1996 Leaf Signature Series Extended, Archi Cianfrocco

#29 Archi Cianfrocco

Here is yet another checkoutmycards.com bargain bin find. This autograph from former Expo and Padre, Archi Cianfrocco, set me back a whole dollar.

I am really not sure why I thought that I had to have this card. The only thing that I can come up with is the name- Archi Cianfrocco. That has got to be one of the coolest names for any ballplayer. It doesn't really roll off the tongue, but it sounds pretty cool when said correctly.

Archi played in the Majors for seven seasons. He never played in a hundred games in a season and was mainly used as a utility guy. In his seven seasons, he played every position except for pitcher and center field. None of his seasons stand out against the rest, but he did finish his career with a .241 average with 34 home runs and 185 RBI.

Based off of his signature, I never would have guessed that his first name began with an "A". But, it is a cool looking signature.

1996 Leaf Signature Series, Quilvio Veras

#230 Quilvio Veras

Here is another card that I picked up from checkoutmycards.com for cheap. This card set me back all of ninety-eight cents.

I remember Quilvio for two reasons. The first reason is because he lead the Major Leagues in stolen bases in 1995 when he stole 56 in his rookie season. But, the main reason why I remember Quilvio is because his name begins with a "Q".

Back in my high school years when I was playing American Legion baseball, we would always play "The Name Game" (TNG) while we were criss-crossing Kansas in vans. TNG was a simple game that helped pass the time in the days before smart phones and laptop computers. It was really easy. The first player would name any baseball player. Let's say George Brett. George's last name begins with a "B", so the next player had to think of a ballplayer whose first name began with a "B", like Bret Saberhagan. Each player had about a thirty second time limit to come up with a name that hadn't been said or he would be eliminated. The object of TNG was to be the last person standing and I quickly learned that if you wanted to win, you had better have a decent stockpile of ballplayers whose first names began with "Q", "Y", and "Z". That is where Quilvio Veras came in handy.

This is the first card that I have posted on here of a player whose first name begins with a "Q". Unfortunately, Quilvio's signature didn't meet my expectations as the first letter he signed looks more like an "O" or even a "D".

1996 Leaf Signature Series, Ben McDonald

#151 Ben McDonald

Here is another checkoutmycards.com bargain that I could not pass up. I was able to add this Ben McDonald autograph to my collection for just one dollar. How could I pass this one up?

Ben was a stud college pitcher for Louisiana State in the late '80s. He won the Golden Spikes award with them in 1989 for being the best college player in the nation. For his efforts that season, the Orioles rewarded him by making him the number one pick in the draft that year.

Ben made it to the Major Leagues in the same season that he was drafted, making six relief appearances for the O's that September. After making ten minor league starts in 1990, Jeff moved up to the big club for good. Again, he started out in the bullpen before he was eased into the starting rotaion. He finished up that season 8-5 with a 2.43 ERA.

Unfortunately, Ben could not maintain that level of success in the Major Leagues. His record dipped to 6-8 the following year while his ERA rose to 4.84. He posted slightly better numbers in 1992 before having a career year in 1993. His record was only 13-14 that season, but he had career highs in ERA (3.39 [20 or more starts]), complete games (7), and strikeouts (171).

Back to back seasons of more than 220 innings caught up to Ben as he made only 24 starts in 1994 and 13 in 1995. After that season, the O's and Ben parted ways and Ben signed with the Brewers.

For some reason, I do not remeber Ben ever playing for the Brewers.

Ben had a strong 1996 with the Brewers. He went 12-10 that season with a 3.90 ERA in 221.1 innings. But the arm problems caught back up with him the following season, limiting him to just 21 starts.

The Brewers traded Ben to the Indians after that season was over. But, when the Indians learned that Ben wasn't going to be able to pitch at all that season, they traded him back to Milwaukee. Ben then retired from baseball.

For his career, Ben was 78-70 with a 3.91 ERA.

1994 Ulta, Chris Bosio

#417 Chris Bosio

Here is my third and final Chris Bosio card that I got signed in Des Moines, Iowa this summer while Chris was working as the Nashville Sounds pitching coach. You can see the first card here and the second card here.

In my last Bosio post, I talked about his days in Milwaukee where Chris won fourteen or more games three times. After the 1992 season, he hit the free agent market and ended up with Seattle. Unfortunately for the M's, Chris didn't achieve the same level of success that he had had with the Brewers.

Chris spent four seasons in Seattle and, during that time, he made more than thirty starts once and less that twenty starts twice. He posted a decent ERA of 3.45 in his first season, but it ballooned each year after that. It was 4.32 his second season, 4.92 his third season, and then 5.93 in his fourth and final season. Also, he only reached double digit wins once with the M's and that was in 1995 when he won ten games.

I was glad that I was able to find a card of Chris that wasn't a Brewers card. But, I do have issues with this card. Whenever I display a horizontal card in a binder, I always have the bottom horizontal edge on the right side of a nine pocket sheet. Basically, it would look like this.



With the strange layout of '94 Ultra, the card now appears to be in the pocket upside down and I do not put cards in binders upside down. That would just be dumb. If I rotate the card 180 degrees, the name and team become readable again, but now the card is facing a different direction than every other horizontal card in my collection. So, instead of looking upside down, it now appears to be backwards. What should I do?

1994 Topps, Bret Saberhagen

#245 Bret Saberhagen

You didn't think I was going to get all of these cards signed by Bret and only get Royals cards signed, did you? No way, Jose. I had to get at least one Mets card signed and I would have gotten cards signed by him as a Rockie and Red Sock if I could have found some.

The eleventh of December, 1991, is still regarded as one of the saddest days in Royals history. It was on that day that the Royals traded two-time American League Cy Yound Award winner, Bret Saberhagen, (and Bill Pecota) to the Mets for Gregg Jeffries, Keith Miller, and Kevin McReynolds.

In hindsight, though, the trade does not look as bad today. It seems like the Royals traded Saberhagen at the right time. It would have looked a little better if the Royals had gotten some better players in return, but that is said of just about every single trade made.

Kevin McReynolds had two average seasons in Kansas City before being dealt back to the Mets. Gregg Jeffries spent just one season in KC before he was traded to St. Louis. Keith Miller lasted four seasons for the Royals, but he missed most of the last three because of injuries.

On the other hand, Bill Pecota played just one year for the Mets before leaving for Atlanta via free agency. Bret Saberhagen only lasted with the Mets for three and a half seasons and he was hurt for much of that time.

So in the end, this trade was pretty much a bust for both sides.

1994 Fleer Procards, Doug Sisson

#3402 Doug Sisson

Here is the second card of Doug Sisson that I was able get signed at the Royals last home game of the season. The first one can be seen here.

I wrote a good deal about Doug on his previous post, so I am going to write about something different this time around. For this post, I am going to write about my experience autographing at that final game. And I will say that it certainly was a new experience for me, both good and bad.

For starters, my plan for the final game was to get to the park early enough to get autographs as the players arrived at the ballpark. I hadn't made it up to a game this year to 'graph the parking lot and I was hoping for a large haul as I have always done well there in the past. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to leave early enough to take full advantage of that, but I was there early enough to catch some of the late stragglers.

As soon as I got to the park, I saw Melky Cabrera about to enter the park and I asked him to sign. He just ignored me and went on his way. No big deal. But then, a Royals parking lot attendant came up to me and told me that I was in a "no autograph zone". I gave him my best "are you serious?" look since I have gotten 'graphs there more than a few times over the past couple of years. He kept talking a bit, but I just ignored him and waited for him to leave on his golf cart.

The next thing you know, a cab pulled up and out walked the Tigers Will Rhymes. I went up to him and asked him to sign and he signed my two cards for me. By the time he entered the park, a Royals employee came out of the park dressed in suit and tie and said to me "you do realize this is a no autograph zone, don't you?". I was just like "wow, they are serious about this".

He gave me a map of the two spots that were allocated as "autograph zones" and went on to tell me that it has been this way for a few months. I asked him why they changed things and he said it all happened during the Red Sox and Yankees series because they had some issues, but he wouldn't get into any specifics. So, I just said whatever and went to hang out with the guys in the "autograph zone". It then dawned on me why I was the only person trying to get Will Ryhmes' autograph.

Over in the "autograph zone", I started to get some feedback from the other 'graphers about what had happened. They said it all started with someone tying to get Melky Cabrera's autograph. When he declined to sign, one person started talking smack and bringing up a past DUI infraction or something. I guess Melky got kind of heated over it and that is what started it. The same guy then pulled the same stunt with a couple of other players and rather than dealing with the problem, the Royals got all drastic and divided up the outside of the park like a post Desert Storm Iraq.

Now, when a Royals player parks in the players lot, he has two options. The first option is to take the underground tunnel into the park. This seems like the longer route and it is usually utilized by the early arrivers. In this scenario, the player walks by the first designated "autograph zone", but he can still be about fifteen feet from the fans if he doesn't want to sign.

In the second scenario, the player parks in the lot and then walks across a small public lot to the park. At least that was how the scenario used to play out. Now, when they leave the lot, they are picked up by the lot attendant in the golf cart and are dropped off at the "no autograph zone" main entrance. From what I could gather from the other disgruntled 'graphers, the Royals encourage the players to ride the cart rather than walking.

So all in all, my experience outside of Kauffman Stadium was rather unpleasant and not at all fan-friendly. I hope that they can get something figured out in time for the All Star game next year or they are going to be in a world of hurt.

So, while I was all bummed out by that experience, another 'grapher told me about the "early bird tour". He said that it was basically a trimmed down ballpark tour, but it is usually dominated by 'graphers who just went down to the dugouts for Royals batting practice. It cost ten dollars a head, but it got you into the ballpark an hour earlier than everyone else. So, I went ahead and bought a pair.

For some reason, I had never heard of this option. But, even though it cost as much as tickets to fanfest, I enjoyed the "early bird tour". For one, I got to see the Royals entire batting practice. It has been some time since I have been able to see that at home.

But more importantly, it allowed me to get some much needed Royals autographs that I wouldn't be able to get if I waited for the gates to open (like this card). When the gates usually open, Royals batting practice is almost finished and I always head to the visiting team side. But with the "early bird tour", I was able to 'graph the Royals while I had my dad saved me my spot on the visiting team side. I'm not sure if it was really worth twenty dollars, but it was the final game of what has been a crappy autograph season for me and it turned out for the best.

Here are my rankings of the new autograph policies at Kauffman Stadium.

Autograph Zones: Thumbs down. Hopefully, they will come up with a happy compromise before next year.

Early Bird Tour: Thumbs up, as long as you are not expecting an actual tour.

1993 Fleer Procards, Erik Bennett

#314 Erik Bennett

Here is another card that I got signed in Colorado Springs this past July. Erik was the pitching coach for the visiting Salt Lake Bees and he was nice enough to sign this card for me after the game.

Colorado Srpings has a nice setup for graphing the visiting team. The visiting team clubhouse is behind third base, but on the same level as the concourse. In order for the players to get to the field, they have to go down the same steps that a fan sitting in the first row would go down to get to his seat. That makes them very accessable to the fans. Surprisingly, very few people were taking advantage of this fan-friendly environment. Most of the people that wanted autographs were hanging out on the Sky Sox side of the field where there was a direct route from the clubhouse to the field.

As far as I can tell, Erik Bennett has only one Major League baseball card and it is from the 1996 Leaf Signature Series set and it is, of course, already signed. Lucky for me then that I was able to find this card on checkoutmycards.com for less than a buck and then get it signed. Of course, I could have just bought his signed Leaf card for just four cents more and then saved money by not going out to Colorado Springs this summer. But, what fun would that have been?

Erik pitched in the Major Leagues for parts of two seasons and that is putting it genorously. In 1995, Erik pitched one third of an inning for the Angels. The strange part about it is that his Major League Debut came in May and not September. He came into a game against the Twins with two runners on with two outs in the bottom of the eigth and got the pinch hitter to fly out to center. That was the only game he got into as an Angel.

The Twins must have liked what they saw that game because they signed him to a deal after the season was over. With the Twins, Erik got into 24 games and he went 2-0 with a save and a lofty 7.90 ERA in 27.1 innings of work.

After that, it was back to the minors for Erik. He continued to pitch until 2001, spending his final three seasons in the now defunt Western League.

Erik dosn't have much for an autograph, but at least he dots his imaginary "i" and crosses his "t's".

Erik is playing for the Midland Angels in this card. While Texas League ball is still being played in Midland, they are no longer called the Angels or even affiliated with them. The team is now called the Rock Hounds and the A's are their parent club.