Saturday, May 5, 2018

Blog Bat Around: My All Autograph Team

I saw this "Blog Bat Around: My All Autograph Team" on Torren' Up Cards and thought I would join the fun. A Blog Bat Around is simply a blog topic which many bloggers share and promote.
As with most Blog Arounds, there is freedom to personalize it a bit. For my "All Autograph Team," I picked my earliest favorites at all positions. I also included 6 pitchers (one of whom would be a reliever, probably Johnson).

At catcher, I go with my neighbor, friend, first autograph and longtime Twins coach Rick Stelmaszek.
The 1981 Gold Glove winner Mike Squires is my pick at 1st base.
Slick-fielding Mick Kelleher didn't hit enough to be a regular, but he hung around for a long time and became a coach after retirement.
Eddie Leon's classic card is the 1973 Topps, but I loved this card.
I was afan of Eric Soderholm with the Twins and I loved it when he joined the White Sox for a few solid seasons.
Nyls Nyman was a decent prospect who did not pan out, but I still love those uniforms.
Gene Hiser was a prospect who did not pan out for the northside Chicago team.
I saw Bob Coluccio in one of the first games I remember and he became a favorite.
Bart Johnson showed signs of brilliance, mixed in with injuries and an offbeat personality. Still, he was my first favorite White Sox player.
David Clyde is the ultimate tough baseball story. Fortunately, he is doing well and is a super great guy.
Kenny Holtzman would probably be the MVP on this team. I hated when the Cubs traded him, even though I liked Rick Monday.
Forever linked with Steve Carlton, Rick Wise put together a solid career and was a pretty good hitter, too.
Sometimes, all it took was for a player to wear glasses. John Curtis wore glasses and I was a fan.
Sometimes, all it would take was one cool baseball card and I was a fan. Reggie Cleveland had a cool 1974 card.

3 comments:

Fuji said...

Great lineup. Gotta admit, I hadn't heard of many of these guys... but I sure love Holtzman. He's a member of my all-time Oakland Athletics team.

Johngy said...

While I always respected the big stars, I tended to follow the lesser-known players more.

The Angels In Order said...

Definitely some great lesser-knoens there. Love the Stelmaszik.