Black Friday Pickup - Historic Autographs Ball of Fame II

I'm sure many of you who read this blog on a regular basis remember that when Historic Autographs came out with their Ball of Fame offering back in 2011, I was really excited.  You can read the post I wrote here about my first one.  I actually opened 4 of them (if I remember correctly).  Well, for Black Friday, when I was purchasing presents for folks, I saw that one of the promotions was for the Ball of Fame II 2013 National Promotion for $59.95.  I figured this was a pretty good deal, so I jumped on one for myself.

The ball (and the other stuff I bought) came today, so I immediately got my good friend, Andrew, on Skype and I busted the box.  As you can see below, I am definitely not disappointed!

I picked up possible future Hall of Famer, Jack Morris, inscribed 91 WSC.  Not a bad pickup.  The ball is authenticated by PSA/DNA and also came with a name card (which is how I knew it was Morris right away, without having to open the red velvet-ish bag it came in.

Morris (b. 1955) played in the majors from 1977 to 1994 for the Tigers, Twins, Blue Jays and Indians.  He had a career record of 254-186 with a 3.90 ERA and 2,478 strikeouts.  Morris's career numbers don't tell the complete story of his career or the on-going Hall of Fame argument that surrounds him.  He was regarded as quite the big game pitcher, especially in the 1984 and 1991 World Series.  He was a World Series winner with the 1984 Tigers, 1991 Twins and 1992 Blue Jays.  He never won a Cy Young Award, but he finished 3rd in the voting twice (1981 and 1983).  He was also a 5-time All Star and finished as high as 13th in the AL MVP voting (in two seasons, 1991 and 1992).  Morris was the league leader in wins 1981 (14) and 1992 (21).  He won 20 or more games two other times in his career (1983 - 20, and 1986 - 21).

Regarded as a possible Hall of Fame candidate, he has appeared on the ballot 14 times and has only gotten as high as 67.7% of the vote.  Unless he gets a groundswell of approval before January 8, 2014, he will have to wait until he appears on the Veterans Committee ballot in order to gain entry to the Hall.

In my opinion, it wouldn't be the end of the world if Morris makes it into the hall.  His career ERA of 3.90 would be the highest for a starting pitcher who is in the Hall already, but there are other pitchers who have already been enshrined who I would not have start game 7 of a World Series before Morris.

So, there you have it, my latest opening of a Historic Autographs product.  Again, I'm very pleased with the ball overall and will definitely consider opening another!