1992 Upper Deck, Mo Vaughn

#445 Mo Vaughn

Here is another card that Padrograph Rod sent me back in January that I somehow forgot to scan. The one features the former Red Sox, Angels, and Mets slugger, Mo Vaughn.

This is the second Mo Vaughn card that I have posted on here. I posted the first one back in 2009 and it can be seen here.

If you check out my first Vaughn post, you will see that the two signatures are completely different. The first one was obtained TTM in the early '90s and I have no idea how this one was obtained. I looked at some photos of Mo's signature on SCN and I found examples that matched both autographs. The earliest one on there looks just like the first card I posted. That make sense since both cards were signed TTM around the same time.

I also found signatures that resemble this signature. All of the more recent signatures from Mo look like a shortened version of this signature, so that would make me think that this is an authentic autograph. So, that raises one question.

Is my early '90s Mo Vaughn autograph legit? Or did Mo use a ghost signer that didn't even know what to sign the cards with?

1992 Skybox AAA, Doug Linton

#228 Doug Linton

Here is the second and final Doug Linton card that I was able to get signed in Colorado Springs over the summer. Doug was the pitching coach for the Sky Sox and I got this card signed just prior to the game.

For some reason, I did not buy nearly as many of these Skybox cards as I did of the Line Drive cards that looked similar and came out the previous year. I'm not sure if that was because my local supermarket did not carry these or if it was because I was about to enter high school and collecting was about to hit the back burner. Either way, it kind of sucks because I have few of these cards to search through when looking for cards to get signed.

If you haven't already, you need to head over to The Great Orioles Autograph Project and enter his second annual postseason contest. It is real easy to enter and you could come out with cool and unique prizes. The deadline to enter is at first pitch tomorrow (Friday).

1992 Score. Chris Bosio

#37 Chris Bosio

Here is the second of three Chris Bosio cards that I got signed at an Iowa Cubs game in July. Chris was the pitching coach for the visiting Nashville Sounds.

Chris pitched for the Brewers for seven seasons and spent a majority of the time as a starter. Though he never made an All Star team or propelled the Brewers to the playoffs, he did have some really good seasons. He had double digit wins in four of his seven seasons with the club, including a career high of 16 in 1992.

Even though he finished that season 16-6, I would say that 1989 was his best season as a Brewer. That year, he finished 15-10. Obviously, that is not as good as 16-6, but he had other stats stand out as well. His ERA that year was a career best 2.95 and he struck out 173 batter which was also a career high. That must be why Donruss rewarded him with a Diamond King card in their 1990 set.

After 1992, Chris left Milwaukee and headed to Seattle via the free agent route. But, I will get into that next week when I post my third and final card of Chris.

CONTEST TIME!!

But not here, though. I run the College World Series Contest. Ryan, from The Great Orioles Autograph Project, is holding his second annual Postseason Baseball Contest. The two contests are actually pretty similar while being worlds apart. His is certainly simpler than mine, plus it involves teams that everyone is familar with. All you have to do is fill out a postseason bracket and you have the potential to win some really cool stuff. Since not all of the playoff spots are locked down, you will not be able to enter until Thursday (or whenever all the spots are clinched). But don't wait too long because once the playoffs get underway, the entry period will be over. Good luck!

1991 Topps, Rich Rodriguez

#573 Rich Rodriguez

Here is a card that I was supposed to post a long time ago. This card was sent to me by Rod, from Padrographs, back in January. Somehow though, this card got skipped in my scanning and I am just now getting around to it.

This is not the first Rich Rodriguez autograph that Rod has sent me. He sent me one a few years ago and I posted in at the end of 2008 and it can be see here. If you take a peek at that post, one thing should stand out to you and that would be that the two signatures look completely different. The first one takes up most of the card and is real loopy and hard to make out. While this one is also hard to make out, it looks completely different than the first one. The easiest parts of the signature to compare to each other is the "z" and the end of his name. The one on this card looks like a normal-looking cursive "z" while the one on the '91 Leaf card looks way more stylized.

So, if I had to pick one or the other as authentic, I think that I would go with this one. I haven't taken the time to look up any other Rich Rodriguez autographs on the web beside the one on his Baseball Almanac page and that one mostly resembles this one. Whether or not that is a correct guess or not remains to be seen. Maybe there is someone reading this that got Rich in-person who could be of some help.

1991 Stadium Club, Bret Saberhagen

#28 Bret Saberhagen

Here is what I beleive is the fourth Bret Saberhagen card I have posted in the past couple of months. I am running out of stuff to say about Bret, so I guess I'll talk more about the card than him.

This is the first card that I have got signed from the inaugural Stadium Club set. The set was so pricey when it came out that I did not buy too many packs. As a result, I have little to rummage through when I try to find cards to get signed.

This card is from the Members Only set and, to be honest, I know nothing about the set. I don't know how they were obtained or how many cards were in the set. All I know is that they say "MEMBERS ONLY" in foil on the front and the backs are completely different than the regular set. The regular set had stats on the back and other stuff while this card here just talks about Bret no-hitting the Pale Hose. And yes, it actually calls the Sox the Pale Hose.

So, even though this card is from the Members Only set, I am still happy to have a '91 Stadium Club of any kind signed.

1991 Sport Pro Butte Copper Kings, Doug Sisson

#27 Doug Sisson

Here is a card that I got signed at the Royals last home game of the season on Wednesday. Doug is the Royals first base coach and I was able to get this card signed before batting practice started.

If you have never heard of Doug, don't feel bad. I was the same way when the Royals announced his addition to the coaching staff. I promptly looked at checkoutmycards.com to see what cards he had and was disappointed to see that he didn't have one on there. But, thanks to a seller on there by the name of "minorleaguemania", some Doug Sisson cards eventually became available and I picked a couple up and finally got them signed at the last home game.

Amazingly, Doug has never played pro ball. Wikipedia says that he was signed by the Twins, but I can't find any stats of his on Baseball Reference. In fact, when I typed his name in there, it took me directly to his minor league managing page. I didn't even know such a page existed.

But, let me tell you what Doug has done this year for the Royals. He is not only their first base coach, but he is also the outfielders coach. And under his watch, the Royals have quietly put together one of the best outfields in baseball. This year, the Royals became the first team in the history of the game to have three outfielders with forty or more doubles. Now, that probably has more to do with hitting coach Kevin Seitzer than it does with the outfielders coach. But, the Royals outfielder's play in the field has been pretty good, too. For instance, the Royals outfield leads the Majors in assists. Plus, Alex Gordon leads the Majors in outfield assists this year with twenty (a new Royals record) while Jeff Francouer is second with four less. Did I mention that Alex Gordon was a third baseman until a season and a half ago?

Doug is also the base running coach and the Royals somehow lead the American League in stolen bases right now. Francouer has somehow swiped twenty-two bases and that broke his previous career high of eight. As Mel Allen would have said- "How about that?"

Doug is pictured with the Butte Copper Kings on this card. The Copper Kings are no longer playing in Butte, though, as they relocated to Casper, Wyoming in 2001. The Copper Kings played in the Pioneer League and were affiliated with the Texas Rangers when this card came out.

1991 Orioles Crown, Dick Hall

#174 Dick Hall

Here is a card that I got in a little trade with Ryan from The Great Orioles Autograph Project. If you have never seen his blog, you should check it out. Ryan is trying to get one autograph from every single Oriole that has played for them and, amazingly, he is only nine signatures short of completing the task. That just shows how determined Ryan is on completing his project and his blog reflects that passion as well.

Back in the winter of 2010, Ryan sent me a Jamie Quirk Crown card to get signed at Royals Fanfest and, to my dismay, I was unable to get the card signed. So, to make it up to him this year, I bought my own Quirk Crown card and had planned on surprising him by getting it signed and sent without him knowing about it. But then, right before Orioles Fanfest, Ryan posted on his blog about him willing to get some cards signed at O'sFest for his readers if they sent him a card of those players. I wanted to take advantage of Ryan's generosity, but I didn't have any cards of the guys that he was offering to get some cards signed for (I don't think "take advantage" were the right words). So, I told Ryan what I was up to and he agreed to get a card or two signed for me.

After O'sFest, Ryan told me which cards that he got signed and he let me pick the ones I wanted. For Dick Hall, he had this card and a 1970 Topps card. Normally, I would have jumped all over the '70 Topps because I love getting older cards signed. But, while I had the Quirk Crown card in my collection for a week and a half, I got kind of attached to it. So, I picked this Crown card over the 1970 card just to fill a void in my collection and I could not have been happier with my choice. Thanks, Ryan!

As for Dick, he had an interesting career. He broke into the big leagues in 1952 with the Pirates as an outfielder/infielder. That lasted all of three seasons before being converted to a pitcher in '55. It seems like that was a good choice since Dick pitched in the Majors until his final year in 1971. He was mainly a reliever and he recorded twelve saves in a season twice and finished his career with 68. He also had an amazing strikeout to walk ratio of 3.14. That is the kind of guy any team wants coming out of the pen, especially if there are men on base.

Thanks again, Ryan!

1991 Line Drive AAA, Terry Clark

#607 Terry Clark

Here is the third and final Terry Clark card that I got signed in Omaha this summer. Terry is the pitching coach for the Round Rock Express and he signed this card prior to a game in July.

I really have nothing else to say about Terry that I hadn't already said in the previous two posts. But, I will say this:

First- I love how well the blue Sharpie came out over the red jersey. The signature just pops off the card.

Second- I think it is funny that Line Drive dubbed this set as "pre-rookie" even though Terry and yesterdays post, Robbie Wine, had actual rookie cards in base sets in the late '80s. Maybe 'pre-rookie" is not the best moniker for a AAA set.

And Last- If I did not know any better, I would think that Terry's name is Ty Clark, based off his signature.

One Last Thing- Terry is still rocking the mustache.

1991 Line Drive AAA, Robbie Wine

#572 Robbie Wine

Here is the third and final Robbiw Wine card that I got signed at a Wichita State game this past spring. Robbie is the head baseball coach for the Penn State Nittany Lions.

This card shows Robbie as a member of the Tidewater Tides. The funny thing about this card is that Robbie never played a game for the Tides. Robbie's Baseball Reference page lists 1990 as his final season as a player and that season was spent with the Indians AA team. So, I guess that the Mets signed him after that season and assigned him to their AAA team and then cut him before he ever appeared in a game for them? Sounds good to me. At least he was around for photo day to take this nice posed shot.

I went to the Royals game today and it could have been a good day for 'graphing if the weather would have cooperated. It had been cloudy all day, but the rain stayed away. But, shortly after the gates opened, it started to sprinkle. I still got a few signatures, but it would have been much better if it was dry. I missed out on the White Sox Matt Thornton, Sergio Santos, and Chris Sale because I didn't want to get my cards signed while it was sprinkling. If you have ever tried 'graphing cards in wet weather, it is usually not a good idea. The smallest sprinkle of rain on a wet Sharpie signature shows up real easily and if the Sharpie hits a water drop on the card, you end up with a two-tone signature. Either way, it is not good. About half of the cards that I did get signed today had one of those two problems associated with it.

1989-90 Pacific Senior League, Bobby Jones

#98 Bobby Jones

Here is the second card that I got Bobby to sign for me before his Round Rock Express took on the Omaha Storm Chasers in Omaha this summer. The first card can be seen here.

I really love this set and I enjoy getting cards signed from it. Unfortunately, this is the only signed one that I have been able to aquire this year. The last time I posted a card from this set was June of 2010. That was quite a drout. But, I finally got one signed over the summer and it was also my first Fort Myers Sun Sox card from the set that I got signed. I think there is just one more team that I do not have a card signed from and that is the Orlando Juice.

Bobby lead the Express to the playoffs this season, but the team fell to the Storm Chasers in the first round.

1990 Donruss, Chris Bosio

#20 Chris Bosio

Here is a card that I got signed in Des Moines this summer. Chris is the pitching coach for the Nashville Sounds and I was able to get this card signed just before the game started. I was a little worried that I would get denied on this one since the the National Anthem had already been sung and the I-Cubs were already on the field. But, Chris came right over and signed all three cards for me.

The signatures seem kind of sloppy, but they seem like a shorter version of the sample provided by Baseball Almanac in the link. I am not sure if this is what Chris' signature looks like now or if this a hurried "the game is about to start" signature.

This is the second Diamond King from this set that I have got signed. I got Dan Gladden in Arlington a couple of years ago and it looks just as good. Actually, it looks a bit better since Dan has a neater signature. But, either way, you cannot beat a signed Diamond king.

It looks to me like Dick Perez created the wi-fi logo that pops up on my phone whenever I find a hot spot. I hope that he is getting credit for it.

1990 CMC, Terry Clark

#605 Terry Clark

Here is the second of three cards that Terry signed for me at a Omaha Storm Chasers game this summer. The first one can be seen by scrolling down a bit.

In the first Terry Clark post, I mentioned that he pitched over 1800 innings in the minors. So, it is only appropriate that I got him to sign a minor league card, too.

Thank goodness for the plethora of minor league cards that came out in the late '80s and early '90s. Most of them are about worthless now as the pre-rookie concept never really caught on. But, without all of those minor league sets, my autograph collection would be a little thinner since a minor league card is sometimes the only card available to get autographed.

In my last post about Doug Linton, I said that I was able to find two minor league cards of him and then not a single Major League card. I was a little more lucky with Terry. With him, I also quickly found two minor league cards of him. Then I started to look for a Major League card and I quickly found his '89 Donruss card that I posted previously. It turns out that that card is a double print. So, if I had continued to go through my '89 Donruss collection, I probably could have found seven more of the same card. Why couldn't Doug Linton have had a card doubled printed?

Terry is playing for the Tucson Toros in this card. They were the Astros AAA team at the time. The Toros (and Tucson Sidewinders) quit playing in the Pacific Coast League after the 1997 season. But, thanks to the banishment of baseball in Portland, Oregon, Tucson has a new AAA team- the Tucson Padres. Tucson is only supposed to be a temporary home for the Padres AAA team, so it will be interesting to see how long they stay there.

1990 CMC, Doug Linton

#331 Doug Linton

Here is a card that I got signed in Colorado Springs over the summer. Doug is the pitching coach for the Colorado Springs Sky Sox and I was able to get this card signed just before the game started (and right after I got the previous post to sign).

Doug pitched in the Majors for parts of seven seasons, but I was unable to find a single Major League card of him. I bought a bunch of cards to get signed on that trip, but I did not bother to buy any cards of Doug. I had dug up two minor league cards of him and I thought for sure that I would be able to find a Major League card in my collection. Unfortunately, that was not the case.

Doug's Major League career only lasted seven seasons, but those seven seasons spanned over twelve years. He made his debut with the Jays in 1992 and he pitched a few games with them in '93 before being claimed by the Angels early on that season. He then pitched for the Mets in '94 before playing for the Royals in '95 and '96. After that, he disappeared to the minors for a few years before appearing for the Orioles in '99 and then the Jays again in 2003.

For his career, Doug was 17-20 with zero saves and a 5.78 ERA.

I really like Doug's signature. His last name isn't exactly readable, but it sure looks cool.

1990 Best Memphis Chicks, Stu Cole

#4 Stu Cole

Here is another card that I got signed in Colorado Springs this summer. This one was signed by Stu Cole, the Sky Sox manager.

Unknown to me at the time, Stu saw a bit of Major League action in 1991 as a Royals September call-up. Since the only card I could find of him was a minor league card, I just figured that he was a career minor leaguer. But, that was not the case and I was actually surprised to see that Stu did appear in two different Topps set. He was in 1992 Stadium Club and 1992 Topps Debut, a set I had never heard of before. I knew Topps put out a Debut set in 1990, but I had no idea that they did it more than once.

Stu got into nine games with the Royals that September and October and he went 1-7 at the plate with a run and two walks. The one hit he did have set up a twelfth inning walk-off walk for the Royals. He only started one game during the call-up and it was on the final day of the season. On that day, most of the regulars got the day off and the Kansas City Royals basically put the Omaha Royals out on the field that day. Here are some of the names that filled out Hal McRea's lineup that day- Bobby Moore, Harvey Pulliam, Jorge Pedre, and Tim Spehr. Stu was eventually pinch hit for in the bottom of the ninth by some guy named George Brett, who struck out looking.

After that season, it was back to the minors for good for Stu. He played for four more seasons, spending the final three with the Sky Sox, the team he currently manages.

1989 Upper Deck, Jim Eppard

#614 Jim Eppard

Here is the second and final card that I got Jim Eppard to sign for me after a Colorado Springs Sky Sox game this summer. Jim is the hitting coach for the Salt Lake Bees and he was nice enough to sign this card for me after a crushing ten inning loss to the Sox.

I had to buy this card from checkoutmycards.com because I could not find a single card of Jim in my collection. That was kind of sad, especially because I know I have his '89 Topps card somewhere. I took that card with me to a Bees game in 2008 and I did not get it signed. I haven't seen it since. I posted about this very problem with Mike Mason a week and a half ago. I think I may make it my goal this winter to get all of my cards organized and vow to keep them that way. We'll see how well that goes, if it even goes at all.

Jim played parts of four seasons with the Angels and Blue Jays from 1987-90. His biggest season was in '88 and that was the only time he had more than 12 at-bats in a season. That year, he got into 56 games and he came to the plate 126 times. He hit .283 that season with a OBP of .347. He had 3 doubles, a triple, and 14 RBI. That may not seem all that great, but it certainly isn't bad for the fourth outfielder. Sure, he didn't have much power, but at least he got on base.

After his last appearance in the Majors, Jim played three more seasons in the minors. In 1991, he was with a high-A team. He was back in AAA in '92. And in '93, he was with the St.Paul Saints of the independent Northern League. If you check out the Saints roster from that year, you will see that Jim was teammates with Leon Durham, Kevin Millar, and Rey Ordonez. Minnie Minoso even had one at-bat with them that season. That sounds like it might have been a fun team to watch.

1989 Topps, Robin Ventura

#764 Robin Ventura

If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times- Do not go to the College World Series without something for Robin Ventura to sign. He works as the color commentator for ESPN and he is at the CWS every single year. Some years he does signings for the corporate sponsors and some years he does not. But, it is always handy to have something for him to sign just in case. I've been to the CWS each of the last five years and Robin has signed in three of the five.

The first time I came across Robin at the CWS, he was signing at the State Farm booth and they did not have anything for him to sign. The AT&T booth always provides 8x10s for free, but State Farm was behind the curve that year and I passed on a free autograph since I had nothing worth getting signed.

Two years later, Robin signed at the AT&T booth and I got an 8x10 signed and a card of him as a Dodger. The only reason I got that card signed was because it was the first card of him that I dug up. Last year, I took a little more effort to find some better cards of Robin to get signed and this was the best one that I found. What better card is there to have Robin sign at the College World Series than this one?

I missed out on Robin last year, but I got him this year at the Capital One booth. The card came out looking great with the black Sharpie on the orange jersey and background. This card just screams out Oklahoma State.

Robin signed the next day at the AT&T tent, but I was so happy with this card that I decided to save my 1994 Bowman's Best card of him for another time.

1989 Donruss, Terry Clark

#607 Terry Clark

Here is a card that I got signed in Omaha in July. The Round Rock Express were in town to face the Storm Chasers and Terry is the pitching coach for the Express. I was able to get this card signed prior to the contest.

Terry had a long career as a professional pitcher, but you would not have guessed that based on the number of baseball cards of him. Terry has a card in each of the five main sets in 1989 and then only one other card after that. When I was trying to dig up some cards of him, I just assumed that he only played in the Major Leagues for one season. Boy was I wrong.

Terry made his Major League debut with the Angels in 1988 and he went 6-6 with them over 15 starts. He only made 4 starts in the Majors in '89 and 1, with the Astros, in 1990. He then disappeared to the minors for four full seasons before resurfacing with the Braves in '95. At that point, he went into full journeyman mode and proceeded to play for six different teams over a three year span. 1995 was with Atlanta and Baltimore, '96 was with Kansas City and Houston, and '97 was with Cleveland and Texas. Terry even pitched for two more seasons in the minors, but he never made it back up to the Show.

When he was all said and done, Terry had pitched professionally for twenty-one seasons and eleven organizations. While he only threw 232.1 innings in the Majors, he did log over 1800 in the minors. That has got to be worth something.

1989 Baseabll Card Magazine, Bret Saberhagen

#48 Bret Saberhagen

Here is the next Bret Saberhagen card that I was able to get signed at the Menards grand opening in May. Somehow, the card got a little crooked in the scanner, but I am too lazy to rescan it.

I took this card with me to get signed just because it is fun to get an oddball card signed sometimes. Unfortunately, oddball cards like this rarely hit the market anymore with Topps' stranglehold on the industry, but it was a different world in the late '80s. I am assuming that this card was part of an uncut sheet in the magazine and that someone took the time to cut it out and add to their collection. I don't remember Baseball Card Magazine, but since this card is numbered 48, I am assuming that they inserted five or six cards per issue over the course of the year.

I think it is funny that BCM copied a classic Topps design for this card. They did forget one thing, though, and that is the facsimile signature. Luckily, I was able to correct that by getting Bret to sign it himself. It is not signed in black like it should be, but Bret was pretty content with signing all the cards in blue that day.

You don't see this too often on cards, but check out the cutie behind Bret. It looks like she is posing for the photographer as well.

1988 Topps, Robbie Wine

#119 Robbie Wine

Here is the second of three cards that Robbie signed for me at a Wichita State baseball game in March. Robbie is the head baseball coach for Penn State and the first card can be seen by scrolling down a couple of posts.

Since I still have one more card to post of Robbie and little else to say about him, I am going to dedicate this post to the 88 Topps Blog. That blog was the first baseball card blog that I encountered and I tried to model my blog as best I could off of it. Back then, I didn't even realize I was reading a blog at all. That stuff was still new to me and I just figured I was checking in on an actual web page. I know that sounds dumb today, but I had no clue back in 2008.

It is kind of funny if you check out the post about this card on that blog because Andy was really short on words with Robbie as well. All Robbie got from Andy was two sentences, but the second one is very informative. It states that "since 1980, Wine has the 6th most career at-bats for a player who never registered an RBI or HR". That is a fascinating stat and that was one of the fun things about the '88 Topps blog- Andy truly knew how to manipulate the baseball reference site to the fullest. I wish I could find half of the stuff that he was able to dig up.