A TTM Success and 50-50 of Lou Whitaker and a Trade

Lou Whitaker ended up being wrapped up in a few events associated with this blog recently.  First of all, I got this card TTM from him, at a fee of $25.  I needed the 87 Topps for the set, but I sent it off before I received a message from a fellow Instagrammer, Brandon, who apparently knows Whitaker personally, and offered to get a card signed for me.  The 87 was sent out on November 28 and got the card back on February 12, for a 76-day TAT.  I had received a TTM success from Whitaker a while back on a baseball, so I needed to get the card done.

Brandon offered to 50/50 Whitaker, so I chose this 1985 Topps to get back, since I knew the 87 would be back eventually.  I sent Brandon a handful of cards along with this one.  For the extra cards, he proposed a trade.

He sent me these Xavier Avery cards that he had gotten IP in exchange for the extra Whitakers.  I didn't have either card, so I was glad to add them to the album.

TTM Succes - Lou Whitaker

Ok, I realized the other day as I was reading a book about baseball from the 1930s and 1940s, I am really starting to like and appreciate the Detroit Tigers.  No, I am not switching my allegiance from the Orioles to the Tigers.  I just like to read about the great players in Tigers' history.  You know, Virgil Trucks, of course, Hal Newhouser, Hank Greenberg, Ty Cobb, etc.

That being said, I received a TTM success from a former Tiger great when I got home from the show on Saturday, Lou Whitaker.

I mailed to Lou Whitaker on December 8, 2011 and received the ball back on December 17, 2011.  A TAT of 9 days.  Not bad at all.  One reason why it turned around so fast was because Lou Whitaker lives in Greensboro, NC.  I thought that was pretty cool.  He didn't charge a fee and inscribed the ball 2B and AL ROY 78.  It looks really awesome in person.

Whitaker is my 39th TTM success and my first since way back in November when I got 'Mule' Miles.

Whitaker played in the majors from 1977 to 1995, all for Detroit.  He won the World Series in 1984 and retired with 2,369 hits, 244 home runs and a .276 batting average.