Wednesday, April 3, 2019

A new collection is afoot

I share a birthday (July 17th) with a Lou Boudreau, because of this minor connection, I have been meaning to start a collection of his for what seems like forever now -- best intentions and so forth...

A few months ago though, this wannabe collection finally got a jump start courtesy of the great Mark Hoyle.

It's not very often that I'm able to join in on a Twitter baseball discussion, mostly because I don't really follow the current happenings anymore, and I don't really care who the hot rookie of the moment is, or who it'll be next week. But some months back when Mark was showing off a recently acquired lot of signed index cards, I decided to butt in - Mark's got himself a clique on Twitter, so trying to enter one of those conversations isn't always easy either) - and compliment him on the purchase, the Boudreau in particular.

After a brief back and forth, Mark mentioned that he might already have another Lou Boudreau autograph, and if he did, I could have the index card from the lot. Turns out that he did indeed have another auto, so within a week, I had a signed Lou Boudreau index card show up in my mailbox (insert smiling emoji here).

I'm thinking that this auto would look good framed with a few of Lou's cards (from his playing days) surrounding it. I have some experience with matting and framing, so it shouldn't be too difficult to put together, I just need to stop procrastinating and start trying to get some of his cards. I see his '55 Bowman on a fairly regular basis, but the prices never seem to match the condition, so I have yet to pull the trigger on one. I guess there's no real hurry, but I don't like getting something like this, and then just putting in a drawer to never be seen again, so even if there is no to need to rush, it feels like I should try to push it along as quick as possible (hopefully that makes sense to at least one person out there).

Image pilfered from Google
Even though everyone reading this has access to the internet, I should probably still add a few Lou Boudreau facts to the post, so here goes: Lou was best known for his thirteen season with the Cleveland Indians, eight of which were spent as a player/manager, a position he took on in 1942 at the age of 25 (can anyone imagine a 25 year-old player managing a team these days?). As a player/manager, he led the Indians to a championship in 1948 (won the AL MVP that year as well). Lou was an 8-time all star, who also led the AL in doubles on three separate occasions, and his .327 won him the AL batting title in 1944. He is also credited with inventing the infield shift (to try and stymy Ted Williams). Later he would play a couple of seasons with the Red Sox (acting as a player/manger during the 1952 season), before going on to manage the Athletics and the Cubs. And finally, Lou was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1970 (what took them so long?).

It may have taken me a while to publicly say so, but I do very much appreciate the autograph, Mark. Thank you!


Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.

20 comments:

  1. Wow, a player/manager at 25. Great penmanship, too. Thanks for posting all the interesting info!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Folks from his era always have great penmanship, of course they weren't being paid to sit down and sign 1,000 cards at a time though...

      Delete
  2. Writing this down....Jon...Lou Boudreau....Got it. I'm on the lookout!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I wasn't expecting any help, but I guess it would be appreciated, thank you!

      Delete
  3. Hall-of-Fame autos are always a great addition. My wife's uncle got Mr. Boudreau to autograph a ball for me while they were at one of the local racetracks several years ago. It's one of my favorite pieces in my Indians collection.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. By all accounts, he was a very generous signer, but knowing the source of your signature is always a good thing. Pretty cool of your wife's uncle to get that for you too, of course he got the extra added bonus of getting to meet Lou :)

      Delete
  4. Afoot. Normally I would smell trouble with this. Such an ice auto from the generous Hoyle. Get that baby matted! Matte the baby. Baby the matte. eh, get to it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. better than an 'ice' auto! lololol~!

      Delete
    2. Typos happen, no big deal! I never proofread my posts, so I would imagine that I'm no stranger to them either.

      Delete
  5. Looking forward to seeing the finished product

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. As am I. Depending on how long it takes to get some cards, I might just go with your suggestion and get a nice photo to go with it, especially if I can find a cool, and cheap, press photo.

      Delete
  6. That's really cool! I've always wanted to send some signed index cards to Gavin for him to make some of his awesome cut customs, but have never gotten around to it!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If you're wanting some custom cuts, Gavin is definitely the right person for the job.

      Delete
  7. That's so cool that he was a player/manager at the age of 25. Even cooler that he led them to a championship and won the MVP Award. I enjoy collector athletes who share the same birthday as well. There's only one baseball player who has been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame with the same birthday and he was born in the 1800's, so the odds of me every owning his signature is zilch.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, good luck on finding an affordable auto from a guy that played during that time :)

      Hopefully this will be the only person who possesses the same birthday as me that I decide to collect, I really don't want this to become a thing... as I have enough "things" to collect already.

      Delete
  8. I don't hear much about Boudreau, except when the Indians as a franchise are discussed. Then I hear that he's underrated and very popular among Indians fans. If I see any of his cards/items I will keep you in mind.

    Also, July 17 is my wedding anniversary. I'm not sure if I ever mentioned that.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. He's had a lot of cards in the tribute sets over the years, but other than that, I don't ever hear much about him either, it would probably be different if we were Cleveland fans.

      I'm pretty sure that you have mentioned that before. I guess this means that you're only a couple of months away from another anniversary :)

      Delete