TTM Success - Rafael Palmeiro

When I found out that Rafael Palmeiro had signed with an Independent League team, I immediately dug up the 1987 Topps I needed for my set, along with a few other nice cards that I thought I might send along.  I ended up settling on one nice foil card of him as an Oriole, and obviously sent my '87.  I was beyond excited when the cards came back from the Cleburne Railroaders signed.  I was able to knock a huge card off of my set, and also add a pretty nice Topps insert, too.

Granted, I did see Palmeiro later on this summer, but I really hoped I would see my cards again, and I was lucky enough to have a success.  What was even better was that I got the cards back right after I had mentioned to Raffy's son, Preston, that I had hoped my cards would come back.  I told Preston the next day that I did get the cards, and he seemed genuinely happy.

Palmeiro (b. 1964) played in the majors from 1986 to 2005 for the Cubs, Rangers and Orioles.  He had 3,020 hits, 569 home runs and a .288 batting average.  He was a 4-time All Star (1988, 1991, 1998 and 1999), three-time Gold Glove Award winner (1997 to 1999) and two-time Silver Slugger Award winner (1998 and 1999).  His best finish in the MVP voting was 5th (AL) in 1999.

He reached the playoffs in 1996, 1997 and 1999, but never played in a World Series.  He was mentioned in the Mitchell Report on steroids in 2005, and was also mentioned in Jose Canseco's book Juiced as a steroid user.  He is remembered for vehemently denying any steroid use in front of congress, but was ultimately popped with a positive test for the steroid Stanozolol, and was suspended.  His career was forever tarnished because of the positive test result.  He has always maintained his innocence, blaming the positive result on a tainted B-12 shot that he had received from teammate Miguel Tejada (a player who also popped up in a few steroid investigations).

I can still remember where I was when I saw the news of his suspension.  I was at a restaurant with a former friend, and saw the news ticker announce his suspension.  I felt like I had witnessed the death of a close friend.

My opinion on the matter doesn't mean a thing, but I have always maintained that I believe in Raffy.  Why wouldn't I?  He was a hero of mine, long before he became an Oriole, and will still go down as one of my all-time favorite players.  I met him in Cleburne this summer, where he is still continuing to play, and still has that sweet swing.

With all of my love for Raffy, I still highly doubt he will ever be inducted into the Hall of Fame.

I mailed to Palmeiro via the Cleburne Railroaders on May 9 and got the cards back on May 26, for a 17-day TAT.

Texas Trip Day 2 - Meeting Raffy

The second day of our trip was exciting for me, because I planned for that day to be a trip to Cleburne, Texas.  In Cleburne, there is an independent league team, and one of their players just happened to be Rafael Palmeiro.  The stadium is new, so new that it didn't pop up in the rental car GPS.  Luckily, I had decent enough service that I used Google Maps to get there.

For an independent league team, they have a really nice stadium.  It reminded me of Jim Perry Stadium at Campbell University, where the Buies Creek Astros play.  Everything was turf, which is kind of cool.  I don't think I would want to see an all-turf field all of the time, but when it is at a game here and there, it's ok.

Everyone we talked to while we were there was very friendly.  We told anyone that would listen that we were visiting from NC.  Chris and I had gotten there several hours before the gates opened, because I thought we would have some other things to do in the area.  Unfortunately, when we got there, the temperature was 115 degrees, so after a few laps around the stadium looking for home run balls (we found three), we drove to a nearby Sonic and got some massive slushies.

We got tickets right beside the dugout, front row, for $12 a piece.  Raffy came out and signed autographs pre-game, and posed for a photo with me.  He signed 4 of the 8 cards I put out and signed as many for Chris.  While Raffy was signing for us, a girl from the promotions department had come down to talk to us about how we traveled all the way from NC.  She invited Chris to come onto the field to say play ball, which he reluctantly agreed to do.  I also told Raffy that I had been a big fan since I was really young, and we traveled all the way from NC to see him.  He thanked me, and shook my hand.

While Chris was on the field getting ready to say "play ball", Patrick Palmeiro (who is also on the Cleburne team) told Chris he would give him a bat.

The bad turned out to be a broken Rafael Palmeiro bat!!  We ended up shipping it back home the day after the game.  I was stunned by being able to take it home.

My cell phone doesn't do terribly when it comes to action shots, I've found.  Here is a pitch being delivered to Raffy, which he hit out of the park.

That's right, Rafael Palmeiro hit a home run in his first at bat while we were there.  When he returned to the dugout, he chatted with Chris, since we were beside the steps.  Chris congratulated him on the homer, and asked Raffy if he would sign the bat we had gotten.  Raffy agreed to.

The Railroaders provided a really fun experience, and a really nice ballpark.  There were train engines and cars all around the stadium, and there were a good many people there.  I bought a hat, a shirt, and a mini bat for Chris.

Here is a pic of Chris in front of the stadium as we were leaving.  I definitely would go back to Cleburne for a game, even if Raffy isn't there.  The Railroaders lost the game to the Sioux Falls Canaries 6-3.  Raffy went 1-4 with the homer, his third of the season.

Like I said above, Raffy signed 8/16 cards for us.  I wasn't sure how many to show when he was graphing, so I just laid my book out, opened, with 4 cards on each page.  He chose a page and signed/  Luckily, the pages he chose out of my and Chris's books were all of the main cards I wanted signed.  The above 2005 Bowman Heritage mahogany parallel was the #1 card I wanted to come back with signed.  I definitely wanted one in my album, and this one was really awesome paired with my Staedtler pen.

I also wanted to put this goofy Bazooka Comics insert card into my album.  I definitely didn't have one of these signed, and it actually turned out pretty nice.

Chris wanted to keep two of the cards he got done, and I sent one to my friend, Max.  We also got two extra ones signed because I loaned my pen to a lady beside us, and she had her grandson get two of my cards signed post game.  He didn't want to keep them, so that worked out for me.

My good fried, Gerard, was kind enough to figure out which players on the Railroaders and Canaries had cards, and also sent me some for 50/50s.  He had a bunch of Angelo Gumbs, who was really nice.

I actually had this card of starting pitcher, Josh Hodges.  It felt really good to get this 2009 Bowman out of my box and into my album.  That was really gratifying, especially since I went through so many cards to find one that I had of one of the Railroaders.

Stay tuned for the next day of our trip: where Chris and I were reunited with some old friends from the Wood Ducks.