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.