A Hail Mary Mailing

In trying to collect one card of every man to don the Cubs uniform, things get a little bit tricky for players who took the diamond prior to the 1960's.  Oftentimes, back when Topps was pretty much the only game in town, players with brief cuppacoffee-like careers were lost in the cracks as either the bubblegum company didn't think kids would care about or collect blips on the radar or because their tenures were so brief that they couldn't be caught.  At any rate, once we start dipping into the decade of Elvis, malt shops, "I Like Ike," and hula hoops, a lot of men who never appeared on a baseball card begin to mess up my Cubs All-Time Roster Collection hopes.

With that in mind, sometimes you just have to take matters into your own hands.

For such players, I've recently taken to creating custom cards to fill the void, using designs which mimic actual sets that were released during their playing days.  I tried this once and succeeded with Tony Balsamo a year and a half ago, but I took the easy way out and didn't personally create the card.  In order to make my work feel more like a real collectible and not just some amateur print job, I've had the idea of mailing copies off for TTM.  At least in my mind, having the player add their John Hancock to my humble hack job makes it feel like there's actual collectible value and I'm not "cheating" to add cards to my collection.

Over the weekend, my first such TTM return made it's way back to my doorstep.  This one was a particularly welcome sight as it was a bit of a "hail mary" attempt... a "mail mary," if you will.  For this Cub, the mailing address that I tracked down on Sports Card Forum was listed as being from 2011.  Although it did have one successful attempt attached to it, six years ago is a long time and this athlete could have easily moved since then.  Plus, the man is 85 years young, so who knows what could be going on.  Therefore, let's just say I wasn't holding my breath on this one.

But, as you can plainly see, the pre-stamped envelope made it's way back to me, against all odds.  I'm not ashamed to say that I was giddy when I saw the tri-folded mailer nestled in my mailbox.

At this point, I'm sure you're wondering who my target was, right?

 

Dick "Footer" Johnson saw action in eight games with the Chicago Cubs in 1958.  During his cuppajoe, he served as a pinch-batter and pinch-runner, not playing a single inning in the field.  However, he also never made contact on a base hit, drew a walk, or stole a base during his summer trial and quickly found himself back down in the minor leagues.  Sadly, this was to be his only taste of the Majors.

Accordingly, Topps either never bothered or never knew to include them in any of their sets and, unfortunately, "Footer" never appeared on so much as a regional oddball.  Nothing. Nada.  Therefore, I decided to whip up my own take on a "Footer" card, using the 1960 Fleer set as my template.  

"Moose" Moryn has volunteered to model the originals.  They're not a perfect match, but I'm pretty happy with how my take turned out, overall.

Although his MLB career was over by 1960, Mr. Johnson was still kicking around the Cubs chain, playing in AA-San Antonio and A-Lancaster in what would be his last professional season.  Seeing as the only clear photo that I could find was black and white, I figured that the classy head shots set would be the perfect way to utilize it.

I didn't mail in my work either... well, I suppose *literally* I did mail my work in... but, what I'm trying to say is that I went the whole nine yards and created a backside for my creation, as well.  Again, it's not an absolute perfect match and I had some issues with justifying the alignment of the text in write-up; but, I'll deem it acceptable.

Although, if I'm being honest, all I really care about is the front and the autograph which graces it:

On the off-chance that Footer should actually be reading this blog post, I am incredibly grateful that he took the time to sign a copy of my custom card for me, filling a black hole in my CATRC binder.  Also, let's just take a moment to appreciate his penmanship and how legible his signature is - perhaps he should host a class for the athletes of today.  Their scribbles are nothing compared to Dick's green ink autograph.

Johnson also kept a second copy of the card for himself, as I offered.  To me, it's quite an honor to have my creation in the personal collection of a bonafide Major League Baseball player - it makes both of my inner child and my collegiate graphic designer self quite proud.

Hopefully the rest of my TTM customs are as easy and satisfying as this supposed "hail mary" attempt.  Welcome to the CATRC, "Footer!"