Catching Up on TTM Successes, Part II
January 26th, 2010 by slangon
And three more.
2009 SlangKo Sport Stars #192 Richard Petty
Who would’ve thought that this is actually the second time that Richard Petty has popped up on this blog. First off, I’m not really a NASCAR guy. I like cars and I like cars that go fast, I just don’t so much like cards that go fast in a circle about a million times. I have to say though, I’ve always been a little fascinated by King Richard. I think mostly because 1970’s era NASCAR racers looked so much more bad-ass than the stock cars of today, therefore in my mind, Richard Petty is so much more bad-ass. I mean, he wears sunglasses… all the time.
2009 SlangKo Award Winners Gus Zernial
Zernial, or “Ozark Ike” as he was known, played 11 seasons in the Majors, breaking in in 1949. At the time he was heralded as “The New Joe Dimaggio” and went on to become one of the most feared sluggers in the American League. In fact he had the 9th most dingers during the decade of the 1950’s, ahead of Ernie Banks, Ted Williams, Roy Campanella, Ralph Kiner and Larry Doby, all of whom are Hall of Famers. He was also known as an aggressive fielder, twice breaking his collar bone on diving catches. In 1953, his only All-Star year, he hit .284 with 42 homers and 108 RBI’s. He ended his career with a .265 average, 237 home runs and 776 runs batted in.
2010 SlangKo Award Winners Bud Harrelson
I was really excited about getting this one back, not only because it’s Buddy, but because I wasn’t quite expecting to get it back. I can’t recall reading anything particular to support this, but for some reason I had it in my head that Bud wasn’t so keen on TTM requests. But sure enough, a few days after sending it out, it came back, signed and all. I’m always amazed by how what’s expected of certain positions has changed so drastically through the years. Harrelson is just about the embodiment of that. He was a career .236 hitter with a whopping 7 home runs over a 16 year career, yet he was an integral part of the Mets during their 2 tripe to the World Series in ’69 and ’73. Also, 1970 was his lone trip to the All-Star game and he also was 20th in MVP voting. Care to guess his stats for that year? .243 BA, 1 HR and 42 RBI. And let’s not forget that the lightweight Harrelson went toe to toe with the heavy weight Pete Rose during the 1973 NLCS.
Excellent job on the cards.
Did the signers keep one for themselves?
Dude, your cards are the BEST!!! Ozark Ike has ALWAYS been a GREAT TTM signer, but I bet he had never seen a card of himself that looked that good!
That’s a great shot of Buddy. I’ve never seen him turn down a chance to sign autographs.