Dennis Eckersley

I mentioned in yesterday's post, that this Dennis Eckersley card is the second Hall of Fame addition to the ATCRCS collection. And though this card was the 34th received, it is the 35th shown. With the HOF distinction, I wanted to save it for the last day of the year so I bumped yesterday's Steve Ontiveros post up a day. 

I really like the signature on this one, big and bold. While it is not exactly legible, it does have a lot of flair and I think you can make out enough of the letters anyway.

As far as lopsided trades go, the one that sent Eck to the A's in 1987 is one of the most under rated. The Cubs sent Eck and Dan Rohn to Oakland in exchange for Brian Guinn, Dave Wilder and Mark Leonette. Unfortunately for the Cubs, those three never made it to the majors and Eckersley went on to a career as a Hall of Fame reliever that included a 1992 season where he won both the AL Cy Young and MVP Awards. As usual, hindsight is 20/20.

Of course, the Cubs had a (should be) Hall of Fame closer at the time in Lee Smith. And I'm not sure if it was Tony La Russa's genius idea to make him a closer but somebody deserves some credit there.

As part of the private signing, I also sent in an ice cream helmet for my Cubs of disinction collection. And though his "distinction" came after his time with the Cubs, I thought I would add him too.  I'm not as thrilled with this signature as I am with the card but with a big last name on a tiny, cramped item, I don't know what I really expected. It might be a little tough to tell from the photo (the helmets are tough to take photos of), but there is some smearage. One of these days, I might get around to adding a tab showing off my ice cream helmets too.

Happy New Year everyone! Hope your 2013 is healthy and prosperous!