As Luck Would Have It

Sometimes, luck isn't on my side. So many times, things go wrong in life, and you have to take the bad with the good. In the card world, I've completely forgotten about auctions or just happened to miss them. I've had great cards and then let them slip through my fingers. And I'm sure there are plenty of cards sitting in storage that I could have sold at some point in the past and made a pretty penny.

But sometimes things go well. I have more than half of Buck Farmer's 1/1 cards. (Where are the rest? Who has them? Give them to me!) I do occasionally get nice pulls in boxes and packs. And this month, I've managed to knock several cards and sets off my want lists.

59-year-old Otis Nixon had a length career in Major League Baseball, starting in 1983 with the Yankees, then bouncing around the continent: Cleveland, Montreal, Atlanta, Boston, Texas, Toronto, Los Angeles, Minnesota, and Atlanta again. Not exactly known for his glove, Nixon was a terror on the base paths, stealing over 100 bases between AA and AAA in 1982.

He is tied for the single-game stolen base record, with six steals on June 16, 1991, and finished his career with 620 swipes. He holds the record for most steals in a career without ever appearing in an All-Star Game. Nixon's career batting average was a respectable .270, though he hit only 11 home runs - less than one per year over 17 seasons.

Otis has had a tough life, battling a cocaine addiction during and after his career. While he claimed to overcome his addiction in 2010, he was found with a crack pipe and some crack in 2013. He went missing last year for a day, though was found safe.

Despite being clumsy with a glove at first, Nixon has a .989 fielding average over his career, and is an Atlanta legend for The Catch in 1992:

It was for his involvement in that great season - my first full year living in Atlanta - that made me want his autograph, and I've been waiting and watching for a long time. The last autograph sold back at the beginning of the year for about $10 shipped, and I didn't even get a chance to bid on it. But I got the above card for only about $7, a happy surprise!

And now I can scratch that piece of history off my want list. It'll display nicely next to my lithograph of The Catch, if I ever settle down and have a man cave again.

Until next time...