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.

1989 Star 2

#93 Moises Alou

This is the second card I've shown on here of an active player. Since he hasn't retired yet, I'm still considering him active. I got this card signed through the mail in the early '90s when Moises was with the Expos. Around that time, my Dad knew a salesman that would come around his workplace from time to time that was from Canada. Every now and then, my Dad would have him grab some Canadian stamps for me. That way I could write to Blue Jays and Expos by placing the proper American stamp on the main envelope to the players, and then affixing the Canadian stamp on the self-addressed stamped envelope to myself. My hockey card autograph collection grew immensely at this time (Roy, Sundin, Sakic, Selanne).

As for this set of Star, I don't have too many of them. I remember buying a few packs at a card show at the mall around 1989 or '90. Most of the players were in A-ball, so it took a little time for them to get to the big leagues (which most of them didn't). I also have two team sets from Star- the Durham Bulls (Steve Avery, Kevin Costner) and the New Britian Red Sox (Jeff Bagwell).

This card depicts Moises as a Salem Buccaneer of the Carolina League, part of the Pirates organization. Today, they are the Salem Avalanche and are affiliated with the Astros.

In my opinion, Moises is a good autograph to have. He's a .303 career hitter. I just wish that I would have sent a card that would have looked better signed. Oh well. Back then I looked at how cool the card was and not how it would look signed. I have a real good example of this when I get to Tim Raines.