1990 Score

#236 Brett Butler

I got this card signed in the early '90s while Brett was playing for the Dodgers. Brett had a long career. He always had a good average and high OBP. He was a good lead-off man who stole over thirty bases a year for most of his career, although he never had a great stolen base percentage (.685 for his career).

This card wasn't a good choice to get signed as it is another dark card. It is slightly unique, though, as it lists his position as CF rather than OF. You don't see that too often (at least not that I recall).

1976 Topps 2

#266 Alan Foster

Here is the third straight Padrograph of a guy that I had never heard of until I got this card from Rod. Alan pitched parts of ten seasons with five teams. He was predominantly a starter, but spent most of his time relieving his last two years. Nothing in his stats really stands out much. He had a decent ERA. He has some bad strikeout/walk ratios, especially coming out of the bullpen the last two seasons.

Unfortunately, no yellow uniforms. Just your standard off-white, I guess. But, we do get to see the great hats that the Padres wore for about ten years. I always liked those hats. I even have the '80s version of that hat, which has a little bit of orange in it.

1990 Procards

#2149 Pat Mahomes

I got this card signed at game one of the American Association championship this past summer. Pat was the starting pitcher for the visiting Sioux Falls Canaries. He pitched eight innings, giving up two runs while walking two and striking out three and getting the win. After the game, he signed all three of the cards I had.

Pat last pitched in the Majors in 2003. He pitched in parts of eleven seasons with six different teams. He seems to have been as wild as Mike Corkins and has an even higher career ERA of 5.47. Yet, he pitched five more seasons than Mike. I guess that is one of the advantages of playing nowadays, there are more teams that need pitching. Since 2003, Pat has pitched with six different AAA teams and three different independent teams.

Pat was one of the few Canaries that didn't have a mustache. He did have blond hair, though.

This is the other set that was packaged with the CMC AAA cards. Also, the Visalia Oaks recently changed their name to the Rawhide.

1973 Topps

#461 Mike Corkins

This is the second Padrograph of a guy I have never heard of. Mike had a short career. He played in parts of six seasons and had five Topps cards made of him. He was mostly a reliever who made some spot starts occasionally. His career ERA was 4.39. In 1970 he had seventy five strikeouts to go along with seventy nine walks. Ouch. The stat that really stands out to me is his five home runs, one of which was a grand slam. In 1973, he had thirty-three at bats and hit three homers and only one double.

But, the best part of this card is obviously the yellow uniform. That thing is AWESOME! Have the Padres worn any of these games lately as throwbacks? It would be cool to see some modern players in those (even though the they are never the same as the originals). Unfortunately, this is the only card I have signed where the player is sporting a yellow uniform. But, at least I have one.

One last note. The card is not miscut. For some reason, the scanner lopped off the top.

1990 Fleer 4

#4 Robin Ventura

This card is from the Soaring Stars insert set. This is the only card from that set that I have. I bought a ton of wax of '90 Fleer and never got one of these, so it must have come in cello or rack packs. There are only twelve cards in the insert set.

I got this card for Christmas one year from my Grandma. Wal-Mart was selling these cards in the early or mid '90s. I think it was ten bucks for an autographed card and it came in a nice hard case and with a certificate of authenticity. The Wal-Mart in my town only had two different players, and Robin was by far the better of the two. I'll show the other one in a few months. Any guesses?

Robin had a long career in baseball and made lots of money. He made two All-Star teams and played in one World Series. He now does commentary for ESPN during the College World Series. But, for me, he is best remembered as being Nolan Ryan's punching bag.

1972 Topps

I finally got a few of my Padrographs back from the scanner. I'll probably post one of them a day until I get them caught up with the rest of my cards. So you could probably call this Padrographs II for the time being. Also, these cards were done on a different scanner, so the pictures should be noticably better. Here is the first and oldest one.



#248 Leron Lee

I had never heard of this guy (or the next four guys). I looked up his stats and he played parts of eight seasons with four different teams. He hit over .260 twice (a high of .300), but under .240 the rest of the time.

1990 Fleer 3

#490 Dave Clark

I got this card signed in August at a Round Rock Express game. Dave is the manager for the Express. He was willing to sign and signed all three cards that I had of him. He has a simple looking signature that has apparently changed a little with time. Look at his Baseball Almanac page to see what I'm talking about.

1990 Fleer 2

#184 Gregg Olson

I got this card signed through the mail, probably in 1990. Gregg (not to be confused with this guy) was the 1989 American League Rookie of the Year. He had 27 saves and a 1.69 ERA. He had a few more good years with the O's before leaving via free agency and joining the Braves. He then started having arm problems and bounced around a lot after that. He had one more good year in 1998 with the D-Backs, but was out of baseball after 28 appearences (and a 8.03 ERA) with the Dodgers in 2001.

This is another example of the Baseball Almanac having the same card signed as I do.

1990 Fleer

#35 Les Lancaster

This is the second of three Lancaster cards that I got signed in Sioux City this past June. Les is the manager of the independent Sioux City Explorers. For those that are wondering, he no longer has a mullet. I can't remember if he still has the mustache.

Update: Also, I've added a few cards to my want list. I even added one that has nothing to do with the Royals. Like I originally said, this list is only going to get bigger, so keep double checking it every couple of weeks or so.

1990 Donruss 2

#396 Randy Ready

This is the third and final Randy Ready that I got signed at the Salt Lake Bees game. You can see the first two here and here. This is also the final card from this very red set. Next up is 1990 Fleer, another lackluster set. Come to think of it, all of the sets from 1990 are ugly except Upper Deck and maybe Score.

I do like this card, though, for two reasons. First is the stripe running from the stirrup to the armpit. It's like he's wearing a unitard. The second reason is the flip-up sunglasses, which are almost impossible to see in the scan. Those were the coolest things ever. They are even starting to make a comeback. When I was in Iraq, a buddy of mine found an old pair of those. They were made by Franklin, so you know they were from the '80s. I wore them on a couple of patrols, which probably wasn't very smart since they used actual glass. But the Iraqi kids loved them (or just thought I was weird). Unfortunately, I didn't bring them back to the states with me and I regret that.

Thanks to the Darren Daulton card, that makes it three Phillies in a row.

1990 Donruss

#251 Roger McDowell

I got this one through the mail in the early '90s when Roger was with the Dodgers. I usually didn't send cards to relief pitchers unless they were lights-out closers. Then I read an article in Beckett that said that Roger signs through the mail, but there was a catch. Roger didn't want people getting his autograph and then selling it, so he bent a corner on the card so it would be less likely to sell. Sure enough, he bent the upper left corner of my card. I thought that it was kind of cool though. It's an extension of his signature. At the time, I didn't realize he was such a goofball (I found that out during Rock N' Jock softball games). So, this is a neat autograph to have.

If you want to read an interesting Roger McDowell interaction, you have to check out the one that JRJ had with him at a signing recently, curtesy of Sports Locker.

1988 Topps 7

#468 Darren Daulton

Here is another card that I got signed through the mail. This one arrived on Thursday.

I always liked Dutch when he was playing, especially when he got good. The main reason I liked him is because he is from Kansas. I sent the card to Arkansas City, Kansas, so I assume he still has a house there. The return envelope was postmarked in St. Petersburg, Florida. Maybe he has a winter home in Florida. It took less than two weeks to get the card back.

I think that Darren might be better known now as being the former player that is borderline insane. That may be a little harsh, but the guy deffinitely has some interesting beliefs.

1954 Bowman

#198 Virgil Trucks

I got this card signed through the mail earlier this week. A few weeks ago, I got an '86 Fleer sticker signed by Virgil (as well as an extra card). I decided that I wanted to get a real card signed by him, so I picked up this beauty off of ebay. I spent $6 on this card, including shipping and handling. When I first got it, I had second thoughts about getting it signed. It's in really good condition for a 54 year old card. The photo seems to be faded (I don't have any other '54 Bowman to compare it to), the bottom left corner is a little dinged, and there is a slight scratch on the front. Besides those little flaws, it's a great card. But, I broke down and sent it to him anyway. This is now my oldest card that I have signed, beating out the Carl Erskine autographed card by one year.

Here are a few things that I like about this card, which might be hard to see on this scan. First off, I'm pretty sure that the photo was taken at Yankee Stadium. It's hard to see, but I think that is some of the old facade poking out over the upper deck. Also, I love that White Sox jersey. For one, it uses a zipper rather than buttons. Plus, look how curved Chicago is on the jersey. That looks really stange to me. There are four letters on his right side and three on his left. I wish I could see the whole jersey.


A few other things to note.
First, thanks Ben for helping me straighten out my want list link.
Second, don't waste your time trying to get Goose Gossage's signature through the mail. He now charges $25 a card.
Third, I got another package in the mail today (I'm felling pretty popular this week). This one was from Greg of Night Owl Cards. It's a Jaquin Arias that he won in a contest at Heartbreaking Cards of Staggering Genius. This card started out in Kansas, went to New York for a few weeks, and is now back in Kansas.

Christmas in November

I got another package in the mail today. This one is from Rod of Padrographs. He told me that he was going to send me a package. He didn't say what he was going to send, so I was pretty curious and was looking forward to it. When I got his package opened, I was in utter amazement. Rod sent me 124 autographed Padre cards. Yes, 124 signed cards. Plus, he sent me a few hundred 1991 Donruss, Series 1 and one 1992 Donruss Triple Play. I was in shock (actually, I still am). I'm still trying to sort them (the autographs) out to figure how I am going to go about listing them. Being a Royals fan that gets most of his autographs in Kansas City, I have tons of signed Royals cards. Well, I now have 35 more signed Padres cards than Royals cards (that's counting the five Padre cards that I had before this package). WOW!!! I still don't know what to say about this. I guess that I can start out with this--Rod, THANK YOU! I am now in dept to Rod for the next ten years. Rod, I have your address. Be expecting many small packages from me now and then for awhile. If there is any sets that you are trying to complete, let me know and I will be happy to send some extra cards your way.

Check out Padrographs whenever you get a chance. He shows some great cards on there.

1990 CMC 5

#365 Tim Bogar

I got this card signed this past summer at a Royals game. Tim was the Quality Assurance coach for the Tampa Bay Rays. In his playing days, he was mostly a utility player for the Mets, but he did get some decent playing time in his two years with the Astros. This is the first of three cards that he signed for me. At the game, he was the last player/coach off of the the field. He signed for quite a few people (though most people probably didn't know who he was).

This is the last card from the CMC set. I know very little about these cards. They are nice looking and are pretty glossy for 1990 standards. The backs are colorful and include a head shot taken from the card front. I have no idea what CMC stands for and I haven't seen another set made by them. Interestingly, these cards came in packs that also included Procards. CMC made the AAA cards while Procards was AA and A.

This card shows Tim as a Tidewater Tide. The team is now called the Norfolk Tides. They ended a nearly 40 year affiliation with the Mets a few years back and are now with the Orioles. The card before this one showcased a Syracuse Chief card. That team is still the Syracuse Chiefs, but they spent about ten years as the Sky Chiefs to lose the Native American moniker. Now they are the Chiefs again, but their logo is a train. Their long affiliation with the Blue Jays just ended. The two cards before that featured Richmond Braves. The Braves are in the process of leaving Richmond and are going to be playing in the Atlanta suburb of Gwinnett County next season. And, the first card of this set had an Indianapolis Indian. That team hasn't changed much since then besides their logo and affiliation.

1990 CMC 4

#350 Mark Whiten

I got this card signed through the mail in 1993 when Mark was playing for the Cardinals. In September of that year, Mark had a four home run, twelve RBI game (both record tying). The game was game two of a doubleheader. In the first game, he had one RBI. So, for the day, he had thirteen RBI which tied the National League mark for RBI in a doubleheader. I probably sent this card to him the very next day.

On a side note, a got a random package in the mail today. Matt, from Heartbreaking Cards, sent me a package with three autographed cards in it. They are fairly new cards, so it will be a little while before I get to them on here. But, I wanted to give a shout out to Matt and tell him thanks.

1990 CMC 3

#297 John Mizerock

This is the second of three Mizerock autographs I got this past season at The K while he was smokin' and jokin' in the bullpen prior to a game. Last year, Mizerock was the Royal's bullpen coach. The Royals reshuffled their coaches this off-season and Mizerock will be their bullpen coach next year. I was kind of surprised by this. For one the Royals re-assigned their third base coach to a roving instructor. Mizerock has been a Major League third base coach for the Royals before. But, they decided to move the bench coach to third base coach. So, now there is an opening at the bench coach position. Mizerock has never held that job before, but he has been the manager for every minor league team in the Royal's system and was even an interim manager for the Royals. But, they hire John Gibbons (who has actual Major League managerial experience) as the bench coach. So John Mizerock will be coming back next year as the bullpen coach. Maybe he'll be the next Dave Duncan- a former catcher turned pitching coach. Who knows?

1990 CMC 2

#296 Tommy Greene

I got this autograph through the mail, probably in 1991 after Tommy threw his no-hitter. He was with the Phillies at the time and threw it against the Expos. He walked seven batters in the game, but a no-hitter is a no-hitter.

Tommy's first name is actually Ira (sorry, I had to throw that in there).

Also, I got a package today to complete a trade that I made with Dayf, of Cardboard Junkie, last week. I don't have a scanner, so I'll just list some of the highlights. The featured card of the trade was the Mike Aviles '08 Topps U&H. He also threw in four Leaf Carlos Beltrans, a Sweet Spot Zack Grienke, and some older Royals cards (Brian McRae, Mark Gubicza, and Jeff Montgomery), just to name a few. But the best part about this trade is that we both got the card we were looking for out of the Topps U&H. Now, we no longer have to waste money on this product. Thanks Dayf!

1990 CMC

#73 Jose Castro

This wasn't the start to the '90s that I was looking for. I don't have any '90 Bowman signed, so we start off the '90s with a minor league card of a career minor leaguer.

I got this card signed at a Ranger's game in September. Jose was the hitting coach for the Mariners. Jose must not get many requests to sign cards because I asked him to sign as he walked by, and he said "Who, me?". He then came over and signed this card.

Looking at his stats, he is the deffinition of "career minor leaguer". He played thirteen seasons in the minors, ten of them in AAA. So he got to AAA pretty fast and put up decent numbers in his first season, hitting .303 and posting an OPS of .846. He had two more seasons later on that were nearly identical. But, he never got a shot in the Majors.

1986 Fleer 3, kind of

NN Tigers logo sticker/Virgil Trucks

I put the "kind of" in the title because this isn't exactly an '86 Fleer card. It's obviously a sticker that came from the '86 Fleer set.

A few weeks ago, I came across a couple of websites that list home addresses for retired players. It seemed that Virgil was on all of the lists and I did not have a clue who he was. So I looked up his stats and he was a pitcher that pitched eighteen years (plus, missed almost two years during WWII) for five different ball clubs. He had one 20 and two 19 win seasons and a 19 loss season. His 19 loss season actually came the year before his only 20 win season. How strange is that? He wasn't much of a strikeout pitcher as his career high was 161. His second highest was 153 and that was in 275 innings pitched. But, here's the kicker. He is one of four pitchers all time to pitch two no-hitters in one year. That's Johnny Vander Meer, Allie Reynolds, and Nolan Ryan territory right there. That is what made me want to get his autograph. He did that in 1952 with the Tigers. Incidentally, this also happened to be the year that he lost 19 games. He went 5-19 and 40% of his wins were no-hitters. The first no-hitter was a 1-0 victory on May 15th over the Senators. It was his first win of the season. The second no-no was also a 1-0 victory, this time against the Yankees on August 25th. This was his last win of the year. His ERA was 3.97 which might be on the high side for 1952 (I might be wrong, it definitely would be a decent ERA today). But, he played on a horrible Tiger team. This team was about as bad as the 2003 Tigers. They went 50-104 and had pitchers that lost 20, 19 (Trucks), and 17 games. It's just an incredible story.

One reason I decided to just send a sticker is because I read that he'll sign your card and then give you a couple of extra signed cards. Here's the one that I got.



It's a cool card that he had made up to show off his two no-hitters. The only bad part about it is its size. It's about a half inch longer and wider than a standard baseball card. Plus, he also sent this.



It's basically a personalized post card promoting his book. It's kind of hard to read (after all, Virgil is 91 years old), so this is what it says-
Hi Zach,
Glad to sign your card
& enclose one for you.
Plus this about my
book if your[sic] interested.
Take care & my best
to you & your family.
Sincerely,
Virgil "Fire" Trucks

What a nice guy. I might actually have to pony-up $30 for his book, especially after I sent him another card to sign. I bought a 1954 Bowman off ebay last week and sent it off earlier this week.

I love how he signs his nickname. He adds Fire before Trucks. But the best part is that he does Fire in red. Very cool.

News

I am now a contributor to Auto-Matic for the People. It's another cool site that is autograph exclusive. Here, I will mostly be posting football, hockey and basketball autographs along with an occasional baseball autograph. I'll probably do a couple of posts a week and am really looking forward to it. You should check it out if you haven't already.

I also want to say thanks to my best friend, Dustin. He does all of the behind the scenes work on this blog. I don't have a scanner, so every single scan on here is courtesy of Dustin. Without his help, this blog would not exist. When I first started this, he was probably my only reader, as well. He's getting married in a couple of months and I wish him all of the luck in the world. Thanks again.

1981 Donruss 12

#8 Mark Fidrych

I got this card signed through the mail early last week. I found The Bird's home address on the Bad Wax blog. This was the first card I ever sent out to a retired player. It took me only nine days to get it back; deffinitely a lot quicker than current players.

I'm not going to get into The Birds career or his arm problems. If you want to read more about that, check out the Bad Wax post. But, I will say that I like this addition to my collection.

This card is signed with a pen, rather than the usual Sharpie. I usually don't like pen autographs on cards, but this one is the best looking one that I have. I think that it's becasue of the '81 Donruss, which uses a cheap card stock which is really thin. It's more like writing on paper rather than cardboard.

1989 Uppe Deck 3

#633 Kirk Gibson

I got this card signed through the mail in either 1989 or '90.

Growing up, I was a Dodger fan. So naturally, I was pretty excited in 1988 when they beat out the Mets to face the A's in the World Series. I didn't think that they would beat that stacked Oakland team, but I was still excited nonetheless. The night that the Series started was my little cousin's birthday, so I went to her birthday party and watched the game there. It was getting late, but the game was still close and I didn't want to leave in fear that I might miss something (it was about a 15-20 minute drive home). Luckily, I was able to witness history. I will never forget that ending. I was shocked, nervous and excited when Gibson came up to bat. I wasn't sure if he was up to the task. But, he battled Eckersley to a 3-2 count before hitting the game winning home run on a very awkward and off-balance swing. I will never forget that, especially him limping around the base path and pumping his fist as he rounded second. That won the series for the Dodgers. They had all of the momentum on their side after that.

I never realized it until a couple of days ago, but Dave Stewart (who I posted on here a couple of days ago) started that game and would have been the winner if it wasn't for Gibson.

This is the last card I have from the 80s. Well, it was the last card until last week when I got a couple of cards signed through the mail. So, I'll get those two posted (one is another '81 Donruss) and then kick off the 90s on Sunday (hopefully).

1989 Upper Deck 2

#244 Willie Wilson

This is the third and final Wilson card that was signed at the Willie Wilson Classic this past spring. This is another example of "why did I take this card"? It is pretty dark with only a splinter of white uniform. Oh well, you live and you learn. I guess I figured that I had very few cards from this set signed, so I might as well. There was no gaurantee that I was going to get Stewart's and Wilson's autograph that night, anyway (Willie almost didn't sign this card).

1989 Upper Deck

#185 Dave Stewart

Here the first Upper Deck card ever shown on here. The blog is now entering the realm of the big five (Topps, Fleer, Score, Donruss, and Upper Deck). At this point, Topps' Bowman set is the only extra mainstream set being produced by the big five.

Here is the second Dave Stewart card on here. This one shows him as an Athletic, which is how I usually picture him. Dave really turned his career around in Oakland, but he was also helped out by an offense that could score at will.

1989 Topps 5

#737 Norm Charlton

This is the second of three Norm Charlton signatures that I got in Kansas City back in September. I forgot to mention this on the first post, but Norm was the bullpen coach for the Mariners at the time (and he still might be).

This is the last card from the eighties, so I'll be moving on to...
Wait a second. Wasn't threre some new brand or something in 1989? Hmmm.

1989 Topps 4

#628 Matt Williams

I got this card signed through the mail in the early '90s while Matt was still with the Giants. I just noticed this a few weeks ago, but at some point this card got a small crease in it. It's really hard to see on the scan, but it's right above his glove. Also, I was kind of surprised that the card listed him as SS/3B. I only remember his as 3B. It's like my 1980 Dale Murphy Topps card that lists him as a C/1B. Well, maybe it's not that bad.

This is the first Giants card on here.

1989 Topps 3

#348 Ed Hearn

This is the second of two Ed Hearn signatures that I got at the Willie Wilson Classic. This card is kind of funny compared to the last catcher card on here (Terry Kennedy). The last one featured a catcher that just popped out of his stance to chase down what was probably foul pop-up. Then we have Ed here in his fake pose taking his mask off before he even moved out of his squat. Which do you like better? Plus, he is squatting in grass (with his back to a pitcher, nonetheless) and he is smiling. It doesn't get in faker than that.

1989 Topps 2

#80 Cory Snyder

I got this card signed through the mail in either the late '80s or early '90s(probably 1989 or '90). I don't know the exact date. But, in the words of 30-year old Cardboard, this might be my "That Guy". Cory had 83 home runs in his first three seasons in the big leagues (so, naturally I was pretty excited when I got this autograph). So I, like many people, thought that Cory was going to have a Barry Bonds-like career (or at least Mark McGwire). He then hit 66 home runs throughout the rest of his career (which lasted until 1994). But, that is life and that is baseball. Pitchers adjust and some hitters can't. This goes both ways.

I do wish that he would have signed it in a place that would have made it more readable, like across his shoulders.

Also, on a side note, I hate sets that don't put the player's position on the front.

1989 Topps

#25 Frank White

This is the second of the two Frank White autographs that I got at the Royals Caravan in 2004. He went on the Kansas leg of the tour because he was going to be managing the Royal's AA affiliate, the Wichita Wranglers. At all of the Caravan events, it's always one autograph per person. Luckily, that year, the event was held in the afternoon during the week, so there weren't too many people there. I got one card signed and then hung around talking the the local card shop owner while everyone else went through the line. After everyone went through, there was still some time left, so I went up to Frank and got a second card signed and talked a little bit. This card was much better for signing than the '89 Dunruss I showed earlier.

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.

1989 Star

#90 Bill Masse

This is the first card on here of a player that never made it to the big leagues. Billy played AAA for four seasons, all in the Yankee organization, before hanging it up. In his second season of AAA, he hit .316 with 19 homers and 91 RBI. I figured that kind of season would at least get him a September call-up, but it didn't. So close.

I got this card signed in San Antonio in August. Bill was the manager of the Missions. I tried to get him to sign after the game was over, before he left the dugout, but he didn't. So I waited outside the ballpark for him to come out. And I waited. And waited. And waited some more. Around eleven o'clock, I said to myself "I'll give him fifteen minutes, and then I'm leaving". Fifteen minutes later, I said the exact same thing. Fifteen minutes later, I said "screw it, I've waited this long" and sat out and waited until he came out. Finally, about an hour and forty-five minutes after the game ended (and nearly midnight), he came out and signed both of my cards. It wasn't like I had to be anywhere anyway. I was just going to leave the game, drive north for a few hours and sleep in my car at a truck stop. So, it didn't really matter if I left at ten or twelve.

Even though it is just a minor league card, this is the first card on here of a player from the Yankee organization.

1989 Score 2

#426 Randy Ready

This is the second of three Randy Ready cards that I got signed in Salt Lake City in May. I forgot to mention this on his last card, but he signs his first and last names exactly the same. It's a little harder to see on this card, but you can see it better here.

This is the first Padres card on here. This is also the first card to list the position as "infield", although it should'nt be.

1989 Score

#123 Terry Kennedy

Here is the second of three Kennedy autographs that I got in San Antonio from the Mission's hitting coach. This card has a really cool action photo of Kennedy pursuing a pop fly around home plate. This is probably one of the better shots you can get of a catcher- his glove is above his head blocking the sun, his mask is off but hasn't been thrown yet, and you can just barely see part of the umpire which could indicate that the ball is still on the way up. Overall, it's a pretty good photo to go along with a nice crisp signature.

1989 Procards

#1679 Jay Bell

I got this card signed through the mail sometime in the early 90s when Jay was playing for those great Pirate teams. I don't really know why I sent a card to him at the time, since he didn't put up decent numbers until after he left Pittsburgh. Maybe I had an extra minor league card of him lying around that I wanted signed. I don't know. But, I'm glad that I did.

Unlike the last Procards card on here, this one wasn't part of a team set. But it still has a remarkably high number. I used to be able to find packs of this stuff at a local gas station around 1990. All of the cards were AAA players. This card and a Mark McGwire one are about the only decent cards that I got from this set.

Jay is best known for fathering a son that came up with the name for the Diamondback's mascot (which isn't even a snake).

This is really off topic, but, I love the name Buffalo Bisons. It's like saying the Automobile Cars or the Cougar Mountain Lions or the Father Padres or the Buccaneer Pirates or...I could go on and on about this, but I will just leave it at this. The Buffalo Bison's (and the Bills, for that matter) name is much better than the Buffalo Sabres. Nothing against the Sabres, but their name sucks. The only problem with the name is that the plural for bison is bison. So, it's like calling the Manitoba Moose the Mooses.