Dilferules's 1988-present Oakland A's autograph thread

[Dilferules]

They have already stated they are keeping the "A's" name/brand.....it has a rich history. I was born and raised in the Bay Area (die hard A's, Raiders, Warriors fan) but live in Vegas now. All of my teams are coming to me....lol. I am torn about this, but they have been trying for twenty years to get a stadium and the city has been blocking them every step of the way and let's face it, even if they got a new stadium wherever you put it in Oakland it is lipstick on a pig. Oakland has lost three franchises in the last five years you would think they would have fought harder for the A's. It will be interesting to see if current A's ownership (which is probably the worst I have ever seen) will try to build a contender once they move.

Oh that's great, I hadn't seen that it was confirmed they are keeping the name. Though I'm not sure how many decades it will take to suppress an eye roll when I see Las Vegas in the logo instead of Oakland. I've been an A's fan for 35 years so I'd guess at least 35 more years for that! Let's hope I last that long.

I'll always blame the wiener owner the most, but yeah the city had a HUGE part in it. I guess the politicians were more concerned with it appearing that they were giving any kind of a "handout" to a rich sports owner than they were about the appearance of losing every single sports team.

The ownership has always blamed the stadium situation for not spending, indicating they would spend once they had a good stadium. Personally I think that was a line of BS and this owner has no intention of ever spending any real money. He's either going to keep being cheap, or more likely will wait until the stadium is built and sell so he can rake in the huge profit. Maybe a new owner would open their pockets more. I mean they can't be any MORE stingy.

 

[OakAth]

Oh that's great, I hadn't seen that it was confirmed they are keeping the name. Though I'm not sure how many decades it will take to suppress an eye roll when I see Las Vegas in the logo instead of Oakland. I've been an A's fan for 35 years so I'd guess at least 35 more years for that! Let's hope I last that long.

I'll always blame the wiener owner the most, but yeah the city had a HUGE part in it. I guess the politicians were more concerned with it appearing that they were giving any kind of a "handout" to a rich sports owner than they were about the appearance of losing every single sports team.

The ownership has always blamed the stadium situation for not spending, indicating they would spend once they had a good stadium. Personally I think that was a line of BS and this owner has no intention of ever spending any real money. He's either going to keep being cheap, or more likely will wait until the stadium is built and sell so he can rake in the huge profit. Maybe a new owner would open their pockets more. I mean they can't be any MORE stingy.

I agree, this owner has no intention of creating a contender.....I understand when teams have a fire sale to reset and build for the future but Fisher got little to no return on the marquee players he let go. The big club is horrible and there are no real prospects in the minors, at least not at AAA....I live within walking distance of that park and been to about four games so far and they stink. One thing that will be interesting is that once they do move to Vegas a lot of players will remove their "no trade to Oakland clause".....what 24 year old multi millionaire wouldn't want to play in Vegas?

 

[Dilferules]

Three more debuts since my last post:

Sam Long - Picked up because at this point the A's are trying to do anything (that doesn't cost money) to shore up the overworked bullpen.

Luis Medina - Prospect got called up for one start and was shelled then sent back down. Hard to blame him since it seemed early to bring him to the majors, they just needed an arm.

Drew Rucinski - Spent the last 4 seasons as a solid starter in Korea. He doesn't have any MLB cards and his autographs seem pretty scarce, I picked this custom up on eBay a while back.

That brings me up to 745/751.

 

[RNCoyote]

View attachment 347435Luis Medina - Prospect got called up for one start and was shelled then sent back down. Hard to blame him since it seemed early to bring him to the majors, they just needed an arm.

Medina was never that good. I saw him pitched last year with no control and giving up too many hits despite ability to strike batters out.

 

[Dilferules]

Medina was never that good. I saw him pitched last year with no control and giving up too many hits despite ability to strike batters out.

Yeah he's not a top prospect for sure, just one of those guys with some bright spots and major flaws that you hope could be ironed out. I'd be very satisfied if he just turned into an okay reliever.

 

[Dilferules]

Three new A's debuts since ther last update, I already had an autograph for one of them and the other two are on the way. In addition to JJ below, relievers Rico Garcia and Spencer Patton were called up.

JJ Bleday - Former top prospect is playing like a current top prospect so far...he's 7 for 18 with 2 homers. He was picked up in a JJ for AJ (Puk) swap with the Marlins during spring training.

1 pickup and 2 misses puts me at 746/754 currently.

 

[Therion]

Rebuild eras are always brutal for Team Collecting! I'm still chasing autos of guys from 2011-2013 in an Astros uniform (I have them on other items, but it's so much better seeing them wearing the right uniform)

 

[Dilferules]

Two new A's that I have already picked up, plus the two from my last post a while back.

Garrett Acton - Doing okay so far through 4 appearances.

Lucas Erceg - Converted infielder to relief pitcher. He's already walked 4 guys through 3 innings pitched, but does have 5 strikeouts.

Rico Garcia - Gave up 5 runs in 3 innings (including 2 homers) and was sent back to the minors.

Spencer Patton - Gave up 4 runs in 5 and a third innings and was sent back down. Not sure why, a 6.75 ERA practically makes him the ace of Oakland's pitching staff.

That puts me at 750/756.

 

[Dilferules]

Not much activity in this thread for a long time. The A's still suck but they seem to have run through all the AAAA quality players in baseball and almost all of their recent call-ups have been guys that have already played for the team. One new guy in the last month plus:

Yacksel Rios - Reliever appeared in 3 games, giving up 7 earned runs in 1 2/3 innings with a 5.40 WHIP, then hit the injured list. I usually hold out for a card rather than getting an 8x10, but no cards were available and this was cheap.

Also an upgrade:

David MacKinnon - He's playing in Japan this year but luckily for me Topps commemorated his 6 2022 games in Oakland with this Baseball Stars auto. This upgrades an Angels '88 Autograph from Series 1.

Yacksel gets me to 751/757.

 

[Dilferules]

Of course right after my first post in over a month, we get another A's debut:

Manny Pina - Picked up in the Sean Murphy trade, he was supposed to be the backup catcher this year but was out with an injury up until last night. I can finally show this signed card I grabbed before the season began.

Bumps me up to 752/758.

 

[BucCollector]

Can you remind us who the six you need are?

 

[Dilferules]

Can you remind us who the six you need are?

Yes, they are split up as 3 recent, and 3 from 20+ years ago:

Recent: Shintaro Fujinami from this year (hoping he will have some A's autos in products later this year), Kirby Snead and Jared Koenig (two pitchers with no MLB cards) from 2022.

Older: Larry Arndt (played 2 MLB games in 1989 and died in 2014), Steve Phoenix (pitched 3 MLB games 1994-95), and Marcus Jones (pitched 1 MLB game in 2000).

I've seen some autographs of the more recent trio but they were all more expensive than I wanted to pay. Never seen an autograph of the older 3.

 

[Therion]

How are you going to deal with the move to Las Vegas? Keep going or officially end the year you chase to?

 

[Dilferules]

How are you going to deal with the move to Las Vegas? Keep going or officially end the year you chase to?

I think I will probably keep going but we'll see. I know with cards in general I am going to try to trim down what I buy a little once they're no longer the Oakland A's, just focus on the stuff I like the most. It kind of makes me want to go for 1968-1987 so I have the complete Oakland collection since it will always be a finite number of players now. I already have the guys like Reggie, Rollie, and Catfish of course but the one kind of holding me back from even trying it is Glenn Burke. He's a very expensive signature.


One upgrade today:

Christian Bethancourt - This Oakland card was a surprise, I guess Panini had some old signatures around they wanted to use before they lost their license.

But new reliever Angel Felipe means I fall back one, 752/759.

 

[Therion]

I struggle with the question of what is the stopping point. I'm only missing one player pre-2017 and will probably never get him.

 

[BucCollector]

@Therion I'm guessing Jim Umbricht?

 

[Therion]

Nope, I have Jim Umbricht. It's Jay Dahl. He's the rarest modern signature, without question. He appeared in the 1963 All Rookie Game for the Houston Colt .45s at the age of 17. He got decimated, because it was a gimmick and he was 17. He went back down to the Minor Leagues and dominated for a little over a year. After a particularly good game in which he threw a one-hitter, he went out to celebrate with a team secretary and the team catcher. They were involved in a car accident that killed Dahl and blinded the catcher. He was 19 years old.

I've only seen two of his autographs ever and one of them was a forgery. It was signed in a fine-point Sharpie. While Sharpies existed in 1965, the year Dahl died, fine-point Sharpies weren't invented until 1979. So while it is possible that he held a very early version of a Sharpie at a very dainty angle, that possibility is so slim that I am comfortable saying that I've only ever seen one genuine Dahl autograph.

 

[mrmopar]

I struggle with the question of what is the stopping point. I'm only missing one player pre-2017 and will probably never get him.

I have not officially/seriously ventured back into the pre 40s for the Dodgers, but there are bound to be a bunch that are so obscure and difficult at this point that it would be impossible to have them all, even if I had the $ and wanted to try. I figured I'd complete the LA team, because they don't seem to have anyone that is nearly impossible at this time. Betts is proving to be the most unlikely at this time for the new signatures, mainly due to the prices people are paying for what is out there. he has not signed any cards it would appear in almost 10 years. This is what the business of collecting has turned into (exclusives and crap like this). Still, a current player, even one of the better players in the league, should not have to set you back $200+. That is a sure way to kill autograph collecting in the future when only the well to do have a shot at being competitive.

If I were collecting Astros, I'd probably rule Dahl as one of those (*) pieces. Great if you can find one some day, but complete without it. Like the T-206 Wagner and other rarities. Lots of set collectors don't count the big 3-4.

 

[Dilferules]

Three recent debuts including two of the A's top prospects.

Tyler Soderstrom - The A's top prospect, I was a little surprised they called him up this early but he's doing alright so far.

Zack Gelof - The A's #3 prospect, he has a hit in each of his first 3 games.

Freddy Tarnok - Picked up in the Sean Murphy trade.

Gets me to 755/762.

 

[Dilferules]

Some nice recent pickups:

Jared Koenig - Pitched 10 games for the A's last year but never got any MLB cards. Thanks so much to @RNCoyote for tracking him down at a minor league game for me.

Steve Phoenix - Pitched 3 games for the A's 1994-95 and that was all of his major league experience. This 4-player card is his lone MLB card. I saw a couple of weeks ago somebody on the boards mentioned picking up some autos from Brian at abcunlimited.net so I checked out the site and finally found this one (plus some upgrades below). Sadly it's not dual-signed by Bucky Buckles, which is an all time great name.

Taylor Scott - Another in the endless stream of random A's relievers over the last couple of years. Always nice when they have an easy certified auto to grab.

Dermis Garcia - This upgrades a logoless "Oakland" Onyx auto from 2022. It was inserted in Series 2 but I didn't find out about it until recently because it's not on the Beckett or TCDB checklists.

The following are all upgrades picked up from abcunlimited.net:

Shawn Hillegas - This upgrades a Dodgers card from my 1988 Topps set.

Mike Moore - Surprised it took me this long to upgrade to an A's card for him. This replaces a Mariners card from my 1988 Topps set.

Randy Ready - This upgrades a Padres card from my 1988 Topps set.

Dick Scott - Upgrades a 1990 CMC minor league card. He made it into 3 games for the A's in 1989 and that was his entire MLB career. He has since had a long pro coaching and managing career but this remains his only major league card.

Jack Voigt - Not a particularly tough autograph but this is his lone A's card. Upgrades a 1993 Topps Orioles card.

All of that gets me to 758/763. The only guys I need prior to 2023 are Larry Arndt (1989), Marcus Jones (2000), and Kirby Snead (2022). I paid up and have a Snead 8x10 on the way, seems like he doesn't sign or nobody asks, probably a combination of the two.