1988 CMC, Jim Eppard

#498 Jim Eppard

Here is a card that I was able to get signed last month at a Colorado Springs Sky Sox game. Jim was the hitting coach for the visiting Salt Lake Bees and I was able to get this card signed after the game.

That game, I decided to 'graph the home team side and I had my buddy 'graph the visiting team side. My friend doesn't collect cards or autographs, so I basically just threw him to the fire. He had a little bit of practice the night before at an American Association game, but that is nothing like 'graphing a AAA game where seventy-five percent of the players have cards made of them. But, my buddy did a surprisingly good job and I think that he got more autographs at the game than I did. And, even though he doesn't collect cards, he has started a small autograph collection for his son with some of the doubles that he got signed for me on that trip. His son, who is only four, absolutely loved the autographs. Hopefully I have created a new autograph collector.

Unfortunately, my buddy missed all of the Bees coaches. Since none of them had much for Major League cards, I was lucky enough to find some minor league cards of them on checkoutmycards.com. I've noticed that there has been much more minor league cards on there recently and most of them cost less than a dollar. So, I picked some up on there and I was not leaving that park without a few of them signed. Even though the Bees lost in ten innings, I was still able to get cards signed by two of their three coaches. The manager was the only one that wasn't willing to sign.

Jim is playing for the Edmonton Trappers in this card. At that time, they were the Angels AAA team. Since then, though, the Trappers have moved to Texas where they are now known as the Round Rock Express. Pro ball is still being played in Edmonton, though, but it is in the form of the North American League's Edmonton Capitals.

This is the first card from this set that I have got signed.