TTM Stats
- Sent: 2/6/2018 | Received: 3/30/2018 | 54 Days
- ’88 Topps, ’90 Donruss, ’16 Topps
- Address: Oakland Athletics Spring Training
The Story of the Autograph
Bob Melvin played as a catcher in the major leagues from 1985 through 1994 with seven different teams: Tigers, Giants, Orioles, Royals, Red Sox, Yankees and White Sox. Most of those team he played maybe a year with except for the Giants and Orioles where he would spend three years in each place. These days he manages the Oakland A’s but he’s also managed the Mariner and Diamondbacks.
Bob grew up in the Palo Alto, CA and played for a high school outside of San Francisco. He later went to Cal-Berkeley and was part of the Golden Bears to a third-place finish in the College World Series in 1980 as a freshman. He moved on to a junior college and was taken as the second pick in the secondary phase of the 1981 Draft. Given that he is from the Bay area and that he went to Cal for a little bit, it must have been special for him to play of the Giants and now manage the A’s.
He started managing with the Mariners in 2003 and 2004. The hard part was that this was after the ten-year run of Lou Piniella. His first year the team won 93 games and just missed the playoffs. The next year was just about the opposite as the team lost 99 games. He moved on to Arizona where he would lead the team to the NL West title in 2007 and they would win 90 games. They would sweep the Cubs as the No. 1 seed and then get swept by the Rockies. He earned Manager of the Year honors that year and was nicknamed “The Mad Scientist” because of his mental approach to the game.
He’s been a pretty good manager with the Athletics considering how that roster is managed. They never have the best players and they always seem to be trading away talent. He was the Manager of the Year for the AL in 2012 after taking the team to the ALDS. They made another couple appearances and he has an overall winning record in Oakland, but just above .500 at 537-534.
The Score on Bob Melvin – 5.5
Bob has a fine autograph, but like some others I’ve gotten recently it’s a bit small. The player cards I have for him work the best because they are less busy in the background. The team card for the Athletics is just a little too busy where he signed. He used a good marker and it came out OK. Just small for me.
Thanks Mr. Melvin! I’m giving this a 5.5.
>>> READ MORE ABOUT MY AUTOGRAPH SCORING SYSTEM <<<
Thanks for visiting BravestarrCards.com: Card Collecting and TTM Autographs.
Information gathered using Wikipedia and Baseball Reference.