2008 Allen & Ginter, Lisa Leslie

#AGA-LL Lisa Leslie

For the first time on this blog, here is a non-baseball related autograph. That is one of the fun things you run into with Allen & Ginter. Surprisingly, this is the only signed non-baseball related A&G card that I own. While I have pondered sending out a few to get signed TTM, I have never pulled the trigger. A few that I wouldn't mind getting are Mark Spitz, Henry Rollins, Richard Petty, and Tommy Lee. Whether I ever get around to getting any of those signed is another question.

As for this card, I won it in a contest from Night Owl back in the day. I have no clue what I had to do to win it or why it was being given away. But, it featured an autograph, so I entered and obviously won. It also came with a relic card of Mark Buerhle.

Back whenever I won this card, I was always getting in on blog contests. Some I would win and most I would lose. But, anymore, it seems like I rarely bother entering contests. While there a many cool ones out there, I just don't care enough to enter. All I really care about are autographs. If those are not part of the prize, I am not interested. I figure it is better to let someone win that might actually enjoy the non-autographed prize then for me to enter just for the sake of entering.

Having said that, if Night Owl were giving this card away now, I am not sure if I would even enter. Sure, it is an autographed card. But, I don't like basketball and really do not like women's basketball. On the other hand, though, it is Allen & Ginter and it is of a person I have actually heard of. Lisa Leslie is one of two female basketball players I am aware of.

One year, I bought a box of Ginter and got a redemption card. I was pretty excited until I read who it was. It was the head basketball coach of the UConn women's team. Luckily, Topps was unable to fulfill it and they sent me a signed card of Gary Sheffield instead. That is a win in my book.

Editor's update: I lied. I also have an '09 A&G signed and framed card from a volleyball player. My bad.

1999 Fleer Sports Illustrated, Bob Feller

NN Bob Feller

Here is a card of Bob Feller that I won in a contest three years ago. Brian, from Play at the Plate, picked up some cards and happened to get a couple of autographed cards from Hall of Famers. All you had to do to win one of them was guess who he got. I threw Bob Feller out there and came home a winner.

I have actually posted an autograph from Bob Feller on here before. In 2009, I stopped at Van Meter, Iowa to visit the Bob Feller Museum. Back then, I had a lot more time on my hands and I actually did a write-up on the visit and my trip to the Metrodome. You can read about it and see the signed card of Bob that I bought there here.

I thought I had heard rumblings about the museum closing after Bob passed away in 2010. But, it looks like it is still up and running.

Bob pitched for the Indians for eighteen seasons. During that time, he went 266-162 with 21 saves. He was a 20 game winner six times and had a career high of 27 in 1940. In 1946, he struck out 346 batters and was the first pitcher to hit the 300 strikeout mark in over thirty years. He finished his career with 2581 Ks and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1962.

1990 Leaf, Don Slaught

#354 Don Slaught

Here is a card that I won in a Twitter contest a couple of years ago. This card, and a couple of others, were being given away by Autograph Rob and I was fortunate enough to win. I believe this is the only contest Rob ever held and his Twitter account has been dormant for the last eight months. To date, this is the only thing I have ever won on Twitter.

With the Milt Thompson 1990 Leaf and this one, I now have four whole cards signed from this set. Dan left a comment on the Thompson card and he hit it on the head- these cards were expensive in 1990. Because of that, I do not have a ton of cards from this set. Back then, I could buy one pack each of Topps, Donruss, Fleer, and Score, or I could buy one pack of Leaf. When I was eleven years old and on a budget, that was an easy decision to make.

I always thought it was odd that they just called this set Leaf. For all of the '80s, Leaf was to Donruss what O-Pee-Chee was to Topps. They were just a Canadian clone. You would have thought Leaf would have came up with a better name, something flashy that justified the price increase.

Don played in the Majors for sixteen seasons with the Royals, Rangers, Yankees, Pirates, Angels, White Sox, and Padres. Over that time, he was a .283 hitter with 77 home runs and 476 RBI. His best season was with the Pirates in 1993. That year, he hit .300 with career highs of 10 home runs and 55 RBI.

2006 Topps, Turkey Red, Clint Barmes

#TRA-CB Clint Barmes

Here is a card that I won in a contest about three years ago. The contest was held at "A Pack a Day" (remember that blog?) by skoormit. He had a bunch of packs of late '80s Topps and the contest was called "California vs The World". To win the contest, I think you had to pick if the cards would contain more California-born ballplayers or foreign players and how many more there would be. I guessed California and somehow managed to guess a closer amount than anyone else. Skoormit asked me what I wanted for a prize and, when I told him that I mainly just focus on autographs, he sent this card to me as the grand prize. He also included a Bo Jackson bat card that I thought was pretty cool and a bunch of random Royals cards.

Speaking of contests, the college baseball season is heating up and that can only mean one thing. It's about time for my third annual College World Series contest. On Monday, the 64 team field will be introduced and it will be on. I have to work all day tomorrow, so expect the contest to be posted later in the evening. The contest will be run like it has in the past and you can check out the past ones by clicking on the contest label on the right side of the blog.