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.