Signature Sundays - Lanny McDonald

The 1989-90 Topps and O-Pee-Chee hockey sets were my first introduction to sports cards way back in the day.  I still have fond memories of my dad surprising my brothers and I, who were playing ice hockey at the time, with some packs after work some nights.  We'd sit around the kitchen table trading, reading the stats, and organizing our makeshift binders.

I still have that original binder to this day, and here I am almost 30 years later still enjoying sports card collecting.  Since the '89-90 hockey sets haven't retained much value, I've picked up complete sets of both the Topps and O-Pee-Chee releases to supplement my original childhood cards.  Over the past couple of years though, I've started picking up some autographed cards as well to really put the cherry on top of this part of my collection.

Today I've got the latest HOFer that I've acquired to share with you, the great Lanny McDonald!

I always liked this card in particular, since Lanny actually hung up the skates after the 1988-89 season, making this a "sunset card".  The O-Pee-Chee version you see here is even a step better than its Topps counterpart, as it specifically lists his retirement date on the front in the lower left.

I was much too young when I first acquired this card to appreciate Lanny as a player, in fact his pro career came to an end just before I got into the sport.  I recall my brothers and I getting a kick out of him though simply because of his uncommon name, because he didn't wear a helmet, and because of his iconic red mustache!

Lanny did a fantastic job with the autograph here, he's got one of the more interesting autographs I've seen penmanship-wise, and this one is big, bold, and on-card.  Great stuff.

The most interesting thing to me about McDonald's career is that he hung it up after finally winning a Stanley Cup with the Flames in 1989.  Pretty cool to go out on top like that, but even cooler given that the 11 regular season goals he tallied in '88-89 left him with an even (and impressive) 500 in his career!  A Cup championship and an even 500 goals, that's certainly a neat and tidy way to make an exit from the game.

This copy actually came inserted as a buyback autograph in Upper Deck's 2008-09 OPC set, here's the authentication card with matching holographic sticker proving its legitimacy.

I couldn't be more pleased with this one, in fact I think this is my favorite '89-90 autograph of the handful I've been able to land so far.  If I had to pair my entire collection down to just 100 cards (an interesting idea for a post or series of posts, actually!), I'm fairly confident that this one would make the cut!

So there you have it, a nice dose of nostalgia for a Sunday morning.  Thanks for stopping by as always.  If you appreciate hockey autographs make sure to check in next Sunday, as I've got a real stud to show off!