Getting published is something that is not new to me. I write for a living, so seeing my name in print isn’t a huge deal anymore. But when it happens unexpectedly, I must say there is a sense of giddiness.

Big thanks to Tom at South Bay Sports Cards for pointing out to me last week that I had been published in Beckett. I swung by the card shop last Friday for the first time in about six weeks to buy some supplies, and Tom asked if I was the guy who was published in Beckett. Turns out the magazine ran my letter in the “Readers Write” section.

In a nutshell, Beckett had created a list of most significant Allen & Ginter autographs since the set’s re-released in 2006. I noted that the 2007 Topps Allen & Ginter Tommie Smith card was not on Beckett’s list, but that I had considered it one of the most significant non-cut signatures Topps had released in the last decade. (You can probably click the image posted here and read the letter for yourself.)

What’s funny is that I had kind of stayed away from Beckett magazines in recent months because of my inactivity in the hobby so I had no intentions on buying the magazine. I actually held a copy of this same issue just days earlier while getting my oil changed at Wal-Mart, but I put it down before actually flipping to the Readers Write section. Had Tom not pointed out that I was in it, I probably would have never known.

This is the first time I’ve had my name in the magazine, but the second time something I did was recognized in print. In 2001, the magazine noted my $3,605 sale of a 2001 Upper Deck Hall of Fame Walter Johnson cut signature. And yes, I am kicking myself for not keeping a scan of the card or taking a picture with it. Gah!

This entry was posted on September 21, 2009 at 9:02 am and is filed under Newspaperman with tags baseball, baseball cards, Beckett, San Jose State, sports, Tommie Smith, Walter Johnson. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.