1988 Topps, Ray Hayward

#47T Ray Hayward

Here is the second card that Ray Hayward signed for me at the College World Series in 2014. Ray is the pitching coach for Texas Tech and I got him to sign on the field during pregame. I posted the first card of Ray a couple of months ago and that one can be seen here.

It is not too often that you can get baseball cards signed at college games. Off the top of my head, the only former Major Leaguers that I have gotten are Ray, Darin Erstad, Vance Law, Tim Stoddard, Robbie Wine, Ed Sprague, Troy Percival, Mike Benjamin, Chris Valaika, and Blake Hawksworth. Ten guys doesn't sound too bad. But, with all of the colleges that are out there, it is a very tiny percent compared to minor league ball. One trend that I have noticed the last few years is that a guy will take a position at a school and do that for a year or two before getting a gig in the minors. Some of the guys that I have seen do that are Valaika, Ryan Garko, and Chad Cordero. All three of them coached at California schools and all three now coach in the minor leagues.

Besides those guys, there are a few others coaching in college that I either haven't seen play or got turned down from. Kirk Saarloos is the pitching coach for TCU. He turned me down once. Andy Stankiewicz is the head coach at Grand Canyon and Andy Cannizaro is the head coach at Mississippi State. Shawn Marcum is the pitching coach for Missouri Southern State, a DII school.