It's a sad day for baseball and Red Sox fans because we lost a true legend today, Johnny Pesky a/k/a "Mr. Red Sox".  A lot of people will do research and write a bio on Pesky but instead I'd rather share stories from my two encounters with him.

My first encounter was an autograph signing in Quincy, MA where they had a few people signing autographs at the show.  One of the people signing autographs at the show was the legendary Mr. Don Zimmer.  I was standing two people away from Mr. Zimmer and all of the sudden Johnny Pesky snuck up behind me.  He hid behind me and yelled "that Zimmer is a bum!".  Zimmer looked up and Pesky looked out from behind me while the two of them shared a laugh.  Pesky walked over to Zimmer, hugged him and the two of them started to share stories.  Easily one of the coolest moments in my life, watching these two legends with a lifetime of baseball stories between them share a laugh and a quick chat.

My second (and final) encounter with Pesky was at his last public autograph signing in Burlington, MA.  I hadn't had a chance to add Mr. Pesky's autograph to my collection yet and was very interested in meeting him at the autograph signing. My wife accompanied me to the autograph signing because it was her birthday, and we were headed out to lunch and shopping after the card show.  As I approached the table, I introduced myself and shook his hand.  Johnny said hello to my wife and I told him how I was lucky to have her since it was her birthday and she accompanied me to the autograph signing.  Johnny was quick to say "she's a beautiful young lady, you better take her out to a really nice dinner".  Yes, Johnny Pesky at the age of 91-92 hit on my wife and I loved every second of it.

With his passing today, we truly lost a great legend but an even better person.  I'll always remember these two stories and hope to share these stories with my kid(s) someday. I'm sad to hear of his passing, but he'll always hold a special place in my memories.

My newest Personal Collection addition is a card that I have been wanting to purchase for over a year.  The time was finally right and I made the purchase.

Carlton Fisk is one of the best, if not THE best, catchers of all time and a Boston Red Sox legend.  As a fan of the Red Sox, this was a key rookie card that I wanted to add to my collection.

Let's not forget that the card also features Cecil Cooper, who had a pretty solid MLB career as well.  The card arrived in the mail today and it may be one of my last big purchases for some time.

Baby on the way + uncertain job status (hopefully cleared up later today) = limited funds for collecting. Let's hope that changes soon. Until next time...

Ted Williams grip on a bat.  That's it.  For some reason, I fell in love with this card and felt like I just had to have it.

As a huge fan of Ted Williams and the Boston Red Sox, I have known about the 1959 Fleer Ted Williams set for quite some time.  I've scoured the images on eBay and thought about purchasing a few of the cards on a number of occasions.  As a collector of BVG cards (especially 8.5's), I saw this pop up one day during a search and knew that it was time to add this to my collection.

Imagine a subset these days of bat grips, batting stances, gloves, etc.  Would you have an interest in collecting an insert set featuring these small aspects of the game?


Until next time, I hope you fall in love with a card today.  Especially all of you lucky dogs at the National.  Have fun and keep collecting!