MEMORIES OF MR. TIGER

                       

                Yesterday September 24th was the 50th Anniversary of the legendary career of Albert William Kaline otherwise known as Al Kaline for he got his 3000th career hit of Dave McNally in his Hometown of Baltimore a double. Born the day after another legendary Tiger Ty Cobb. It's a funny thing how history sometimes does things like that the only other times I can think of something like that occurring the first is Hank Aaron was born the day after Babe Ruth. The other was Mickey Mantle was born after teammate Whitey Ford.

                This card shown on the top of the post is very special to me in many ways. As I mentioned before talking about building my 1967 Topps set I told the tale of back in 1985 in Royal Oak Michigan I was attending a baseball card/comic show with my older brother David & my mother. Now David was into comic books so he was in his glory as for me I was relatively trying to get myself an old Pete Rose card. I ended up getting the 1966 Topps Card even though my mother balked at paying over $25 for it until the dealer showed her the price guide from the September 1985 Issue.

 Not a bad selection if you ask me.

The first ever Beckett Magazine I ever saw as well funny thing about that issue it was #11 it was September 11, 1985 the date that Pete Rose surpassed Ty Cobb to become the All-Time Hits Leader for a career #4192. 

                Now my mother pulled me to the side told me to look into the trash can. I looked into the trash can only to see a couple of cards & was like MEH!!! not interested. My mother was on a mission to save what she could with those in the trashcan. So I walked away when she started pulling them out. I was 10 years old so I didn't want to be seen with a trash digging mother so I quickly walked away leaving her to do what she thought was the right thing.  Eventually I went through the cards & lo behold besides a bunch of the `67s that later became my starter lot of the set I came across this beauty after quickly seeing how much it was booking for at the time so I was especially happy that I didn't pay anything for the card. 

               My Memories of Mr. Tiger besides getting his 1957 card from the trashcan was meeting up with him on 3 different occasions each time getting his autograph. The first time was on my 8th birthday(June 1983)  I was whisked away to cut a bunch of people in line to get his autograph so I could make it to my party at Chuck-E-Cheeses on time. The second time was in December of 2004 in time for Al's 70th Birthday he was signing at 1 of my local shops at the time. So I brought with me 3 cards for Al 2 for him to sign the other was a birthday card saying thanks for my 8th birthday gift he was shocked that a fan got brought him a card for his birthday he was grateful. The last time was at the National Sports Card Convention in 2014 in Cleveland,Ohio. I was getting Al's Autograph for a friend of mine who asked me to get it for him since he couldn't take the time to attend the show so he asked me & he paid me for it.  The weird thing is he wanted me to get a customized signature don't get me wrong I don't mind doing that but the way he wanted done didn't quite go well with Al instead of his name he wanted his business from Al. Lucky for me Al understood the situation & he knew my friend from other business venues he signed it to his company but gave me a lecture after getting it Al told me "Tell Mike that I don't mind signing this for him for his business but if he ever passes away or sells the business that you get it him to give you back this autograph." When I told my friend Mike this information he agreed to the terms that Al proposed to us. 

                  Like I mentioned that was the last time I was in his presence Al passed away in 2020. He was a great man now with the Tigers in the hunt to reach the playoffs other than his 1957 card I cherish this last card in his career its part of my 1975 O-Pee-Chee set others may scoff at it but since its my set I think it fits so you let me know what you think. 

                                                       No I didn't pay $10.00 for the card. 

               Now my avid readers normally I usually have my Rogers Hornsby quote to end my blog post so I am going to change it up by saying that I will let you decide since my last giveaway post was unsuccessful I am going to run another giveaway post. Again the prize will be the 1990 Topps Major League Debut 1989 set. The contest can be either "Crack the Code" or "Last Card Standing".  I will give more details on the contest based on whichever of the 2 contest wins in voting. The contest will start on October 1st just after the 1st pitch of the American League Wild Card game between the 2 American League Wild card Entries. Hopefully I get more entries the second time around compared to the 1st time