 Topps, Paul Foytack

#171 Paul Foytack

This is a card of Paul Foytack that I got signed through the mail in 2013. I sent this card to Paul mid-April and I had it back just eight days later.

Paul pitched in the Majors for eleven seasons. He spent the majority of the time with the Tigers before spending his final two seasons with the Angels. He spent time in the rotation and the bullpen, but got most of his appearances as a starter.

For his career, Paul was 86-87 with 7 saves and a 4.14 ERA. He had four straight seasons of 100+ strikeouts and six seasons with double-digit wins. Unfortunately, he also posted six straight double digit loss seasons. His best season was probably the 1956 season when he went 15-13 with a save, a 3.59 ERA, and a career high 186 strikeouts.

Last night, I went to Wichita to attend my very first NBC World Series game. It was a special event as Nate Robertson and Adam LaRoche put together a team of former Major League players to take on the college kids. I went, of course, just to get autographs and I did pretty well. With my dad's help, I came home with autographs from former All Stars Brandon Inge, Roy Oswalt, Brad Penny, Josh Beckett, and Tim Hudson.

I got there early and found the spot to be by the clubhouse. My dad and I were the only ones there for some time and were doing well. Then a couple more people came over and then a few more and a few more. At the peak, there might have been ten people over there getting autographs over or under a ten foot fence. At that point, security guards came out and erected a new plastic fence to keep us away from the big fence and prevent us from getting autographs. I was pretty bummed over it, but it was still a fun experience, overall.

The game didn't get started until about 10:30 PM, so we only stayed for four innings. But we got to see Tim Hudson throw three innings and Josh Beckett one. It took a while for the former big league hitters to get their bats going, but we did see JD Drew rip a RBI double in the first. The Kansas Stars, as they are called, went on to win 8-0, so they obviously got their bats going later on in the game.