Inkquest: Signatures of the Pennant Winning Phillies: Introduction

Not an example of what I'm looking for, though he is connected to Joe Blanton

For those minuscule few who frequent this blog during the long stretches of silence and pondering, I have repopulated the pages portion at the top of the blog.  You will now notice something called Phillies Pennant Winner Inkquest, divided into separate pages for ease of scrolling.

 What is an inkquest?  Why is there such a thing as a quest for ink? No, this is not getting handprints of players on my apartment walls (but good sentiment there).  Nor is it pursuing the infamous Brushogun.  Instead, it is the initiation of a vainglorious collector's quest to get at least one autograph of a player who a) played in the postseason with the Phillies that season, b) had at least 100 PA or 50 IP with the Phillies that year.  The idea is to get as many contributors to the Phillies winning the pennant that year.

The good news for me is that the Philllies as a franchise have had very few appearances in the World Series.  The 1915 team is not really possible for this type of quest, so that only leaves 1950, 1980, 1983, 1993, 2008, and 2009.  All interesting teams with interesting players and some have overarching clever monikers.  It also covers the silver and golden age of Phillies winning baseball (not that many years in their history).

This project has been in the works for awhile, though never really focused on which players to get.  It would be more of the sophomoric "give me" philosophy of acquiring autos.  Hey, there's a Phillies card with an auto on it, let me have that.  This is how I ended up with so many Andrew Carpenter, Zach Segovia, and Joe Bisenius autos, among other prospects and non-prospects of the past.

The key here is to distill the overarching need to be a comprehensive team collector to  a goal that is only semi-unobtainable.  Suffice to say, this quest will consume me just as the ring consumed Frodo or maybe as Galactus attempted to consume Shangri-La?   The bottom line is that I will not be the same person.....I will be happier and feel more accomplished and be forced to learn how to surf.

The criteria for obtaining an auto are simple.  First preference is a certified auto on a card in a Phillies uniform.  That probably doesn't exist for the majority of the players, especially for those on the 1950 Phillies.  Second preference would be a cut auto for older players or a certified auto on their rookie team for more recent players.  Third preference would be a TTM auto on a card.  Fourth preference would be a signed index card or something similar.

Projected date of completion will be the next time the Phillies win the pennant, 2019.  Now, that's an optimistic outlook on both counts.