The Crown Card Back Signing Phenomenon Continues

I've brought this up once or twice, but since Ed Farmer recently returned my TTM request signed on the back of his Crown card, I figured that it was worth bringing up again. Some guys prefer to sign their Crown cards on the back!

 

As you can see, Ed pitched in only one single game for the Orioles during his career. So this is his only Orioles card. And he signed mine on the back because the front is pretty dark, and I guess he didn't want to sign on his face. 

  

Bob Bailor took a different approach. He awkwardly signed the card over his name, even though plenty of light space seemed to be available. (Bob had some glorious mutton-chops too, didn't he?)

  

And then also signed the back for good measure. 

Ken Lehman flipped the card on its side to personalize and sign it.

He might have been able to squeeze his autograph and my name on the front in his chin/neck region, but I guess he didn't want to constrict his signature. I can respect that. 

Gordie Sundin went all out and signed right across the center of the back of the card. With that thin pen, he probably could've painted the corners a bit more. 

 

There was definitely some autograph daylight around his neck. 

This Ken Dixon autograph is unique because he signed it for me in person at an Orioles Alumni Autograph signing. If I had noticed in time, I would've asked him to sign the front, but I didn't. 

I also forgot to scan the front of the card, but as you can see from this scan that I stole borrowed from ebay, there is plenty of light colored space to sign around his cap.

That's it for now, but I'm sure that I will get another Crown card that is signed on the back to add to my collection sometime soon.

And Now For Something Completely Different...

Gordie Sundin 1956

Here is my Gordie Sundin autographed card.

What? You don't think it's a signed card?

Well it sure is, just not on the front.

I have seen a few players do this with these Crown Cards since most of the light areas on the card faces are concentrated on the faces and some players don't seem to like signing on their face. But then again, some others don't seem to mind signing all over the facial region.

Gordie's Major League career lasted all of one very brief and unsuccessful appearance when he was only 18 years old. With the O's trailing 8-1, he entered the 8th inning of the game on September 19, 1956 in a mop up role but it seems that he forgot his mop back in the bullpen. He walked two batters and did not record an out before being pulled from the game. Billy O'Dell came in after Gordie and allowed one of those walked batters to score. Gordie never made it back into another Major League game, so his career stat line is left with an ERA and WHIP of infinity.

Kevin at the awesome Orioles Card "O" The Day blog did a post on him last fall and reports that Gordie married a member of the 1956 US Figure Skating after his baseball career, so at least that's something good!