Grant Jackson Autographed Card

Grant Jackson's Major League career was comprised of ups and downs, but it started with a bittersweet moment; becoming his family's main bread-earner, as his father had died when Grant was still in high school, so when the Philadelphia Phillies came to him with a contract offer that included a $1500 bonus, he jumped on it immediately and signed on the spot. Days later, the Milwaukee Braves and Baltimore Orioles each offered him a much bigger bonus [of $35,000], prompting this reflection: "I wish I could have called the Phillies back and told them I wasn't going to accept their offer."

That didn't stop him from playing for the team for six seasons (1965-70), which included a spot in the 1969 All-Star Game, although he did not play. He was then traded to the Orioles with Jim Hutto and Sam Parrilla, for Roger Freed.

From 1976 onward, it became more hectic, as he made his way to the New York Yankees via trade, the Seattle Mariners via expansion draft, the Pittsburgh Pirates via trade, the Montréal Expos via purchase, the Kansas City Royals via trade and a final turn with the Pirates as a free agent.

In the 1970s, he appeared in three world Series (1971 - Orioles; 1976 - Yankees; 1979 - Pirates), earning the final win for Pittsburgh in Game 7 in 1979. He still lives in the suburbs of Pittsburgh to this day.

Although he played with many Hall of Famers throughout his career (Tim Raines, Gary Carter and Andre Dawson come to mind from his short stint with the Expos), he has a clear-cut idea on who the best player he's even played with is: "Willie Stargell was the star of our team [in Pitsburgh]. He was a great leader, on and off the field. He was the best player and best teammate I ever came into contact with. The day he died [April 9, 2001] was one of the sorriest days of my life."

He signed this card for me in blue sharpie around 2005, a couple of years after retiring from coaching in the Minors, at a card show in New York:

It's card #779 from Topps' 1982 Topps set, showing him wearing the Expos' red Spring raining t-shirt. He's wearing #23 here, although he never got to play with that number in Montréal; he wore #19 in 1981, and was traded to the Royals in March 1982, probably shortly after this picture was taken.

Wallace Johnson Autographed Card

Wallace Johnson was synonymous with the Montréal Expos for much of the 1980s. Not that he was as big of a star as Gary Carter, Tim Raines, Andre Dawson, Tim Wallach, or Dennis Martinez - far from it - but he fit with the team's blueprint of short hits and speed, and is the team's all-time leader in pinch-hits, with 86.

He had three stints with the team: 1981-83, after which he was traded to (and subsequently released by) the San Francisco Giants, back in Montréal in 1984, in the minors in 1985 and back with the team from 1986-90.

The year he had the most at-bats was 1986, when he had 134 plate appearances and 127 official at-bats with 36 hits (.283), while he actually surpassed the .300 mark (.309) in 94 at-bats in 1988.

I have found two of his cards but want to feature just one today, one of the earliest I have signed - I can tell because it's autographed in ball-point pen:

It's card #192 from Fleer's 1982 Fleer set, which serves as his rookie card for the brand. I think I initially bought the card around $3-5 in 1989 or 1990 so I could have it signed.

Happy Birthday Tim Wallach: 4 Autographed Cards

My birthday is September 14th. I share it with a number of celebrities, but one that was always somewhat available to me as a child was Montréal Expos five-time All-Star third baseman Tim Wallach. And in most seasons, there was an Expos home game at the Olympic Stadium on that day.

Over the years, I have gotten Wallach to sign a bunch of cards for me, usually during batting practice before games, at times in charity softball games some Expos players took part in with or against local celebrities, be they radio or TV personalities, actors, musicians, or even hockey players (Stéphane Richer was a particularly avid ball player).

I chose to feature these four cards first because, judging by the blue sharpie type of pen used and signature, they seem like they're from the same era. Also, they show him wearing a wide variety of uniforms, something I like.

Let's start with his rookie card, from Fleer's 1982 Fleer:

It's card #210 in the set, and on it he's sporting the Expos' red Grapefruit League (training camp) jersey, with the then-regular powder-blue pants. Oh, and an awesome mustache. You'll notice there's more white on one side of the card than the other; that's not part of the design, the card was just cut off-center - the back has the same defect, one usually more synonymous with the Topps brand...

Speaking of Fleer, there's this card:

It's card #291 in the 1984 Fleer set and shows him wearing the Expos' white (home) uniform. The back of the card mentions he hit a home run in his very first Major League at bat (he also did the same thing in the minors). It's a simple card design, but beautiful and clear; as a matter of fact, the Vachon line of Québec desserts made an Expos team set in the late 1980s using the same scheme, pretty much, as did the Provigo chain of supermarkets.

The next two cards are cool on a whole other level: Wallach was more than just a pretty boy who could hit homers and play in All-Star Games: he was also a three-time Gold Glove winner (1985, 1988 and 1990), in an era when Mike Schmidt, Terry Pendleton and Matt Williams were at their peak and playing in more baseball-friendly markets. They're also from sets I collected over the summer while vacationing in Florida with my parents when I was 9 years old.

On the first one, he has an almost goalie-like stance, reminiscent of Mike Veronon or Ron Hextall when they had that ''I dare you to shoot it glove-side'' look:

It's card 70 of Score's 1988 Score set. The dent at the top is from the plastic penny sleeve, not the card itself, though I'm surprised the card is in the condition it's in: I would actually play with them, laying them on the living room carpet as if it was a baseball field, two opposing teams, throwing a dice and hitting it with the cards, making them run around the makeshift diamond. Most cards I bought that summer have creases and round corners.

But this card really rocks:

Not as crouched, sunglasses under his cap, Wallach looks all-business here, fitting considering he led the Majors that year with 42 doubles and was second in the NL with 123 RBIs. His specialty, actually, was a stat no longer kept track of by MLB, called ''Game-Winning RBIs'', which is exactly what it sounds like, and at which he usually led the majors. Clutch player, right here.

As for the card, it's from Leaf's 1988 Donruss set (card #222).