TTM Stats
- Sent: 10/1/2019 | Received: 12/23/2019 | 82 Days
- ’78 Topps, ’79 Topps, ’81 Fleer
- Address: Home (address from Sports Card Forum)
The Story of the Autograph
Matt Keough is a former right-handed pitcher in the major leagues. His career spanned nine seasons from 1977 through 1986. Over that time he played for the Oakland Athletics, New York Yankees, St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago Cubs and Houston Astros.
Keough was born and raised in California. The Athletics drafted him out of high school in 1973 in the seventh round of the draft that year. He was drafted as an infielder. He started in the minors as a good hitter, but unfortunately after hitting poorly in 1976 he was converted to a pitcher. He’d make it up to the big ball club in 1977, debuting on September 3rd. The next season he made his one and only All-Star game in his rookie season. He put up a 3.24 ERA, but it led to an 8-15 record that year.
That record led into his 1979 season where he tied a major league record by losing his first 14 decisions and ended up 2-17 on the year. But while 1979 was a horrendous year for him, there wasn’t anywhere else to go but up. In 1980 he posted his first winning record and went 16-13 with a 2.92 ERA in 32 starts and 250 innings. He earned AL Comeback Player of the Year honors for that effort. He kept it going in 1981 when he put up a 10-6 record in that strike-shortened season and helped the A’s reach the ALDS.
By ’82 his record was back to the way it was earlier in the year when he shared the AL lead in losses with 18. That seems like it was the beginning of the end of his career. He was traded to the Yankees in 1983 and then signed and released with several teams through 1986. He completely missed the 1984 season because of arm issues.
But ’86 wasn’t the end of this career. He went to Japan and pitched for the Hanshin Tigers from 1987 through 1990. He attempted a comeback in the majors in the early 90’s twice but never made it back to the majors. His career ended when he was hit by a foul ball while sitting in the dugout during a Spring Training game.
The Score on Matt Keough – 5.0
Matt has a really tight and compact signature. It’s a bit on the small side but even with all that, he used a good marker so the autograph came out pretty strong. My only real disappointment with this return is where he signed the ’78 card. If he had signed where he was on the card I could have sent this one to Dan Schatzeder too. But that’s minor and my issue not his. I’ll maybe find another and send to Schatzeder first.
Thanks Mr. Keough! I’m giving this return a 5.
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Information gathered using Wikipedia and Baseball Reference.