Pat Underwood Ball

In '79, since Grandpa was good at getting autographed baseballs (he had connections), I asked him to get me a Pat Underwood autographed ball. Pat was a lefthanded pitcher for the Tigers who made his MLB debut against his brother, Tom. He beat him 1–0. That's a true story. I don't know why, but I thought Underwood (Pat) was cool. So, I asked Grandpa to get me his signature.

He did. But on the other side, he had this rookie sign the ball, as well. Apparently, he had been a good football player for Michigan State University and his mom was from Clarkston (Grandpa and Grandma, too; the Carl and Sally Heitmeyers at the time). I thought it was okay, but didn't really want too signatures on the ball.

But now it's fun to talk about how I ended up with Pat Underwood's autograph on the back of my Kirk Gibson rookie autograph!