New Autograph Acquisitions: A Hall of Famer and four Brooklyn Dodgers

I added 14 new autographed baseball cards to my collection last week, the majority coming as my prize for winning a World Series contest run by Zach of Autographed Cards. And I’ll show those off on Wednesday. Today, I want to take a look at the ones I got through the mail by writing to former players.

Former Boston Red Sox second baseman Bobby Doerr is the oldest living member of the baseball Hall of Fame. He was a 9-time All-Star during a 14-year major league career. (He missed the final month of the 1944 season and all of 1945 while serving in the U.S. Army during World War II.)

Bob Borkowski was an outfielder who appeared in 470 games between 1950 and 1955 for the Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds and Brooklyn Dodgers. While he only played in 9 games and was not around for the World Series, Borkowski was a 1955 Dodger.

Borkowski included a note saying that he did his best to sign, but he’s losing his eyesight… I’ll be sending him a thank-you note, but I’m not sure how welcome autograph requests are at this point.

Ransom “Randy” Jackson was a third baseman who played for the Chicago Cubs, Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers and Cleveland Indians from 1950-59. A two-time All-Star, he had the wonderful nickname “Handsome Ransom,” according to Baseball-Reference.com.

Joe Landrum was a pitcher, appearing in 16 games for the Brooklyn Dodgers between 1950 and 1952. Fans who followed the National League East in the early 1990s may remember his son, Bill, who was the closer for the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1989-1991.

Luis Olmo was an outfielder and second and third baseman for the Boston Braves and Brooklyn Dodgers from 1943-1951. In 1949, he became the first Puerto Rican player to appear in a World Series game.