1 Year, 1 Month, 1 Day later.......

Last year I sent 10 4x6 photos to the Braves Spring Training Complex at Disney last year. During ST, my return percentage was absolutely horrible, as I only received one success before the players broke camp. That one success was Josh Anderson, who was traded the same day I received his autograph in the mail. Anyway, I received 1 return in May I believe (Greg Norton) and two after the season ended (Jair Jurrjens and Casey Kotchmen). So by the end of last year, I had 4 out of 10 returns from ST. Definitely not the worst percentage, but not anything to brag about. Well that 40% success rate was upgraded today to 50% as I received this today from Mr. Terry Pendelton:



Terry is now the batting coach for the Atlanta Braves, but I'm sure most of us remember him as the solid fielding 3rd Baseman in the 80's and 90's. He was a favorite player of mine growing up for really one childish reason: Pendleton sounded like my last name, Pennington. Sounds like something a 5 year old would say, right?

Looking back on his playing days now, however, he merited his status in my eyes much beyond his last name. 3 Gold Gloves and a NL MVP, but more importantly to me, a member of the worst-to-first 1991 Braves team. Any player on that team is held in VERY high regard in my mind.

Scan Courtesy of Photobucket.com/atlantabraves
2009 Spring Training TTM 5/10 (Never give up, you'll be surprised what you get back!!)