Being a Twins fan is tough and since we seem to never be allowed to have good things, the recent Hall of Fame selections made every Twins fan rejoice. I've had the good fortune to meet Tony on a few occasions, at card shows and Twins Fest. He always seems to be enjoying himself and has been a fan favorite forever. So to celebrate this news, I've decided to have a quick show and tell of some items sitting in the collection.
Starting with the bat, which is the only bat (so far) that I have with Tony's signature. As you can tell, this bat was made by Cooperstown Bat Company. I really like their unique selection of bats for autographs. This particular bat was made to celebrate the rookie of the year and was signed many, many years ago at a card show in a local mall. The greatest part of this is the signing was totally free! Of course I had to pay for the bat, but to have this future Hall of Famer sign for free was too good to pass up. When I handed him the bat he took it and posed like he was going to hit a fastball! Pretty cool memory and I wish I had a photo of it. He even inscribed it with his ROY 64. Now I'll have to get a hall of fame bat, just not sure if I should have him update this one with the HOF inscription.
Of course no memorabilia collection would be complete without an autographed baseball. This one was signed long ago at a Twins Fest. The ball has started to yellow a bit but that just adds to the character. Pretty sure I have another somewhere in storage that's in better condition but couldn't find it. Nevertheless, I'll take any Tony O signed baseball.
Finally I have a favorite custom 16x20. This was a scan of one of my favorite cards from the 1965 Topps baseball set. I touched it up a bit, then brought it to a local card show where Tony was appearing that day. Again, inscribed with ROY '64, someday I'd like to have him add the HOF inscription.
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