1985 Topps, Darryl Strawberry

#278 Darryl Strawberry

Last summer, my dad and I were heading to a Wichita Wingnuts game. When we got off the interstate, my dad saw a sign by a church with Darryl Strawberry's picture on it. He pointed it out to me, but it was too late and I did not see it. My dad only caught part of he sign and he knew Darryl was coming to Wichita and that was about it. When I got to the ballpark, I hit up Google to see what it was all about. What I learned was that Darryl was going to be preaching at that church. I am not much of a church-goer myself, but I instantly knew I was going to be in church in Wichita that Sunday.

The church it was at did a really good job hosting the event. They invited everyone to wear their favorite jersey that day and to stay after the service for ballpark snacks and to meet Darryl. They even lead off the service by singing "Put Me In Coach". Darryl preached for about an hour and, even though I don't think it was the best message for the under 12 crowd, it was still a good service.

Everyone there wanted to meet Darryl after the event. Somehow, we ended up towards the front of the line. That was a good thing as it was the slowest moving line ever. There was a professional photographer there taking free pictures and that was what was slowing the line down. We were about forty people deep and it took us about forty minutes to get through it. I felt sorry to 200+ people behind us.

But, we made it through and Darryl was kind enough to sign a card for each of us and take a picture with us. When I post the next card of Darryl, I will show the picture, too.

When we were heading back home that day, my wife was looking at the signed cards and she commented on this one. She was wondering why I got this card signed since it was so dinged up. I explained to her that I pulled this card out of a pack thirty years ago when I was six. When I think of a Darryl Strawberry card, this is the one I think of and that is why I wanted it signed. Luckily, this card looks better than most of cards I have from then.

1985 Topps, Leon Roberts

#217 Leon Roberts

This post is just like the post from yesterday where I got a players '81 Donruss signed through the mail and then got them in-person a few years later. It was less of a gap for Leon Roberts, though. I got the '81 D signed in 2012 and then got this card signed in 2015.

I didn't actually get this card signed, my best friend did. We were at a Sacramento Rivercats game and he was nice enough to 'graph the visitors while I got the 'Cats. That is basically how it is if you go to a game with me; I am going to put you to work. Leon was coaching for the Fresno Grizzlies at the time and he signed three cards.

Leon played in the Majors for eleven seasons, yet I hardly have any cards of him. The only two Major League cards I have are this one and the '81 D. I had to dig up a Senior League card and minor league coaching card just to have three for him to sign in Sacramento. Leon is now a coach in the Royals system. I saw the Royals practice this spring and I didn't take any cards of Leon because I have none left of him.

Leon finished his career a Royal. He was traded to them by the Blue Jays for Cecli Fielder. I never knew Cecil was in the Royals organization. He got into 113 games with the Royals and he hit .252 with 8 home runs and 27 RBI.

1985 Fleer, Danny Darwin

#U-32 Danny Darwin

Here is the second card of Danny Darwin that I have posted on here. The first one, his '81 Donruss, was posted almost seven years ago. That one was obtained through the mail. This one, and the next two, were signed at Spring Training this past March. Danny is the pitching coach for the Reds AA affiliate in Pensacola and he was nice enough to sign for me during minor league workouts the day I was there.

Danny only pitched for the Brewers for a season and a half. He went there in 1985 as a free agent and pitched there until being traded to the Astros in August of '86. Over that time, he was 14-26 with 2 saves and a 3.70 ERA.

I am not sure that I have had a seven year gap between posts of a player on here before. Seeing that number makes me realize that I have had this blog going for nearly ten years now. I started this in 2008 and I always post my cards in order by year. After posting all my cards from a year, I go back and post any cards from previous years that I got recently. The sad thing is that after almost ten years, I still have yet to post any cards that were made during the year I started this blog. By the time I get around to my cards from 2008, it is probably going to be 2018 and very few of those players are going to be relevant anymore.

1985 Fleer, Don Schulze

#454 Don Schulze

Here is the first of three cards that Don Schulze signed for me in 2015. Don was the pitching coach for the Nashville Sounds and he signed the cards for me before an Omaha Storm Chasers game.

Don pitched in the Majors for parts of six seasons with the Cubs, Indians, Mets, Yankees, and Padres. He was mainly a starter in the bigs and he compiled a 15-25 record with 5.47 ERA. He never won more than four games in a single season, but he did reach ten losses with the Indians in 1985.

I hate getting cards signed where the player is wearing a dark jersey. But, in this case, I was having a hard time fining three cards of Don. I was pretty happy with the first two I found and I ended up just settling on this one for lack of better options. It turns out that Don was in the '88 Topps set as a Met, and I never bothered to look for that card.

For a dark jersey card, though, the sig on this one actually came out looking fairly decent. It is not much of a signature, but there is not much that can be done about that.

College World Series Contest Final Results

The College World Series is not over, but my contest is. With nobody picking LSU or Florida to win it all, there is no point dragging this thing on. Running away with the contest this year was Wilson! Great job! I do not think I have your address, so please email it to me at zman40 at hotmail dot com and I will get your prize out to you Thursday.

As for the prize, I have some bad news. The College World Series quit bringing in former star players to sign autographs at Fanfest. Those signed 8x10s were always my go-to prize for this contest. But, I did dig up an old Dennis Eckersly 8x10 that I still had an extra of. And I am throwing in an official CWS bobblehead stadium giveaway and a blaster of Topps Series 2.

Here are the final results. Total (phase 1, phase2)

B Man 9 (8,1)
Greg 4 (2, 2)
Lost Collector 8 (4, 4)
Rod 5 (1, 4)
NMC 9 (3, 6)
Joey 8 (5, 3)
Wilson 13 (5, 8)

Thanks again to all that participated. I hope to see each and everyone of you back next year!

College World Series Contest, Phase 2

In case you haven't noticed, I've been running a little contest here for the past two weeks that revolves around the College World Series. Seven people have already entered and have a tiny head start. But, it is not too late to get in on the action. There are plenty more points to be earned and no one is even close to locking this thing up yet. So here is all you have to do- fill out a College World Series bracket.

Keep in mind that this bracket is nothing like filling out a March Madness bracket. The reason for that is because of the loser's bracket. But, I am going to try to make this as simple as I can. Here is my homemade bracket. Click on it to hopefully see a bigger view.

Here is a how the bracket breaks down. There are two groups in the bracket- A and B. Each group has six games in it. All you have to do is guess who is going to win each of the games as they advance towards the championship round.

For instance, group A has Oregon St. and Cal St. Fullerton squaring off in game 1 and LSU and Florida St. going in game 2. Pick who is going to win each of those games and then those two teams will square off in game 3. The losers of games 1 and 2 will then square off in game 4. Then, the loser in game 3 plays the winner of game 4 in game 5.

At that point, there will be one team left in the group that is 2-0 (winner of game 3) and one that is 2-1 (winner of game 5). Those two teams play in game 6, which is an elimination game. If the 2-0 team loses, they play a game 7 and the winner advances to the championship. If the 2-0 team wins game 6, they go straight to the championship without game 7. BUT, for the sake of this bracket, I am going to count games 6 and 7 as one game. Just pick who you think is going to advance. It doesn't matter how they do it. I call it game 6/7.

After that, you should have a team advancing out of group A. Do the same for group B. Those two teams are your final teams. In the CWS, they play a best of three series for the championship. Pick who you think will win it all and if they will win it in two games or three. Then, for a tie breaker, guess how many runs will be scored in the championship series (the final two or three games).

It might be easier for you to fill it out on paper first. But to enter the contest, leave a comment looking something similar to this.

A1: CSF
A2: LSU
A3: LSU
A4: OSU
A5: OSU
A6/7: LSU

B1: L'ville
B2: TCU
B3: TCU
B4: Florida
B5: L'ville
B6/7: TCU

TCU over LSU in two games
8 runs

For the sake of the tie breaker, DO NOT pick a number already chosen by someone else. Even if your teams do not make it to the finals, the tiebreaker will still apply to you in the event of a tie.

If you guess every game right, including how many games will be played in the finals, you can come out with 22 points.

The CWS begins at 3:00 PM, eastern, on Saturday, June 17. So, all entries must be in by that point. If you have any questions at all, feel free to email me at zman40 at hotmail dot com. Or, just ask in the comments.

To see the standing through this point, see the bottom of the previous post.

This thing is anybody's to win. Good luck!

1985 Blue Jays Fire Safety, Willie Aikens

#24 Willie Aikens

Here is another oddball that I was able to get signed at Royals Fanfest in 2014. This is a very blue set that was distributed by the Toronto Star and Midas. I cannot find any info about the set, but they are readily available from COMC, where I got this card. It is fun to note that the only positions listed on the cards are pitcher, catcher, infielder, and outfielder.

By the time this card came out, Willie Aikens Major League career was pretty much over. He only played in 12 games in 1985, hitting .200 with a double, a dinger, and 5 RBI. That home run that he hit was pretty memorable, though. It was of the pinch hit variety in the top of the ninth to tie the game. The Blue Jays went on to win in the tenth and Willie never played another game in the Major Leagues.

The College World Series field is set. Every team that is in was picked by at least one entrant. There were six number one seeds that advanced. There was one two seed and one three seed. Both the two and the three seeds were picked by BMan, who happens to be in the lead. Here are the standings heading into the Series.

B Man- 8 (2CSF, LSU, 3Texas A&M, TCU, pimped)
Greg Z- 2 (OSU, TCU)
Lost Collector- 4 (FSU, LSU, Louisville, Florida)
Rod- 1 (OSU)
NMC- 3 (FSU, TCU, pimped)
Joey- 5 (OSU, FSU, LSU, Louisville, Florida)
Wilson- 5 (OSU, LSU, Louisville, TCU, Florida)

The bracket portion of the contest will be up shortly. If you see any errors I might have made, let me know in the comments.