TTM Stats
- Sent: 7/13/2020 | Received: 7/21/2020 | 8 Days
- ’83 Topps, ’90 Leaf, ’91 Topps, ’93 Upper Deck
- Address: Home (address from Sports Card Forum)
The Story of the Autograph
Frank Viola is a former left-handed starting pitcher in the major leagues. He played from 1982 to 1996 with the Minnesota Twins, New York Mets, Boston Red Sox, Cincinnati Reds, and the Toronto Blue Jays.
Viola was born and raised in East Meadow, New York on Long Island. He went to college at St. John’s. He was first drafted while in high school in 1978 by the Kansas City Royals but didn’t sign. But when the Twins came calling in the second round of the 1981 MLB Draft he chose to sign. He made his major league debut just a year later on June 6 1982.
Viola was a great pitcher in Minnesota. He put up five consecutive winning seasons from 1984 through 1988. His 1998 season was amazing as he had a 24-7 record wit a 2.64 ERA and 193 strikeouts. That earned him the first of three All-Star appearances for his career. It was years like that that earned him the nickname “Sweet Music” as well as the Cy Young in 1988. And the year before he helped the Twins become World Series champs and was the World Series MVP.
Because of that success, his hometown Mets went after him at the trade deadline in 1989. That first year was a down year for him but he put up a 20-win season in 1990 and earned the first of two consecutive All-Star appearances for the second and third of his career. But the last of those was after an 11-5 start to the year. The Mets collapsed in the second half and he went 2-10 the rest of the year.
He moved on to the Red Sox in free agency and had a couple good years in Boston. But in 1994 he had Tommy John surgery and never really came back from it.
These days Viola is a minor league coach but he’s coached at other levels since his retirement as a player as well.
The Score on Frank Viola – 7.5
On of my favorite things about Frank’s signature is his “F”. I love how he loops it at the top and the bottom. I’m not a left-hander, but it makes me wonder which directin he actually makes the “F” in. These are definitely great and one of the things I love is that I got him on a card for all the teams he played for. I think next I’d like to try for an 1987 and 1988 Topps to get him on card years where he had major accomplishments.
Thanks Mr. Viola! I’m giving this return a 7.5.
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Information gathered using Wikipedia and Baseball Reference.