TTM Success.........Dick Groat

Somehow my dad's favorite players have really started rubbing off on me. He was a huge Dick Groat fan and still is. My dad grew up in Monroe, NC. How he became a Pirates fan probably originated with Mr. Groat. My granddad, who I did not know very well, went to college at a small university in Durham, North Carolina named Trinity. It was a college for men at the time and was converted by James B. Duke to what is now Duke University. So my dad got his love for Duke University basketball honestly from my grandfather and I got it from my dad. Dick Groat was my dad's favorite basketball player for Duke in the early 50's. Then when he played baseball for the Pirates my dad's admiration followed him to that awesome team.

Over the past few years Topps has released a Dick Groat auto with just about every archive series they have brought out and I have most of them. It was not until recently I had read another blog and they had sent Mr. Groat a card and he had signed it. I was hooked. I had to do that, I wanted that personal autograph, not one mass produced. So I sent Mr. Groat a letter and told him about my dad's admiration for him and how that had rubbed off on me and a 1960 Topps. Few days later.............

Thanks Mr. Groat. I never got to see you play with my own eyes, but you are a passed down hero.