TTM Stats
- Sent: 7/11/2019 | Received: 10/25/2019 | 104 Days
- ’90 Donruss, ’91 Fleer, ’91 Score, ’92 Pinnacle, ’93 Upper Deck
- Address: Home (address from Sports Card Forum)
The Story of the Autograph
Kevin Tapani is a former right-handed pitcher in the major leagues. He played from 1989 though 2001 with the New York Mets, Minnesota Twins, Los Angeles Dodgers, Chicago White Sox and Chicago Cubs.
Tapani was born in Iowa but raised in Michigan. He played football in high school in addition to baseball and helped his team to the 1981 Class A State Championship. From there he went on to Central Michigan where he put up a career record of 23-8 for the Chippewas from 1983 through 1986. The Cubs drafted him in 1985 and he chose not to sign with them. He signed the following year with the Oakland A’s after they took him in the second round. But he never made the majors with the A’s. Before he could he was traded to the Mets in a three team deal that also involved the Dodgers.
He made his debut on July 4, 1989 for the Mets after being behind a bunch of great young pitchers for a few years. But he only made a few appearances for the Mets that year. After only three appearances he was part of another huge trade that sent four pitchers to the Twins in exchange for Frank Viola, the Twins Cy Young winner the year prior.
He put up some great years for the Twins that aside from two off years he went 12-8, 16-9, 16-11, and 11-7. Within those was him helping the Twins to the 1991 World Series title while posting an ERA just under three at 2.99. He was traded to the Dodgers in 1995 and then moved to the Chicago teams. With the cubs he would post his best record at 19-9 in 1998.
These days Kevin spends time with his family in Minnesota and had been heavily involved in coaching his kids in little league and youth baseball.
The Score on Kevin Tapani – 7.0
Kevin has always had one of my favorite signatures. It’s always seemed a bit quirky to me. The “T” has to be my favorite part with all those bubbles on the bottom of it. In fact, if you look at the way he does both of his main initials, they kind of look like different letters than what they are. The “K” almost looks like an “X” and the “T” almost looks like an “L”.
Thanks Mr. Tapani! I’m giving this return a 7.
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Information gathered using Wikipedia and Baseball Reference.