Former MLB pitcher Bartolo Colón recently did an appearance at our AAA ballpark in Charlotte and I thought it’d be funny to ask him to autograph a ball (top signature) that was already signed by James Shields, the pitcher that gave up his memorable first-ever home run in San Diego back in May of 2016. I believe Colón was and probably still is the oldest MLB player to ever hit his first career home run. Right up my memorabilia alley - random, obscure, humorous and probably one of a kind.

I had this stamp and foreign currency collection passed down to me a long time ago from my grandfather, and I have finally reached the age where I am curious and want to learn more about it (mainly the stamps). The box on the left has several bags of stamps underneath what's pictured, and there's also a couple hundred coins (not pictured).... all of it is too much to include in just one image. Everything has basically been consolidated into small bags and stored inside a cigar box or within a larger shoe box.

If I had to guess, most of the stamps are from the middle of the 20th century and from a variety of different countries, some of which - USSR, Yugoslavia, Rhodesia - don't exist anymore. I also don't know what era the American stamps are from in the middle, though the state ones above it are from 1966, I believe.

The stamps are probably a combination of used, unused, marked and then still attached to small pieces of paper where they were ripped off an envelope. The artwork on many of them is beautiful and I'm sure there's a fascinating amount of storytelling, history and culture buried within them.

Open to any and all information, feedback and/or suggestions about going through them, organizing them, what I should be looking for and also mindful of. I also have no idea if there is a collector's market for older foreign bills/coins, so would love to hear any insight on that, if it's out there!

Back when I was playing Little League Baseball - probably 25+ years ago now - Tommy John made an appearance at the local fields and signed autographs one day. More so than ever right now, Tommy John has become synonymous with UCL tears in pitchers and the elbow ligament replacement surgery that he was the first to successfully return to baseball from in 1976 and then subsequently had named after him.

Tommy John never really got close to being voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame as a player (his last year on the ballot was 2009), despite finishing his career with 288 wins and four All-Star nominations, three of which came after he missed the 1975 season with UCL surgery. John actually has the third-most wins all time of any pitcher not in the Hall of Fame; Roger Clemens (354 - PED ties) and Bobby Mathews (297 - retired in 1887, played in the dead-ball era).

Unfortunately, John's HOF candidacy was probably hurt because voters viewed him as a stats compiler (also had 231 losses, 19th most all time) because he played 26 MLB seasons from 1963-89 (some might call this longevity). He also never won a Cy Young (four top-10 finishes, two-time runner-up) or had an overwhelming amount of postseason success (losing side of the World Series three times with the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees). John has a 3.34 career ERA and is eighth in all-time games started by a pitcher with 700, which is second most amongst left-handers (Steve Carlton, 709).

I don't have particularly strong feelings about it one way or the other, but it just feels like with how (perhaps alarmingly) common TJ surgery has become and the countless careers that it's saved, that Tommy John deserves to be in the HOF for his contributions to baseball as a trailblazer. Perhaps, one day, the Veterans Committee will vote him in.... curious if anybody else has any thoughts or opinions?

Way back in June of 2000, I was lucky enough to witness Tom Malchow (1:55.18) break Denis Pankratov's 200 Butterfly LCM World Record (1:55.22) at the Charlotte UltraSwim. It's pretty rare to see a WR get set at an in-season Grand Prix meet like this. Usually, these swims only occur at Olympic/World Trials or the Olympics/World Championships when swimmers are fully tapered, rested and shaved.

Malchow stayed well after the meet was over to sign autographs for everybody, while simultaneously conducting multiple media interviews. Malchow, who won the silver medal in the Men's 200 Fly at the 1996 Olympics behind Pankratov, went on to win gold in this event at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.

In March of 2001, a 15-year-old named Michael Phelps (1:54.92) broke Malchow's WR set in Charlotte and wouldn't relinquish it until July of 2019 (Phelps would re-break his own record seven more times after this, as well). I really like that this autographed pass (basically a ticket for the event) represents a very rare, unexpected moment in swimming history. Malchow's status as the last man to hold the 200 Butterfly WR - Phelps' signature event - before Phelps dominated it for the next 18 years only adds to the uniqueness.