1992 Stadium Club, Tony Perezchica

#454 Tony Perezchica

Here is the second and final card that I got signed by Tony Perezchica this past season. Tony is the third base coach for the Diamondbacks and he stopped briefly to sign after getting off the team bus. I posted the other card in November and it can be seen here.

I find it amusing that I have four Major League cards of Ozzie Canseco, who played in 24 Major League games. Tony, on the other hand, played in almost three times as many games as Ozzie. They have about the same number of base cards made, but this is the only non-minor league card of Tony that I have.

Tony got into 35 games with the Indians in 1991 and '92. In those games, he got 44 at-bats and he hit .238 with 3 doubles and an RBI. He finished his career as a .228 hitter.

1992 Skybox AAA, Ozzie Canseco

#124 Ozzie Canseco

Here is the fourth card of Ozzie Canseco that I have to show on here. Ozzie was the hitting coach for a season and a half with the American Association's Sioux Falls Canaries. The four cards were signed on two separate occasions at Wichita Wingnut games.

Ozzie had a few minor league cards that were available in packs, but this is the only one I have. It comes from the Skybox set that looks nearly identical to the Line Drive set from the previous year. How or why the two sets look nearly the same is unknown to me. I do know that I have very few of the Skybox cards, so I probably wasn't very impressed with the copycat look.

Ozzie was released by the A's after the 1990 season. He went to Japan in 1991 (though I can find no stats for him) before coming back to the States for the 1992 season. He spent most of '92 in Louisville and he hit 22 home runs for them, the most he ever hit in a single season at any level.

1992 Score, Don Wakamatsu

#814 Don Wakamatsu

Here is a card of Don Wakamatsu that I got signed outside of Kauffman Stadium last season. Don was the bench coach for the Royals at the time.

That was the second time that I got Don to sign outside of The K for me. I got him to sign a manager card for me the previous season. I didn't have this card at the time, though, so I ended up buying it just to have a card from his playing days signed. This is the only base Major League card of him ever made from when he was playing.

Don got just a cup of coffee with the White Sox in 1991. While he spent well over a month in the big leagues, he was limited to just 18 games with 9 of those being starts. Over those 18 games, he hit .226 with no extra base hits or RBI. He walked once, struck out 6 times, and scored 2 runs. Then that was it as a Major League player.

Don will not be returning to the Royals this coming season. They let him go and Dale Sveum got promoted from hitting coach to bench coach. Don will now be the bench coach for the Rangers.

1992 Score, Tony Fossas

#389 Tony Fossas

Here is the third and final card that I got signed by Tony Fossas at Spring Training last year. Tony was working with the Reds at the time and he signed for me while the team's minor league players were having their morning practice. You can see the first card of him that I posted here and the second one here.

Those first two cards both showed Tony with the Brewers. For whatever reason, I seem to have a decent amount of signatures from Brewers pitchers. Luckily, I was able to find this card and mix it up a bit. Even though I am not a Red Sox fan, signed cards of Red Sox players do not appear on this blog enough.

Tony pitched for the Sox for four seasons in the early '90s. During his tenure in Boston, he went 7-5 with 4 saves and a 3.98 ERA. It was with the Sox that he settled into his LOOGY role, pitching just 160.2 innings over 239 appearances.

After leaving Boston, Tony went on to pitch with the Cardinals, Mariners, Cubs, Rangers, and Yankees. He finished his twelve year career with a record of 17-24 with 7 saves and 3.90 ERA.

1992 O-Pee-Chee Premier, Jeff Fassero

#119 Jeff Fassero

Here is the first of three cards that I got signed by Jeff Fassero at Spring Training last year. Jeff was the pitching coach for the AAA affiliate of the Reds, but he was nowhere to be found at the minor league diamonds that morning. But, he did show up at the Major League game and another fan pointed him out to me. That particular fan was impressed that I actually had a card of Jeff with me.

Jeff pitched with the Expos for six seasons. Over that time, he went 58-48 with a 3.20 ERA and 750 strikeouts. His best season was with Montreal in 1996. He was 15-11 with a 3.30 ERA and a career best 222 strikeouts. That was the only 200 strikeout season of his career.

I am heading up to Royals Fanfest tomorrow. Why I keep going there year after year, I do not know. It seems like it gets worse every year. But, hopefully, with three big names gone, there will be less people there and I will be able to get some cards signed. Salvy is still priority number one as I still do not have any cards signed by him even though he has been with the team for seven years.

My biggest concern this year is that there are quite a few guys slated to be there that I do not have cards for. Most of them are young players that have no cards, but there are a small handful where every card I have of them is signed already. I just worry about sitting in a line for an hour and a half and then Scott Barlow comes out to sign.

1992 Donruss, Tom Candiotti

#459 Tom Candiotti

Here is the first of three cards that Tom Candiotti signed for me on the last day of the regular season last year. Tom does radio for the Diamondbacks and the club was in Kansas City to finish out the year. I got to the park nice and early that day and was lucky enough to catch Tom as he was coming off of the team bus.

When I think of that Candy Man, I picture him playing for the Indians and Dodgers. Well, it turns out that he pitched for the Brewers, Blue Jays, and A's, too. His time in Toronto was extremely short, though. He was acquired by the club mid-season in 1991. Down the stretch, we went 6-7 with a 2.98 ERA and helped the Jays secure the division by seven games.

Unfortunately, he was not much help for the club when the postseason began. He got two starts against the eventual World Champion Twins and took the loss in Game One after failing to get out of the third inning. He got the start in Game Five, but got a no decision after the bullpen blew the three run lead it was handed. For the series, he had an 8.22 ERA over 7.2 innings. He gave up 17 hits and walked 2 while striking out 5.

The Jays did not bring Tom back after that season and he signed with the Dodgers.

I am kind of surprised that this is the only '92 Donruss I have to post. It seems like I have a ton of '92 Donruss and Fleer. But, I have so much that I hate going through them to pull cards. I know the card is in there, I would just rather not have to dig through so many cards to find it.

The '92 Donruss design sure looks good on Blue Jay cards, though.

1992 Classic/Best, Marcus Hanel

#242 Marcus Hanel

Here is the second of two cards that Marcus Hanel signed for my older boy at Spring Training last year. Marcus is the bullpen catcher for the Brewers and my boy, with the help from some other 'graphers, was able to get him before a game at Goodyear Ballpark.

It just so happened that the three games we were going to see last year all had the Brewers as the visiting team. Since my boy could care less about autographs, and there is usually less for him to do at a Spring Training park than a Major League park, I put him to work 'graphing the Brewers for me. To make it worth his while, I told him I would give him a dollar for every autograph he got. For some reason, he thought he was going to make $50. But 'graphing is not his thing, and we only made it to two games, so he was only able to get fourteen cards signed. I was more pleased than he was and gave him twenty bucks for his efforts.

As for Marcus, he never made it to the show. He spent eleven seasons in the minors with Pirates, Braves, and D-Backs. He made it to AAA, playing in 37 games at the level over three different seasons. For his career, he was a .193 hitter.

If you check out Hanel's bio on the Brewers coaching staff page, you can learn some interesting fact about him. For starters, he has been the bullpen catcher for the Brewers for eighteen seasons. But, more importantly, he can hold seven baseballs in one hand and he holds the record for the most cheesesteaks consumed in the Phillies visiting team clubhouse over a three and four day stay. In 2015, Marcus smashed 18 cheesesteaks in three days. He had five more on the fourth day for 23 for the four game set. This makes me want to look up the Royals bullpen catcher's bio to see if he even compares to Marcus.

Back in the day, I really loved this set. I am pretty sure I even bought a box of it. But, for whatever reason, I do not have very many cards from the set signed. This one is just the eighth card from it that I have signed and the first one I got signed since 2009. I guess the main drawback for the set is that it does not feature any AAA players, so most of the guys never made it to the Majors. That is my theory at least.

1991 Topps, Mark Parent

#358 Mark Parent

It only took four months, but here is the third and final card of Mark Parent that I got signed at a Royals game in 2015. Mark was the bench coach for the White Sox at the time. You can see the first card here and the second one here.

Mark played in the Majors for thirteen seasons with the Padres, Rangers, Orioles, Cubs, Pirates, Tigers, and Phillies. Over that time, he hit .214 with 53 home runs and 168 RBI. His best season was in 1995, a year split between the Pirates and Cubs. Spending the majority of the year with Pittsburgh, Mark played in a career-high 81 games. Over that span, he hit .234 and had single season bests in home runs (18) and RBI (38). Besides that season, the most dingers he had in a year was 11.

I mentioned in that last post I did of Mark that I have a hard time doing a second and third post of a player (or a sixth, seventh, or eighth of a Royal). Luckily, Rod left a comment on that card that had some neat facts about Mark. The one I liked the most was that Mark was once ejected from a game during the pregame line-up exchange. It was while he was coaching with the Sox and he apparently brought up something from the night before. That is classic!

1991 Topps, Ozzie Canseco

#162 Ozzie Canseco

Here is Ozzie Canseco card number three. This one, however, was signed by him in 2016, a year after the first two. Ozzie was the hitting coach for the Sioux Falls Canaries at the time and I got the cards signed by him at a Wichita Wingnuts game.

This is the only base Topps card of Ozzie, which is kind of surprising. While Ozzie had a very short Major League career (24 games), he had a decent amount of cards made of him. I am sure that it mostly because of his name. Upper Deck and Score each made two base cards of Ozzie. Every other brand made just one, except for Fleer. Fleer only had an Update card of him. Sure, Ozzie appeared in a Bowman set and Stadium Club, but this his only regular issue Topps card.

Ozzie played in just nine games with the A's. In those games, he got 19 at-bats and only 2 hits. One of those hits was a double and he also drove in a run. The downside to his limited Oakland days were his strikeouts. Ozzie fanned 10 times. That was the main reason for his .105 batting average.

The A's released Ozzie after the 1990 season and he spent '91 playing in Japan.

1991 Stadium Club, Darryl Strawberry

#301 Darryl Strawberry

Two summers ago, Darryl Strawberry made an appearance at a church in Wichita to preach. While I don't usually get all excited to go to church, I made an exception that day. The whole family made the trip to see and hear him and we all got to meet him afterwards. While his message might not have been entirely appropriate for our eleven year old, it was still a good message all the same. After his sermon, we got to get some cards signed and get our picture taken with him. I am sure I will show that picture on one of the posts.

Darryl played for four teams during his career and I got cards signed from three of those teams. I already posted the Mets card, so here is the Dodger one. Needless to say, Darryl's tenure in Los Angeles did not go as well as anyone would have hoped. He did good his first season there, hitting .265 with 28 home runs and 99 RBI. But, he could not stay healthy the next two seasons and played in only 75 games over the two years. The Dodgers ended up releasing Darryl during the 1994 season with a year and a half left on his contract.

With LA, Darryl hit just .243 with 38 home runs and 136 RBI.

1991 Score, Danny Darwin

#24T Danny Darwin

Here is the third and final card that Danny Darwin signed for me at Spring Training last year. Danny was the pitching coach for the Reds AAA team and I got him to sign for me at the Reds minor league practice. You can see the first card I posted here and the second one here. On top of that, I got him through the mail on an '81D eight years ago and that one can be seen here.

That makes four signed cards of Danny Darwin with four different teams- the Rangers, Brewers, Astros, and Red Sox. Danny went on to pitch with four more clubs after his time in Boston, so I still have some work to do to get a card signed of him with each team he played for. That is probably not going to happen since there are not very many cards of him with the other four teams and I can't seem to find a single card of him with the White Sox.

Danny pitched for Boston for four seasons. During his tenure there, he went 34-31 with 3 saves and a 4.14 ERA.

By the time Danny was done pitching in Boston, he had played for four teams over a seventeen year career. He went on to pitch four more seasons, but he bounced around considerably. 1995 was spent with the Blue Jays and Rangers. 1996 was with the Pirates and Astros. 1997 was with the White Sox and Giants. 1998, his final season, was all spent with the Giants.

Danny finished his career with a 171-182 record with 32 saves and a 3.84 ERA.

1991 Score, Donovan Osborne

#677 Donovan Osborne

Here is the third and final card that I won in a Twitter contest in 2015. This card was actually the main prize and the other two cards were just thrown in. Those two cards featured Eric Bullock and Don Slaught.

Donovan pitched in the Majors for nine seasons. He spent the majority of the time with the Cardinals, but spent the last two with the Cubs and Yankees. Over his career, he racked up a 49-46 record with a 4.03 ERA.

His best season was with the Cards in 1996. That season, he won a career high 13 games while posting a 3.53 ERA and 134 strikeouts, both also career highs.

Donovan was the thirteenth pick in the 1990 draft out of UNLV. He made his Major League debut just two years later.

1991 Orioles Crown, Rex Hudler

#201 Rex Hudler

Here is the lone card of Rex Hudler as an Oriole. Wonder Dog played in just 14 games with the O's in 1986. In the 14 games, he either entered the game as a defensive replacement or a pinch runner. Because of that, he only came to the plate one time in an Orioles uniform and he flew out to center. But, he did manage to steal a base and score a run. On top of that, Baltimore was 12-2 in the games that Hud played in.

Rex signed this card for me two years ago at Royals Fanfest.

This is the second card from this set in my collection. The first one was given to me by O's super-graph collector, Ryan, from The Great Orioles Autograph Project. It featured Dick Hall.

I really like the concept of this set. I believe it was a stadium giveaway and it features every player that had played with the team up to that point. It looks like it came in sheets and you probably had to attend a few games to get the complete set.

As far as I have noticed, there are a few other teams that have done a set like this. I know the Brewers, Dodgers, and Rangers all have and I believe that the Mets and Yankees did sets as well. Unfortunately, I have yet to acquire a card from any of those sets.

Speaking of Royals Fanfest, the initial list of players to appear has been released and it is looking really bleak this year. There are currently three players that I have no cards for that are scheduled out of the nineteen. Since they never tell you who is going to be signing when and where, it really sucks sitting in line for an hour just to find out that Cam Gallagher is the person you have been waiting on.

1991 Line Drive AAA, Johnny Guzman

#536 Johnny Guzman

Just like the last card I posted, this one was also given to me by Rod, from Pardographs, when we met up at a Hillsboro Hops game in 2015.

While I was familiar with this card, since it was in my collection, I was not familiar with Johnny Guzman as a player. Like most of the players in the Line Drive sets, I just assumed that he never played in the Major Leagues. Turns out I was wrong. Johnny logged 8 innings in the Majors with the A's in 1991 and '92. While he did earn one win, it was a rocky 8 innings. He ended up striking out 3 and only walking 2. But, he gave up 9 runs on 19 hits to the tune of a 10.13 ERA. In Johnny's defense, he did not allow a home run and he was 21 or younger in each of his appearances.

In his one win, Johnny entered a tie game with two outs in the eighth with two runners on. After going to a full count, he got the Tigers Lou Whitaker to ground out to the second baseman to end the inning. The A's came up in the bottom half of the inning and put up a six spot to secure the victory. Some guy named Dennis Eckersly came out for the A's and pitched the ninth inning.

Johnny would go on to pitch only one more season before calling it quits at the age of 22. Though coming out of the Dominican Republic back then, it is hard to say if that was his actual age or not. But, that is pure speculation on my part.

1991 Line Drive AAA, Charlie Manuel

#99 Charlie Manuel

Here is another random card that was given to me by Rod, from Padrographs. This sucker is a little bent out of shape. But, it is an autograph from a World Series winning manager, so I don't really care.

Did you know that Charlie Manuel managed the Indians for parts of three seasons? I'm not sure what I was doing those three years, but I do not remember that at all. He is ingrained as a Phillie in my mind and that is all I can picture him as.

But, before managing in the Majors for twelve seasons and making the playoffs six times, Charlie spent six seasons managing AAA ball with four different clubs. Over those six seasons, his teams made the playoffs twice.

Before becoming a manager, Cornbread Charlie played in the Majors for parts of six seasons with the Twins and Dodgers. During that time, he hit .198 with 4 home runs and 43 RBI.

With this card, I have autographs from the manager and two coaches of the Sky Sox in this set. Jim Gabella and Rick Adair were the coaches and you can see their dual signed card here.

1991 Line Drive AA, Tom Carcione

#281 Tom Carcione

Here is a card that I got this past summer while I was in Lincoln, Nebraska. It was on our College World Series trip. When we make the trip, we usually camp out at a small state lake in Iowa. But, the state park was changed to a day use only park with no camping. When I found that out, I looked into another state park in Nebraska. But, with the chance of severe thunderstorms for the weekend, we opted to stay in a hotel in Lincoln. It is a little out of they way, but is so much cheaper than Omaha during the series.

So, the night we got to Lincoln, we went to a Lincoln Saltdogs game (American Association). I had cards of two of their coaches to get signed and got them both before the game started. We only stayed four or five innings. True to the weather report, it rained cats and dogs for almost an hour. Luckily, we made it out of the park before it came and sat out the storm at Blue Blood Brewery.

Tom played five seasons in the A's minor league system, reaching AA in parts of three of those seasons. For his affiliated career, Tom was a .229 hitter with 19 home runs and 151 RBI.

Tom is the Saltdogs hitting coach.