Ebay Pickup For The 87 Set - Tom Waddell

I recently saw on a Facebook group that I'm in that Tom Waddell had passed away.  I knew he was in the 87 set, since I had seen his cards recently when I was looking for some other guys for a private signing.  So, I jumped over to Ebay to see if he had any signed cards out there, and I was lucky enough to find one at a good price.  I always hate it when folks dump autos of guys when they pass in order to cash in a bit.  I felt like this one was reasonably priced, and the seller probably wasn't aware of Waddell's passing.

The comments on the post on Facebook indicate that Waddell was a great guy.  It is a shame that I wasn't able to write him while he was alive.  Life is really short.  He suffered a heart attack just days shy of his 61st birthday.

Waddell (b. 9/17/58 - d. 9/14/19) passed away on my birthday, actually.  He was born in the UK, which, according to baseball-reference.com, he is one of 49 players to hail from the UK.  He played in the majors in 1984, 1985 and 1987, all for the Indians.  He had a record of 15-11 with 118 strike outs and a 4.30 ERA.

Waddell was a promising pitcher in college, whose career was derailed due to arm injuries.  By 1979, he was a clothing salesman in New York, and was playing for a semi-pro softball team.  He was informed of a tryout with the Braves, and impressed their scout enough that he was signed.  The scout?  Hank Aaron.

Waddell's journey to the majors would make for an interesting movie.