Collecting Cleveland Indians Topps team sets from 1952-present, as well as post-war minor and major league autographs.
2003 Grandstand Boise Hawks Rich Hill, his first minor league card. One of my favorite in-person autographs was getting Rich Hill while he was pitching with the Cleveland Indians back in 2013. During his brief stint with the Tribe, he went 1-2 with a 6.28 ERA/1.733 WHIP/ 61 ERA+[…]
JT Brubaker went to college at the Univerity of Akron–near my hometown–so I was very happy when he was drafted by the Pirates in the 6th round of the 2015 draft. I wrote to him in college but never got anything, but I was able to get him in 2015[…]
Ronny Rodriguez spent part of 2018 and all of 2019 on the Tiger’s major league roster as a super-utility player. Over those two seasons, he hit .221/.254/.396 with 19 HR, good for a 70 OPS+. He was granted free agency in November 2020 and is not playing baseball right now.[…]
Mike Blowers had a nice 11-season career. I remember him best for his 1998 season with Oakland when he hit .237/.302/.386 with 11 HR as the team’s primary third baseman as the team transitioned away from Scott Brosius and moved into the Eric Chavez-era at the hot corner. He would[…]
Matt Whitney was the Indians 1st round pick of the 2002 draft–33rd overall. He was a great prospect, who got comparisons to Manny Ramirez, Scott Rolen, and David Wright at different points in his minor league career.
2012 Topps Gypsy Queen Dual Autograph Relic Justin Verlander . I can’t say that I am a huge fan of Justin Verlander. But I am a fan of baseball, and if you are a fan of baseball…you have to appreciate Verlander’s career to this point: 2006 AL ROY, 2011 AL[…]
Twins outfielder Byron Buxton is having himself a season. He is hitting .370/.408/.772 with 9 HR and leads the majors in WAR with 2.86. This should not be a huge surprise; Buxton was the 2nd overall pick of the 2012 draft and from 2013-2016 was considered one of the[…]
This weekend I took a couple of minutes to try and appreciate who good a player Frank White was, and what a huge role he played on the Kansas City Royals dynasty that would end up winning the World Series in 1985. White was a glove-first type (he won eight[…]
When I first got into autograph collecting, Esteban German was one of the Athletics biggest prospects and a personal favorite of mine. In 2001 he was the Athletics MiLB player of the year and looked like he would turn into a prototypical leadoff hitter at the big league level. But[…]