1989-90 Pacific Senior League, Tim Stoddard

#182 Tim Stoddard

Here is the third and final card that Tim Stoddard signed for me at a Wichita State game last season. Tim is the pitching coach for the the Northwestern Wildcats and he also signed an '81 Donruss and '85 Topps for me.

Tim pitched in the Majors for thirteen seasons with the White Sox, Orioles, Cubs, Yankees, Padres, and Indians. He never started a game in his career, but he finished over half of the ones he appeared in. He finished with a 41-35 record with 76 saves and a 3.95 ERA. You would think that someone who finished 262 Major League games would have more than 76 saves, but it was a different game when Tim pitched in the '70s and '80s.

Tim's best season came with the O's in 1980. He finished that year 5-3 with a 2.51 ERA and a career-high 26 saves.

In the SPBA, it appears that Tim might have been a starter. He finished the season 10-2 with a 4.10 ERA. Tim's Tropics won the Southern Division crown and ended up in the championship game, losing 12-4 to the Pelicans.

Tim played basketball at North Carolina State and he is the only person to win a NCAA basketball championship and a World Series.


Tim also appeared in the movie "Rookie of the Year" as a pitcher for the Dodgers. I wish I would have realized that when I met him in Wichita. I definitely would have brought that up.

1989-90 Pacific Senior League, Tito Landrum

#168 Tito Landrum

Here is the third and final card that Tito signed for me at the '85 Classic. You can see the first one here and the second one here.

Do you think that a Senior League would do well today? With the success of all of the independent leagues, I don't see why it couldn't. I don't think that Florida would necessarily be the most ideal spot, but maybe Texas, Arizona, or California would. Or maybe a league that is spread out over the three states. I know that I would rather go to a Wichita Wingnuts game if it was a team full of former Major Leaguers rather than a team full of career minor leaguers. But, that is just me and my autograph mentality thinking.

What do you think? Would a Senior League work today? Or would it just be a one year wonder like the original league was?

1989-90 Pacific Senior League, Paul Mirabella

#165 Paul Mirabella

Just like todays earlier post, this is another TTM that was included with an '81 Donruss card. After '81D, this may be my favorite set to get signed. You can see Paul's '81D here and listen to a lame song while you are at it.

Out of all the teams that participated in the Senior Professional League, or whatever it was called, the Tropics probably have the most outlandish uniform. The palm tree "T" is certainly unique, but it looks out of place by itself on the hunter orange hats. While their road unifroms do not look bad, I cannot say the same thing for the orange jersey with white trim and orange undershirt. I hope that they were just a warm-up jersey and not something that was worn in a game.

I like how Paul is still wearing a batting glove under his fielding glove, just like he was on his '81 Donruss card. I wonder if he takes it off to shower.

1989-90 Pacific Senior League, Al Hrabosky

#179 Al Hrabosky

Here is the second card that I sent to Al. I wanted to send him a card from his days with the Cardinals, but I didn't have one. I thought about going to the card shop to find one until I noticed that he had a card in this set. Once I found this card, I was set to go. It's hard to beat a signed Senior League card.

Does anyone remember the Senior League? I barely remember it. I know that it didn't last long. Luckily, there are a couple of card sets of it to commemorate the teams and the players who played. I just wish I could find some stats from it. I want to know who the all-time Senior League home run leader is. I know Jim Morrison was the league leader in the inaugural season, but he could have been passed up the 25 games that were played the following season.

Unfortunately, the coners on my two Hrabosky cards got a little dinged in the mail. But, that's the price you pay when you TTM.

This is the last TTM for now. I got a few checkoutmycards purchases coming up for the next week and I'll post the first one tonight.

1989-90 Pacific Senior League, Jerry White

#185 Jerry White

I meant to get this card posted last night, but I didn't get around to it. So, here it is today.

This is the third and final Jerry White card that was signed by the Twins first base coach in Arlington. You can see the first one here and the second one here. This is also the last Senior League card for now. I thought that it was pretty cool that I was able to get five of these cards signed and each one was on a different team.

Speaking of the Twins, I'm heading up to Minnesota this weekend to see a couple of games against the Royals. I wanted to go to what could be the final Twins game in the Metrodome, but I waited too long to get tickets. I was able to get tickets to the Friday and Saturday game, though. The Saturday game got picked up by Fox, so if you are lucky, you might get to see Zack Grienke pitch on national TV. He needs to throw seven scoreless innings to get his ERA under 2 and he needs to strikeout nine to get the Royals single season strikeout record. It should be a good time and I'm not sure if I will have any posts for those two days.