1986 Donruss, Darryl Motley

#217 Darryl Motley

Here is the second of three Darryl Motley cards signed at Fanfest. Since this one is signed in black instead of blue, it was obtained by my Dad.

Yep, that is it. Check back tomorrow night for an autograph from a former Cy Young award winner.

1986 Donruss, Mike Boddicker

#8 Mike Boddicker

Here is the second of four Mike Boddicker cards that I got signed at Fanfest. I planned on taking three cards of Mike- one as an Oriole, one as a Red Sock, and one as a Royal. The one Oriole card I planned on taking was the '85 Topps All-Star card I posted yesterday. Then, while I was looking for the card that I'll be posting tonight, I came across this card and could not pass it up. I put both of the Oriole cards on the same page of my book, figuring that he would sign one or the other. Either way, I would have been happy; I just couldn't make the choice myself. He obviously signed both of them, so it worked out very good for me. I love getting 1985 Topps signed, but I think that this one turned out much better.

In 1984, Mike was a 20-game winner. The following year, Topps rewarded him with an All-Star card. In 1985, Mike was a 17-game loser. The following year, Donruss rewarded him with a Diamond King card. I guess that is why Donruss started making Team MVP cards in their 1988 set.

I will be posting two cards a day for the rest of the week. There will be some new names popping up as well as some more Mike Boddickers.

1985 Topps, Mike Boddicker

#709 Mike Boddicker

Here is the first of four Mike Boddicker cards that I got signed at Fanfest. I got all four of them signed right after I got my Jim Rooker cards signed. While Jim was signing and selling his books, Mike was in the same area just checking things out and mingling with fans. I didn't recognise who he was, but luckily, he had a jersey on with his name on the back. After I figured that out, I got him to sign my cards.

In 1984, Mike was 20-11 with a 2.79 ERA and 128 Ks. That was the only All-Star team he ever made and he didn't even get to play in the game. That's too bad.

Normally I would write more, but I ended up having to work a double today after staying out too late after last nights game. So, I'm a bit tired. Luckily, I have three more Boddicker cards to go over, including one tomorrow.

I will say that I like Mike's signature. It's not really readable, but it sure looks good. Also, I think that this is the first All-Star card that I have got signed.

1985 Fleer, Steve Farr

#446 Steve Farr

Here is the first of four autographs that I got from Steve Farr at Fanfest. I knew going in to it that this is the worst possible card to get signed because of the dark jersey. But, it is the only card of Farr that I could find where he wasn't a Royal or Yankee. That is why I took it.

Steve played parts of two seasons with the Indians-1984 and 1994. In '84, he appeared in 31 games and started about half of them. He finished the season 3-11 with a 4.58 ERA. The Indians released him during Spring Training the following season and the Royals signed him a couple of months later.

In 1994, Steve signed with the Indians and appeared in 19 games before being dealt to the Red Sox. Prior to the trade, Steve had only pitched 15.1 innings and he had an ERA of 5.28. He didn't do any better in Boston and he retired after that season.

This is another Night Owl dollar store card. It took me about a year to get some cards from the lot signed.

1985 Donruss, Joe Beckwith

#541 Joe Beckwith

Here is the second Joe Beckwith card that I got signed at Fanfest. You can see the first one is you scroll down a bit. I had a third card signed by him, but I sent it to the '83f Project in a trade.

Joe played seven seasons with the Dodgers and Royals. He appeared in 229 games and only started 5 of those. He was 18-19 for his career with 7 saves and a 3.56 ERA.

Joe has an interesting signature. You can easily make out Joe and the first three letters of his last name. After that, it looks like Th or 72 or something.

1985 Donruss, Darryl Motley

#461 Darryl Motley

Here is another signature from the '85 Royals team. Darryl was the first guy in the line signing autographs. The guy in front of me had a blue Sharpie in his hand and Darryl took it from him and signed his card and this card in blue. That is why this one is in blue instead of black.

Darryl played parts of five seasons with the Royals. He was only a .243 career hitter, but he did have 44 home runs with 32 of them in a two year span. In 1985, he hit just .222, but he will forever be remembered by Royals fans. In game seven of the Series, Darryl hit a two run home run in the second inning to get the scoring started on an eventual 11-0 romp. Darryl then caught the final out of the game.

I was only six years old when the Royals won the Series. Looking back at that team now, you can tell that the team won games with their pitching. Out of the eleven players that played in at least 100 games, six of them hit under .250. George Brett was the only player on the team to hit over .281. As a team, the Royals hit .252 which ranked them 13th in the 14 team league. The only offensive stats that they ranked in the top half of the league were doubles, triples, stolen bases, and strikeouts. But, if you look at the pitching, the only stat where they finished in the bottom half of the league is losses. I guess that just shows that good pitching will take you a long way.

1984 Topps, Steve Balboni

#782 Steve Balboni

Here is one of the autographs that I got from the Royals single season home run leader. I wrote to Steve just over a year ago and got him to sign a Royals card for me. So my goal at Fanfest was to get a couple of non-Royals cards signed by him. Here is the first of those. This one shows Steve during his first stint with the Yankees.

In 1978, Steve was a second round draft choice of the Yankees. He got some brief stints with the big league club from 1981-1983, but he never really got a chance. After the '83 season, the Yankees shipped Balboni to the Royals with Roger Erickson for Mike Armstrong. Armstrong only pitched in 52 games with the Yankees from 1984-1986. Balboni, on the other hand, became the Royals everyday first basemen and ended up hitting 119 home runs as a Royal over four complete seasons.

"He's the most unpredictable hitter I've ever seen. There's no way to tell if he's in a slump. He swings so aggressively that anytime he gets it airborne it has a chance to go out. He's knocked in a whole lot of key runs for us."
-Dick Howser