1981 Topps, John Harris

#214 John Harris

This is a rookie card of John Harris (and two other guys). John had four cards of him come out between 1981 and '82. I have all four of them signed, so you are going to be seeing a lot of John Harris over the next week or so.

I got this card signed in Wichita this past season when the Lincoln Saltdogs came to town. Lincoln was the best team to see this past year (for autographs) as all three coaches had Major League experience. John was their hitting coach and I was able to get this card signed prior to the game I attended.

My SCN subscription ran out at the beginning of the month, so I have no idea if the other two guys sign through the mail. They are both obscure players as they only appeared on Topps Future Stars cards with two other guys on it. Whenever I get around to renewing my subscription, I will have to look them up and see if I can get this card finished through the mail.

Happy Veteran's Day!

1981 Topps. Jim Palmer

#210 Jim Palmer

Here is the second of two Jim Palmer autographs that I was able to acquire at the College World Series in 2012. The first card was his '81 Donruss card and that card can be seen here.

When the CWS announces who is going to be signing at Fanfest, it is usually at the last minute. When I saw Jim's name appear, it was a mad scramble to get a couple of his cards put together. Apparently my collection is void of Jim Palmer cards as all I could put together were these two cards from 1981. It would have been nice to have gotten something a little bit older signed, but there was no way that was going to happen because of the time constraint. So, it was either get these two cards signed or a modern Topps insert card. I briefly thought about getting his rookie reprint signed from the Cards Your Mom Threw Out insert set. But, that thought was very brief. So, the two '81 cards it was. They came out looking good, too.

1981 Fleer, Carlos Lezcano

#307 Carlos Lezcano

Here is the second '81 Fleer card that I was able to add to my collection over the past year. This one was acquired at a Wingnuts game when the El Paso Diablos came to town. Carlos also signed his '81 Donruss card for me and that card can be seen here.

Carlos' Major League career spanned parts of just two seasons and he saw action in 49 games. 42 of those came in 1980 and the other 7 were in 1981. During that time, he managed to hit .186 with 3 home runs and 14 RBI.

Carlos started last season as the Diablos hitting coach, but he eventually took over the managerial role after Tim Johnson left the team. He is going to have to find a new job this next season though as the Diablos are no longer around. They got booted out of town when AAA baseball decided to move the Padres top team there. They are going to be the El Paso Chihuahuas. I think it is kind of strange when a city loses a AA team, switches to an independent team, and then ends up fielding a AAA team. I guess that just goes to show what a new ballpark can do for a city. I wish Wichita would end up AAA.

1981 Fleer, Steve Busby

#33 Steve Busby

After eight months and ninety straight posts of 1981 Donruss, here is something a little different. I am going from my 175th '81 Donruss card to something that has never been posted on here. That is right. This is my first ever signed card from the '81 Fleer set. For whatever reason, I just never got any cards from this set. I doubt I ever bought a pack of this stuff and the few cards I do have were just acquired along the way. Take this card for instance. This card was sent to me by a blogger a few years back just because I am a Royals fan.

Unfortunately, Steve Busby's short career was winding down in 1980. Because of that, he was not included in the 1981 Donruss or Topps set. This was Steve's final card and it seemed like a good one for him to sign for me. I sent this card to Steve last November and I had it back in about a week.

I wrote to Steve because he is in the Royals Hall of Fame and I do not have his autograph.

Steve's career was marred by injuries, but he had a great three-year run from 1973-'75. Over that time, Steve won 56 games, made two All Star teams, and threw two no-hitters. His best season was 1974 when he went 22-14 with a 3.39 ERA and 198 strikeouts. His 22 wins were a team record that lasted fifteen seasons.

Steve still works in baseball today and can be heard on Ranger television broadcasts as the color man.

1981 Donruss, Mike Proly

#596 Mike Proly

Here it is. This is the last card from the '81 Donruss set that I will be posting for some time. It has been a long run at the set and it is finally time to move on to something else. I am gradually working my way up to my 2007 signed cards. I have a ways to go, though, and it might be a couple of years before another '81 Donruss card graces this blog. But, there will be more at some point.

This is the Mike Proly card that I got signed through the mail in February. It took Mike just eight days to get this card back to me.

Mike pitched in the Major Leagues for seven seasons with the Cardinals, White Sox, Phillies, and Cubs. He pitched primarily out of the 'pen and had his best success during his tenure with the Sox. In those three seasons, he racked up 19 of his 22 career saves including a career high of 9 in 1979. For his career, Mike was 22-29 with a 3.23 ERA.

Since I have made it to 175 signed cards from this set, I am officially raising the goal to 200. It shouldn't be that hard to achieve. It is just going to depend on how badly I want to start sending out some letters again. I really haven't sent out a great deal of TTMs since the season started as they are not as fun as getting the cards signed in person and they are even less fun to write about than an in-person signature. That is especially true when you are posting about a hundred TTMs straight without much of a break.

'81 Donruss Tracker: 175/200

1981 Donruss, George Riley

#588 George Riley

Here is the card of George Riley that I was able to get signed through the mail. George is in bad shape while battling colon cancer and asks for donations to help him out. I'm usually not big on sending a fee to get cards signed, but considering his condition, I was more than happy to send two of these cards his way with ten dollars. So, if you have this card or George's '81 Topps card and want them signed, you can send them to him with five dollars per card. He could use the help and you can find his address in this link.

George's Major League career lasted parts of four seasons with the Cubs, Giants, and Expos. He was mainly a relief pitcher and he posted a 1-5 record with a 4.97 ERA over 87 innings. His one win came in a start against the the Dodgers in 1984 when he was with the Giants. He had a shutout going into the ninth inning before the Dodgers knocked in two runs on three hits. He got one out before getting pulled for closer Gary Lavelle. He was 1-0 over four starts and one relief outing with the Giants that season.

'81 Donruss Tracker: 174/100

1981 Donruss, Fred Stanley

#585 Fred Stanley

Here is the second Fred Stanley card that I got through the mail eleven months ago. The first one was a '72 Topps card that I sent along just because I am really starting to like signed cards from that set. I posted that card as soon as I got it and it can be seen here.

This is one of the fun cards from the set where the picture of the player does not match up with the team name. Here Fred is in a Yankee uniform and it says A's on the card. I have posted a few of these cards already, but haven't said a whole lot about the team name mix-up. Rather than go into detail about that fun part of the set, I will just redirect you over to Garvey Cey Russell Lopes. He did a recap on the guys that were traded to different teams, but were still pictured with their old team, a few months back and that post can be seen here.

'81 Donruss Tracker: 173/100