1990 CMC, Tony Perezchica

#547 Tony Perezchica

Here is one of my most recent additions to my collection. Tony is the third base coach for the Diamondbacks and they finished off their regular season in Kansas City this year. I was able to make it up to two of those games and I got him to sign for me outside of the ballpark on the final day of the season. He made it be known to me that he was in a hurry for a meeting, but he still stopped and signed both of the cards I had of him.

Even though Tony only played in the bigs for four seasons and 69 games, he still had seven base cards printed of him between 1989 and 1992. I looked in my collection for every single one of those cards and I only had one. Luckily, I had this card of him and was able to get two cards signed.

Tony made his Major League debut with the Giants in 1988. He played in 34 games with them over three seasons and he hit .220 with no homers and 4 RBI.

Back in the day before the Diamondbacks came around, Phoenix hosted the Giants AAA team, the Firebirds.

1990 CMC, Mike Benjamin

#549 Mike Benjamin

Here is a card that I got signed last Friday in Omaha. Mike is a first year assistant coach for Arizona State and I was able to get this card signed after they practiced at Rosenblatt that day.

After each team's practice session, they all sit down on the concourse and sign autographs for a half hour or so. I was hoping to get Mike's autograph then, but he was nowhere to be seen. I looked around in the stands to see if he might have been watching Clemson practice, but I didn't find him. I went back to the autograph line and found a team trainer and asked him if he knew where Mike was. He told me that Mike was in the dugout watching Clemson practice. So, I went down there and I still couldn't find him. I looked around a bit more before I headed back to the autograph line. When I got there, I found Mike grabbing his stuff to head to the bus. That is when I got him to sign.

While I was trying to find Mike, I found a kid that had already got some cards signed by him. He told me to just look for the guy in the ASU uniform with some nice-looking pork-chop sideburns. You can't miss him, he said. Sure enough, that was how I found him. He was probably the only guy in town sporting them that weekend. Even the head coach mentioned the 'chops while he was signing my two cards, but I will save that story for the next one.

The two cards that Mike signed for me were the only two cards that I got signed over the weekend.

1993 Classic Best, Joel Chimelis

#161 Joel Chimelis

Here is the latest card on here of a player that never made it to the Majors.

I got this card signed at a Brooklyn Cyclones game last summer. Joel was the hitting coach for the visiting Tri-City Valley Cats. He was nice enough to sign the one card I could find of him, but he didn't say much. He did still have the same style mustache.

Joel played nine years in the minor leagues before calling it quits. He spent most of the time in the Giants organization. He played part of four seasons in AAA, but never got the call.

When I was getting ready for my New York trip, I was rounding up cards of some of the coaches I was going to see. Somehow, I came across this card. I was pretty lucky to find it since I don't have too many from this set. I probably have only three or fours packs worth. The funny thing about this set is how closely they resemble '93 Fleer. But, I'll get into that more next week.

As for the Phoenix Firebirds, they were forced out of town by the Arizona Diamondbacks. So, they moved to Tuscon and became the Sidewinders. I've seen Firebird jerseys and hats before, but I have never seen the ones depicted on this card. I don't know if they changed their logo of if the team had a turn back the clock game. I'll go with changing the logo. I wish I had a better picture of the jersey front. They look retro.