1981 Donruss, Rick Reuschel

#561 Rick Reuschel

I got back from my trip to the Metrodome tonight and I had this card waiting for me in the mailbox. I sent this card to Rick on the 25th on got it back either Friday or Saturday. That is one of the better turnarounds that I have recieved this year.

So far, this is probably the darkest card in the set that I have had signed (the scanner brightened it up a bit). The set is great for autographs because most of the shots are posed and are really bright. But, there are a few action shots that look like this or worse. Luckily, Rick signed it on the best spot possible- right along his leg.

I remember Rick from his playing days. But all I knew of him was from 1987 on up. He was just a common player and I never paid him any mind. I had no idea until recently that how long of a career he had. He played for 19 seasons and was a three-time All Star. He made his first All Star team at the age of 28 and didn't make his second one until the age of 38. He won 19 games with the Giants the next season, but didn't make the All Star team. But, he was an All Star the following year and went on to win 17 games for the Giants. For his career, he won 214 games and struck out 2,015 batters. That sounds like a pretty respectable career and I am glad that I was able to add him to my '81 Donruss collection.

On the way home today, I made an impromptu visit to a neat little museum. I will do a post on that tomorrow (which is actually today) and throw in a few shots from the Metrodome as well. There will even be an autographed card from a Hall of Famer in the post.

'81 Donruss Tracker: 34/100

1991 Line Drive AAA, Jim Gabella

#100 Jim Gabella

I got this card signed the day before the Futures Game when I went to a game in Burlington, Iowa. Jim is the manager of the Burlington Bees. He signed both cards I had of him, this one and a Bees team card.

Jim never made it to the Major Leagues. In fact, he never made it above A ball. A majority of his time in pro ball has been as a coach or manager in the minors. In this card, he is a AAA hitting coach. Close to twenty years later, he is managing a low A team. I couldn't find out much more about him, but I think that it would be safe to assume that he has been coaching in some sort ever since he quit playing in 1980. I'm sure that he knows a thing or two about the game.

The other guy on the card is the pitching coach for the Mariners. I didn't get to see them play this year. But the next time I do, if Rick is still with them, I will try to get him so sign it.

I typed this post last night since I am out of town for a few days. I'm running short on time, so there will not be any posts on Saturday. I'll be back on Sunday and will have a couple of cards up then.

If you are not a Yankee, Mariner, or Tiger fan (or Twins), make sure to root on Zack Grienke tomorrow when he takes on the Twins on Fox.

1991 Donruss, Wally Whitehurst

#511 Wally Whitehurst

I got this autograph just a few weeks ago while I was on my Maryland trip. I headed north to Wilmington, Delaware to see a Carolina League playoff game between the Lynchburg Hillcats and the Wilmington Blue Rocks. Wally was the pitching coach for for the Hillcats.

I flew in to Baltimore on a Friday and had planned on going to the Rocks game that night. But it rained a ton and I decided against going that night since I wanted to get autographs and rain and autographs do not mix. I ended up going the next night and it was pretty dry most of the day despite the overcast sky.

When I got to the ballpark, the Hillcat pitchers were out on the field getting all of their workouts in. When they were done, Wally came by and I asked him to sign. He signed all three of my cards. While he was doing that, the grounds crew was on the field covering it up. I asked him if they were expecting any more rain and Wally said "not that I know of". About five minutes later, it started to rain and it put a damper on the autograph hunt. But, it was short lived and they got the game in without any problems at all. The Hillcats won the game. Luckily, Wally seems like a better pitching coach than a meteorologist.

1990 Upper Deck, Xavier Hernandez

#26 Xavier Hernandez

Here is the card that was supposed to be the only post for today. But, I got lazy last night and didn't get the Jerry White one up.

I got this card signed a couple of months ago in Scranton, Pennsylvania. It was the same weekend that I went to the ARCA race at Pocono. Xavier is the pitching coach for the Durhamn Bulls and he was nice enough to sign the two cards that I took with me. I usually take three cards of a player/coach, but I was running short on time before I left and decided that two would have to do.

Xavier pitched for ten years on the Majors with five different clubs. His best season was probably in 1993 as an Astro. He appeared in 72 games that year and had a 2.61 ERA with career high 101 strikeouts. He had a good year in '92, as well, when he had a career best 2.11 ERA and 111 innings pitched. But I like his '93 stats better since he had more strikouts and fewer walks in 14.1 less innings.

1989-90 Pacific Senior League, Jerry White

#185 Jerry White

I meant to get this card posted last night, but I didn't get around to it. So, here it is today.

This is the third and final Jerry White card that was signed by the Twins first base coach in Arlington. You can see the first one here and the second one here. This is also the last Senior League card for now. I thought that it was pretty cool that I was able to get five of these cards signed and each one was on a different team.

Speaking of the Twins, I'm heading up to Minnesota this weekend to see a couple of games against the Royals. I wanted to go to what could be the final Twins game in the Metrodome, but I waited too long to get tickets. I was able to get tickets to the Friday and Saturday game, though. The Saturday game got picked up by Fox, so if you are lucky, you might get to see Zack Grienke pitch on national TV. He needs to throw seven scoreless innings to get his ERA under 2 and he needs to strikeout nine to get the Royals single season strikeout record. It should be a good time and I'm not sure if I will have any posts for those two days.

1989-90 Pacific Senior league, Tippy Martinez

#144 Tippy Martinez

This is another Tippy Martinez card that Paul, of Paul's Random Stuff, got signed for me at an Atlantic League game last month. The last Tippy card was his '81 Donruss card.

I probably sent Paul at least 20 cards to try and get signed for me. I only sent one card per player, with the exception of Tippy. Obviously, I wanted the Donruss card signed. I also sent this one along since I had not had any cards from this set signed yet. So, I figured that this one would be my first. That wasn't the case. It may have been my second card signed from the set, but by the time I got back from my trip to Maryland, I had three cards signed from the set (and this one was still wrapped up in it's shipping box). So I consider this one as number four. Oh well, at least Paul was able to get it signed for me.

1989-90 Pacific Senior League, Bobby Ramos

#65 Bobby Ramos

Here is another card that I got signed in Baltimore a couple of weeks ago. Bobby is the Rays bullpen coach and he was the only Rays coach to sign for me that day whose autograph I did not already have. I got this card and one other card signed by him.

Bobby's big league career spanned a few years, but didn't really amount to much. He spent some time in the Majors for parts of six seasons with the Expos and Yankees. Unfortunately, the most games that he ever got into in one season was 27. For his career, he only played in 103 games. His last season as a Major Leaguer was 1984. But, he continued to play in AAA for four more years before calling it quits.