1981 Donruss, Skip Lockwood

#217 Skip Lockwood

Here is the second card that I got signed by Skip at the Kansas City A's reunion. I only took multiple cards of two players and Skip was the only one that I found to sign. You can see the first Skip Lockwood card here.

Skip pitched in the Majors for 12 seasons. He threw for the Pilots/Brewers, Angels, Mets, and Red Sox. He was a starter for the first half of his career before being converted to a reliever for the second half. It looks like he was the Mets closer while he was there and he racked up 54 saves with them from 1976-78, including a career high of 20 in '77. In '76, Jim won 10 games out of the pen and that matched his career high that he had set in '71 as a Brewers starter. When his career was finished, Skip (whose first name is Claude) had a 57-97 record with 68 saves and a 3.55 ERA. That's not too bad for a former light-hitting third baseman.

When I was looking for cards to buy of Skip, I was shocked to see that there was an '81 Donruss card of him. The A's left Kansas City after the '67 season, so there is a huge gap from then to 1980. I'm just glad that I had this card in my collection. It would have sucked to have gotten an autograph from a third player this year that had an '81 Donruss card that wasn't in my collection. John Tudor and Jack Clark were the first two.

After Skip's playing career was over, he went on to graduate from MIT. I have no idea what he is up to these days. If I had known about MIT when I met him, I might have asked him about it.

'81 Donruss Tracker: 75/100

1974 Topps, Skip Lockwood

#532 Skip Lockwood

This is the next to last card that I got signed at the Kansas City A's reunion. I was able to get this card signed after Skip came down from the suites to leave. He was with his wife and she had her ID badge on and I could see that her last name was Lockwood. So, I asked the gentleman beside her if he was Skip and it was and when I asked if he would sign, he said yes. So, I started to flip through my book for the cards of Skip. I must have been tearing through the book like a madman because Skip told me to take my time since he wasn't in a hurry. I thought that was really nice since he was obviously leaving the park, but yet he still had time to sign a couple of autographs.

Skip is one of the interesting stories for the Kansas City A's. He made his A's debut in 1965 as a third baseman. He played in 42 games that season and hit .121 (4-33). After that, he went back to the minors and was converted to a pitcher. He pitched in the A's minor league system until he was taken by the Seattle Pilots in the expansion draft. I think it's pretty cool that a guy whose tenure with a team was 42 at-bats (while playing a position he isn't known for today) still comes back for the reunions. I know there are guys who played in Kansas City for much longer than that who do not attend the event.

I now have a whopping two cards signed from the 1974 set and both of them are airbrushed (see the other here). I may have to continue with the trend and only get '74s signed if they are airbrushed.

Tomorrow is going to be Bob Apodaca Day here at Autographed Cards. It should be a unique day and I might even have some quickie contests throughout the day, so check back a couple of times tomorrow.

1970 Topps, Jose Azcue

#294 Jose Azcue

First off, this card is the first time that I had ever seen Joe Azcue referenced as Jose. I know that he is Cuban and his name really is Jose, but why would Topps wait eight years after releasing their first Joe Azcue card to finally put his given first name on the card? I know Topps liked Americanizing the Hispanic names during the '60s, but why stop in 1970? Joe still goes by Joe today, so I doubt Topps put Jose on the card because of Joe's urging. Good ol' Topps, making no sense since 1970.

Here is another card from the Kansas City A's reunion. There was a guy at that game who went to the game just to see Joe. He had met him a long time ago and wanted to know if Joe remembered who he was. He was hoping to meet up with him prior to the game, but he got stuck in traffic for two hours just like I did. So, he ended up waiting by me at the base of the stairs that led up to the A's suite. He finanlly found some one to listen to his story and he talked that person in getting Joe down there to talk to him. Joe came down and talked to the guy a bit and I was able to get Joe to sign this card afterward. It was one of the easier autographs of the day.

Joe played in the Majors for parts of eleven seasons and he played with the Reds, A's, Indians, Red Sox, Angels, and Brewers. His best season probably came in 1963 when he had career highs in doubles, homers, and RBI. He finished his career a .252 hitter with 50 home runs. But, the best part about Joe was his throwing arm. In 1966, Joe threw out 62% of the baserunners that attempted to steal on him and for his career, he threw out 45.2%. It seems that the best part of Joe's game was shutting down the running game.

1970 Topps, Diego Segui

#2 Diego Segui

Here is another card from the Kansas City A's reunion at the T-Bones game in July. This was the first card that I got signed that day by a former A and it is also the first Pilots card that I ever got signed. Diego was one of the two A's that I was able to catch before they headed up to their suite.

Diego pitched in the Major Leagues for 15 seasons. In that span, he managed to play for six teams- the A's (three different stints), Senators, Pilots, Cardinals, Red Sox, and Mariners. He was a starter early in his career, but he spent a majority of his time coming out of the 'pen. He was a twelve game winner for the expansion Pilots in 1969. That was the most games he ever won in a season and he did it in 66 appearances (8 starts). Four years later with the Cardinals, he posted a career high of 17 saves, as well. For his career, Diego was 92-111 with 71 saves and a 3.81 ERA.

I wonder how many players actually played for the Pilots and Mariners. There can't be too many.

1969 Topps, Jim Gosger

#482 Jim Gosger

I got this card signed at the Kansas City A's reunion as Jim was leaving the ballpark. He signed this card and I thanked him and then he replied with something that I had never heard before. He actually thanked me for asking for his autograph. I didn't even know how to respond to that and I just stood there thinking "did he just say that" as he walked off. Looking back on it now, I can tell that it was a sincere thank you and I hope that my asking for his autograph capped off his night at the ballpark. If so, it would most likely be a first for me.

Jim played in the Majors for parts of ten seasons with the Red Sox, A's, Pilots, Mets, and Expos. He was a light hitting outfielder that only appeared in more than 100 games in a season twice. He finished his career with a .226 average with 30 home runs.

I love the quote on his Baseball Almanac page. "I didn't think that I was I that bad of a ballplayer, but they're (the media) making a believer out of me." - Jim Gosger (1969).

This is the first Seattle Pilots card that I have posted on here. It is not the first Pilots card that I got signed (that one is for tomorrow), but it it the first to be posted.

1965 Topps, Billy Bryan

#51 Billy Bryan

Here is another card from the A's reunion. Obviously, the best part about this card is the colorful uniforms. You just don't see enough teams wearing yellow from shoulders to toes anymore. I think that both the A's and Padres are missing the boat on this one right now.

All kidding aside, those are some ugly uniforms. I think I would have a hard time watching a game with nine guys dressed like that out in the field. I guess that there wouldn't be any confusion as to who was on which team, though.

In the '60s, the A's were going through a bit of an identity crises. In 1960, they were wearing the navy and red uniforms that they had been wearing since they moved to Kansas City. Then, in 1961, they dropped the red from the unis, only to bring it back in '62. Then, they switched to the yellow uniforms in 1963. According to Dressed to the Nines, they wore this uniform in both their home and away games that season. That's something you don't see anymore. In '64, they wore the yellow unis at home and white ones on the road. They then reversed themsleves in '65 and wore the yellows on the road and the white uniform at home. They basically stayed that way through '67 before leaving for Oakland.

It appears that this photo was taken in 1963 since that was the last season that Billy wore 18.

Billy played in the Majors for eight years with the A's, Yankees, and Senators. 1965 was the only season that he played in more than 100 game and had career highs that year in every offensive catagory. He finished his career a .216 hitter with 41 home runs.

Billy must have batted in front of the pitcher most of the time. That is the only way a .169 hitter is going to get five intentional walks during the '63 season.

1963 Topps, Lew Krausse

#104 Lew Krausse

Here is another card that I got signed at the Kansas City A's reunion in July. This was one of the easier cards for me to get signed that day as I found Lew on his way to the stairs to the A's suite. Someone else had stopped him for his autograph and when I got there, he had his ID badge showing so I knew who he was.

I bought this card from checkoutmycards.com and they had a few Lew Krausse cards to choose from. I chose this one because it looked so strange. For some reason, the grass is airbrushed in the card and it makes Lew look like he is floating in the outfield. I don't have many '63 Topps cards to compare this to, but I hope it was a common thing in '63. Hopefully Topps will recreate the airbrushed grass with their 2012 Topps Heritage set. Interestingly, Topps used the same photo, without the airbrushing, for Lew's '64 card.

Lew's career lasted twelve seasons and he played for the A's, Brewers, Red Sox, Cardinals, and Braves. His best season was probably the '66 campaign when he finished the year 14-9 with a 2.99 ERA. Four years later, he found himself on a young Brewers team and he posted a 13-18 record for them. If you looked strictly at wins, that would have been his second best season. 1974 was his final season in the Majors.

1961 Topps, Joe DeMaestri

#116 Joe DeMaestri

The next week's worth of cards all came from the third annual Kansas City A's reunion at Community America Ballpark in Kansas City, Kansas. The reunion took place on July 17th prior to a Kansas City T-Bones game. There was no formal autograph signing, so I didn't go all out when buying cards for the event. I bought one of each guy that was scheduled to be there (if I could even find one) and hoped for the best.

The day was moving along alright until I got to Lawrence, Kansas on I-70. There was a work zone there and traffic came to a standstill. I was hoping that the construction was holding up traffic, but that was not the case. It turned out that there were two accidents in a five mile stretch of road and it ended up taking me two hours to travel that five miles. So, instead of getting to the park prior to its opening, I got there ten minutes before first pitch. While I was standing in line to buy my ticket, all of the former KC A's were being introduced on the field. I finally made it into the park as the last two A's were being announced and I noticed that they entered the field from the first base side. I figured that they would leave the field the same way they entered, so I went down to the first base line and waited.

As soon as they were done taking pictures, most of them started heading for the third base line to exit the field. A couple left on the first base side, but I didn't have cards of them. By the time I had made it to the third base side of the concourse, most of the A's had already made their way up to their suite. There were a couple of stragglers that I was able to get, but, after that, it was a waiting game. I essentially had to wait for them to come down from the suite and be able to identify them to get their autograph. Needless to say, I didn't catch much of the early innings of the T-Bones game.

Joe DeMaestri was one of the few players I did get an autograph from. He came down with another KC A and of course I didn't recognize either one since I missed the introductions. So I asked the other guy if he was one of the former A's and he said that he was and I asked him his name. I didn't recognize his name since I didn't have a card with me, so I thanked him for coming out and shook his hand.

Right after that, I noticed that Joe was actually wearing his ID Badge and I asked him to sign for me. I don't know what his deal was, but he didn't seem to happy. He signed my card but he did not say a thing or even smile. I don't know if he was just ready to get out of there or if he disapproved of my lame tactic for getting autographs that evening.

As for Joe's playing days, he played for parts of eleven seasons with the White Sox, Browns, A's, and Yankees. He spent a majority of his time with the A's and for his career, he hit .236 while hitting 49 home runs. He even hit 6 home runs in a sesason five times.

Joe made his lone All Star team as an A in 1957. I have no idea what his stats were prior to the All Star game, but he finished the season hitting .245 with 9 home runs and 33 RBI. I guess that even as far back as 1957, the American League was forced to have a Kansas City player on the team. Some things never change.

Joe was packaged in the deal with Roger Maris that sent them to the Yankees from the A's.