TTM Success - Scott Shafiroff

When I was looking up 1973 Fleer AHRA drag racing cards to send out, I came across one that was very interesting to me, because it was someone who built engines of several cars that ran against my dad back in the late 1980s.  I'm sure I met Scott Shafiroff personally back then, but I don't remember it.  I do know that he knew my parents personally, which made this TTM success pretty cool.  I also fondly remember one of the drivers he was most closely associated with, the late Gordy Hmiel.  I did know Gordy personally, and relayed a story about him in my autograph request letter to Shafiroff.

Shafiroff signed my card in silver Sharpie.  He began drag racing in the late 60s in the New Jersey area.  He raced Pro Stock in the 70s, before becoming a successful car owner/engine builder in Top Sportsman/Quick Eight era prior to the formation of the Pro Modified class.  His car, piloted by Hmiel, was the first nitrous-injected car to break the 7-second barrier.  I still remember Gordy, and I miss him.  He was a great guy.  I hope Scott liked my letter and story about Gordy that I told him.  Essentially, the story was this:

At Farmington one race, Gordy was talking to my mom and was about to leave.  He was going to go off and fly his plane, and I followed him, telling him I was going to go with him.  He let me believe that for a bit, letting me walk with him along the fence as he left.  He turned to me and said "Boy, you had better go back to your momma", and picked me up and put me over the fence.  I said bye to Gordy and ran back to Dad's trailer.  Gordy died in a plane crash with his father and a friend a few days later.

Shafiroff responded to my note with a note of his own: "William, Thanks for the kind words and great memories..."

I mailed to Shafiroff on November 3 and got the card back on November 21, for an 18-day TAT,

TTM Success - Dale Pulde

This TTM success took some patience.  I got this card, which is a 1973 Fleer AHRA drag racing card that I got from the old card shop in Winston-Salem out of a shoe box of cards that someone brought in to sell.  I held onto the cards (there were a handful of these 1973 Fleer) for a while until Chris was old enough to handle them, and gave the cards to him.  

Fast forward several years, we were looking through one of the albums and I found this card.  I realized it was Dale Pulde, who I really liked when I was younger because he had one of the best looking funny cars of all time, the Miller High Life Warrior.  I wish they had cards of that one, because I'd have sent that off.  

Still, I thought this one was cool and would be a cool addition to my album.  I was unable to find his address, so I messaged his Facebook page and waited.  I finally got a response a few months later saying where I could send the card, and I sent it along.  It looks really cool now that it is signed, and I was super glad to get it completed.

Pulde has six career NHRA national event wins and was IHRA Champion three times.  It is pretty tough finding bio information on him, but I recommend a google search of his War Eagle and Miller High Life Warrior Funny Cars.  They were awesome paint jobs back in the day.

More Christmas - 1973 Fleer Baseball Wildest Days and Plays

Something really cool that I got for Christmas was this 1973 Fleer Baseball's Wildest Days and Plays featuring Buck Weaver fouling off 17 pitches off of Babe Ruth.  You can click on the scan of the back of the card and read more about the play.

I got this card from my brother Philip, who is a regular reader of the blog.  He and I have been discussing the 1919 Chicago White Sox (a.k.a. The Black Sox) and how Shoeless Joe Jackson should be allowed entry into the Hall of Fame.  I also thought that in his brief career, Weaver was also a very good ball player who seemingly got a raw deal from then commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis.  Weaver apparently never took any money during the 'fix' of the 1919 World Series and his stats for the series (.324 batting average during the series) argue that he may have been playing 'on the level.'  Weaver might not have the career numbers that could warrant his inclusion into the hall, but had he been allowed to continue his career, that might be a different story.  He had 1,308 hits, 21 home runs and a ..272 batting average over 9 seasons, all for the White Sox.  He appealed his ban from baseball each year up until he died in 1956.