1996 Leaf Signature Series Extended, Carlos Hernandez

#77 Carlos Hernandez

Here is another card I got from Night Owl a while back in exchange for a Jackie Robinson manu-bat knob. Other autos he gave me were of Rick Dempsey, Billy Ashley, and Todd Hollandsworth. The other three cards were all base cards that had been signed at some point. This, an autographed insert, is more of what I expected to get in the trade since Greg isn't an autograph collector.

Carlos played in the Majors for parts of ten seasons with the Dodgers, Padres, and Cardinals. He spent the better part of his career in Los Angeles in the back-up catcher role. But, in 1998 with Padres, he was the team's primary catcher and he had a good season. He ended up playing in 129 games while starting 102 of those. For the year, he hit .262 with 15 doubles, 9 home runs, and 52 runs driven in.

For his career, Carlos was a .253 hitter with 24 homers and 141 RBI. He got to play in all four of the Padres 1998 World Series games and was 2-10.

1994 Leaf, Jason Bere

#241 Jason Bere

Here is the first of three cards that I got signed by Jason Bere at a Royals game in 2016. Jason was the Indians bullpen coach at the time and he was the lone signer for me on a warm July afternoon.

Even though Jason pitched in the Majors for eleven seasons with five different clubs, I could only find White Sox cards of him to get signed. Plus, all three cards were from 1994 sets. So, there will be a nice little dose of Jason on here over the next four posts.

After three seasons as the Tribe's bullpen coach, Jason has moved on to other things this year. What those other things are, I do not know. But, I do know that the new bullpen coach in Cleveland is Scott Atchison. It looks like Scott only has two cards and I do not have either one.

To my surprise, this is the only card from the '94 Leaf set that I have signed.

1991 Leaf, Eric Bullock

#470 Eric Bullock

About a month ago, I posted a card of Don Slaught that I won in a Twitter contest. This card is one of the two others that was included with the Slaught.

This one features former Astro, Twin, Phillie, and Expo, Eric Bullock. Eric played in parts of seven seasons in the Majors and appeared in 131 games over that time. At that level, he was a .205 hitter with a home run and 12 RBI.

The position listed on this card sums up Eric's career- pinch hitter. Despite appearing in 131 games, Eric only had 146 at-bats. Even with playing part of a season in the American League, Eric only started 17 games in the field. In fact, he only played the field 33 times during his whole Major League career. I have posted a card of a pinch runner on here before, but this is the first one listed as a pinch hitter.

I hope everyone has a safe and happy New Year. See you sometime in 2018!

1990 Leaf, Don Slaught

#354 Don Slaught

Here is a card that I won in a Twitter contest a couple of years ago. This card, and a couple of others, were being given away by Autograph Rob and I was fortunate enough to win. I believe this is the only contest Rob ever held and his Twitter account has been dormant for the last eight months. To date, this is the only thing I have ever won on Twitter.

With the Milt Thompson 1990 Leaf and this one, I now have four whole cards signed from this set. Dan left a comment on the Thompson card and he hit it on the head- these cards were expensive in 1990. Because of that, I do not have a ton of cards from this set. Back then, I could buy one pack each of Topps, Donruss, Fleer, and Score, or I could buy one pack of Leaf. When I was eleven years old and on a budget, that was an easy decision to make.

I always thought it was odd that they just called this set Leaf. For all of the '80s, Leaf was to Donruss what O-Pee-Chee was to Topps. They were just a Canadian clone. You would have thought Leaf would have came up with a better name, something flashy that justified the price increase.

Don played in the Majors for sixteen seasons with the Royals, Rangers, Yankees, Pirates, Angels, White Sox, and Padres. Over that time, he was a .283 hitter with 77 home runs and 476 RBI. His best season was with the Pirates in 1993. That year, he hit .300 with career highs of 10 home runs and 55 RBI.

1990 Leaf, Milt Thompson

#308 Milt Thompson

Here is the third and final card that I got signed by Milt Thompson at Spring Training earlier this year. Milt was the hitting coordinator for the Reds and I was able to get him to sign while switching fields at the Reds minor league workout. At first, he told me he couldn't sign because he was working. But, once he realized I was by myself, he motioned for me to come over and he signed all three cards for me. You can see the first card I posted here and the second one here.

That first card had Milt with the Braves and the second one had him with the Phillies. Here he is with his third team, the Cardinals. He played with them from 1989-'92 and had some productive years there, hitting .274 with 20 home runs and 149 RBI with the club. His best offensive season was with them in 1989 when he hit .290 with 8 homers and had career highs in doubles, 28, and RBI, 68.

After the Cardinals, he went back to the Phillies for a couple of years before finishing up with the Astros, Dodgers, and Rockies. Unfortunately, I do not think there are any mainstream cards of him playing for those last three teams.

1986 Leaf, Bert Blyleven

#88 Bert Blyleven

Here is the third card of Bert Blyleven that I have posted on here. I posted the first two cards in 2009, though one was a TTM success from the early '90s and the other was in-person at a Rangers game that year.

This one, on the other hand, was signed in-person this year at the Twins/Royals game I attended in Kansas City this May. Bert is the color commentator for the Twinkies and I was lucky enough to get him to sign one of three when he got off the team bus outside the park.

I had a buddy with me at that game and he was helping me get some Twins autographs. Many of the bigger names on the Twins would only sign one card and my buddy would go and get a second card signed for me. When Bert only signed the one card, my friend came over to grab a card to get signed by Bert. I told him not to worry about is as I now have three of him. What I didn't realize until later was that I should have sent him over with my ball to get signed. I was saving the ball for Paul Molitor and he had already entered the park without signing for anyone. Why I did not think of getting Bert on it is still has me kicking myself in the butt.

I have no clue why I grabbed this card to get signed by Bert. I guess I still consider '80s Leaf as more oddball than mainstream and who does not like an occasional signed oddball? The only thing I do not like about is that I sort my autographs by year and set. Within the year, I sort the sets alphabetically. My Fleer cards separate this Leaf card from its Donruss twins and it just looks lonely and out of place in my binder.

1960 Leaf, Al Spangler

#38 Al Spangler

I am starting off my newer cards from the '60s with an oddball from the 1960 Leaf set. I know absolutely nothing about this set. But I saw one on COMC one day and I knew that I had to get one to get signed. So I picked up this Al Spangler card and mailed it to him in early 2013 and he had this beauty back to me in about three weeks.

Al played for the Braves, Colt .45s/Astros, Angels, and Cubs during his thirteen year Major League career. Most of that time, he was the team's fourth outfielder. But, he did get a lot of starts while playing in Houston. For his career, Al was a .262 hitter with 21 home runs and 175 RBI.

His best years were with the Colts when he was patrolling their outfield most days. In 1962, his first year with the club, he had career highs in average (.285), home runs (5), and walks (70). In '63, he had career-highs in runs (52) and doubles (25). Then, in '64, he had a career-best 38 RBI. He was then traded to the Angels the next season where would resume his fourth outfielder duties.

According to baseballcardpedia, this Leaf set contains 144 cards and they were distributed in packs. Each pack came with a marble instead of chewing gum.

2005 Leaf, Lincoln Holdzkom

#232 Lincoln Holdzkom

Here is the third and final card that Lincoln Holdzkom signed for me before a Wingnuts game in 2013. The first one can be seen here and the second one can be seen here.

Over those first two posts, I talked about Lincoln's tenure in affiliated ball. That all came to an end after fourteen games with the Altoona Curve in 2009. At that point, it looked like Lincoln had retired. But then the Wichita Wingnuts came knocking at the door in 2013 and he decided to give it one more try.

With the 'Nuts, he pitched in 40 games and threw 38.2 innings. He went 2-4 with a save and posted a 3.72 ERA. He struck out 30 while walking 20. Then, he called it a career.

For his career, Lincoln was 18-29 with 22 saves and a 3.04 ERA.

On an unrelated note, I got two autographs in the mail today. I only sent out about six cards to Spring Training this year, so it was nice to get a third of those back today. I now have two signed cards from the 2015 Topps set.

1996 Leaf Signature Series Extended, Matt Mantei

#120 Matt Mantei

Here is the final card that I have to post from this set. Like most of them, I bought this card to make up for a ball that I got signed at a game. Matt signed my ball at a Royals game in 2003 while he was with the Diamondbacks. That ball probably cost me $16. This card cost me $0.75.

I like to say that signing autographs is good karma for a player. More often than not, it seems like a player that signs for me before a game tends to have a good game. That was the case for Matt that game. Though he was a little a shaky (three walks in two innings), he and the D-Backs prevailed and Matt got the W.

Matt pitched in the Majors for ten seasons with the Marlins, Diamondbacks, and Red Sox. He pitched exclusively out of the 'pen and compiled a 14-18 record with 93 saves and a 4.07 ERA. His best season was with the D-Backs in 2003 when he had a career-high 29 saves with a 2.62 ERA.

For some reason, I picture Matt as a dominant closer from his era. But, he never made an All Star team and never recorded a 30 save season. I don't know what I was thinking.

Here is the ball that Matt signed for me that day.

I like Matt's signature. You cannot read it, but it is stylish.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

1996 Leaf Signature Series Extended, Jason Christiansen

#28 Jason Christiansen

Here is a card of Jason Christiansen that I picked up from COMC for ninety-nine cents. I bought this card because I got Jason's signature at a Cardinals game in 2000. Since it was 2000, the autograph was on a ball and not on a card.

That was quite the road trip. I can't remember what prompted my buddy and I to make the trek to St. Louis. I actually don't remember a whole lot about the trip. The only thing that I vividly remember is staying in the most ghetto motel that I have ever been in.

The place looked pretty normal from the front, so we went in and got a room. Then we drove around to the back where the actual rooms were and we were like "WTF did we get ourselves in for". There were two or three rooms where people were sitting outside on lawn chairs drinking forties. We quickly found our room and hurried inside. Inside was not much better. The furniture looked like it was picked up from yard sales as nothing matched. On top of that, the chain lock was hanging from the door and not attached to the wall like the door had been kicked in at some point. Then we checked out the bathroom and discovered that the toilet from the room above ours was leaking and dripping straight into our toilet. Needless to say, neither of us dropped a deuce that night. We didn't sleep that well either.

Jason pitched in the Majors for eleven seasons with the Pirates, Cardinals, Giants, and Angels. He pitched exclusively out of the bullpen and posted a 27-26 record with 16 saves and a 4.30 ERA. His best season came with the Pirates in 1998 when he appeared in a career-high 60 games and had a 2.51 ERA, 6 saves, and 71 strikeouts.

Here is a picture of the ball that Jason signed. It is a cheap souvenir ball and the Sharpie signature has bled a bit. Mike Timlin also signed the ball. I need to get a card signed by him as well. He also has one in this set, but right now it costs twice as much as this card did.

1996 Leaf Signature Series Extended, Mike Aldrete

#2 Mike Aldrete

On yesterday's post of Joe Vitiello, I mentioned that I bought the card for no other reason than the fact that he was a former Royal. Well, here is a card I bought for no reason at all. I bought it just to get an autograph along with cards I was buying from COMC. Mike never played for the Royals and I never got him to sign a non-card item at a game. But, I now have this sweet card of him and it set me back only ninety-seven cents.

Mike played in the Majors for ten seasons with the Giants, Expos, Padres, Indians, A's, Angels, and Yankees. He got some decent playing time with the Giants in the late '80s, appearing in 100+ games twice. He played first and the corner outfield spots. In 1987, he had his best season. He hit a career-high .325 with 9 home runs and 51 RBI.

After the Giants traded him to Montreal, Mike got relegated to back-up duty. He would stay in that role for the rest of his career.

As noted on this card, Mike got traded to the Yankees. In his short tenure with them, he had a couple of firsts. He made his Major League pitching debut that season. He came into a game in the eighth inning in Milwaukee with one runner on. The Yanks were down by eleven and he escaped with just one hit and the inherited runner scoring. So, he has a career 0.00 ERA.

The second first he accomplished in pinstripes was playing in a World Series. He was a defensive replacement in game one, who was then pinch hit for in the ninth. He did get an at-bat, though, in game four. He pinch hit for the pitcher and grounded out to short. That was the extent of his World Series action.

I like the photo on this card. Minus the batting cage and the missing facade at Yankee Stadium, it is reminiscent of some older Topps cards.

It is kind of funny that Mike signed above his name on here. Every other card I have from this set has the signature below the name.

1996 Leaf Signature Series, Joe Vitiello

#232 Joe Vitiello

This card set me back all of ninety-five cents. Like the Sal Fasano and Ricky Bottalico cards I also posted from this set, I got this one just because Joe is a former Royal. The only difference, though, is that I never saw Joe play.

Joe was drafted by the Royals in the first round of the 1991 draft out of Alabama. He signed quickly and was assigned to Eugene in the Northwest League. He tore up that circuit over the 19 games he played there (.328 avg, 6 HR, and 21 RBI). He was then bumped up to AA where he struggled. He hit just .219 there over 36 games.

The next season was spent entirely in the Florida State League before spending all of 1993 in the Southern Association (AA). In 1994, he was moved up to AAA Omaha and that became Joe's home for the next six seasons. Over that time, he was called up to Kansas City yearly from 1995-99. But, he could never stick with the Big League club.

As a Kansas City Royal, Joe played in 205 games and hit .235 with 21 home runs and 83 RBI. With the Omaha Royals, though, Joe played in 431 games and hit .304 with 80 homers and 312 RBI. Joe Vitiello was essentially a AAAA player.

After his time with the Royals, Joe played five more seasons, mostly at AAA. He did spend one season in Japan and did have a couple of call-ups with San Diego and Montreal. He did real well with the Expos, too, hitting .342 over 76 at-bats. But, it was back to the minors the next season which ended up being his last.

For his career, Joe was a .248 hitter with 26 home runs and 104 RBI.

1996 Leaf Signature Series, Jason Giambi

#77 Jason Giambi

Like yesterday's post, here is a card I bought to make up for not having a card to get signed at a ballgame. This one was more expensive than the ones that I usually pick up from this set. But, I still got it for under $4 and that is not bad for Jason Giambi.

Back in 2000, I started going to a bunch of Royals game. I was in Manhattan, attending Kansas State, and Kansas City was less than two hours away. I probably averaged at least a dozen games a year during my four years there. That first year, I tried getting autographs at every game I went to. I would try to get balls signed at that time, and that proved to be an expensive endeavor that netted very few big name players. In other words, it was a waste of a ball.

That season, I went to most of the games with a girlfriend. I would try to 'graph the Royals and I would send her over to 'graph the visitors. She had no clue what she was doing, and didn't want to do it in the first place, but she did so anyways (kind of like my wife does now). To make it simple, I told her to just go over there and wait for someone to start signing and then get in on the action.

One day, the A's were in town and there must not have been many 'graphers at the ballpark. Because of that, she was standing all alone with her ball. Jason Giambi walked by and asked her if she wanted him to sign it. Yes, you read that part right. Jason Giambi asked her if she wanted his autograph. To this day, I am still amazed by how that worked and am a big Giambi fan because of it. I have been to hundreds of games since then and still have not seen anything like that take place. Did I mention that he was in the middle of an MVP season, too?

I know that Giambi had taken a lot of flack for his PED use and I understand that. And, I wasn't too high on him when he was with the Yankees. But, nevertheless, this is still one of the best autograph stories I have ever witnessed. Because of that, I had to acquire a signed card of him to share it on here.

Never mind the fact that I got three cards signed by him at The K about six months later.

Here is the ball he signed for me almost fifteen years ago. Unfortunately, I was not using blue pens then and the ink has faded a bit.

1996 Leaf Signature Series, Marvin Freeman

#73 Marvin Freeman

Here is another COMC addition that cost less than a dollar. I bought this card because I got Marvin's autograph at a Rockies game in 1996 and all I had to get signed was a Rockies program. I was barely collecting cards at the time and didn't even realize I would be heading to a Rockies game when we went to Colorado to play some baseball games. So this card is to make up for not getting a card signed at the game. There will be a few more like this coming up with this set.

Marvin played in the Majors for ten seasons with the Phillies, Braves, Rockies, and White Sox. He was both a reliever and a starter while getting most of his starts at the end of his career. Marvin's career record is 35-28 with 5 saves and a 4.64 ERA.

Marvin's best season came with the Rockies in 1994. That season, he was 10-2 with a 2.80 ERA over 18 starts and a relief appearance. Those are pretty good numbers for a pre-humidor Rockies pitcher. Unfortunately, he could not reproduce those numbers the following seasons in Denver as his ERA jumped to 5.89 the next season and 6.04 the season after that.

This apparently is the first Rockies card I have posted in over two years.

1996 Leaf Signature Series, Sal Fasano

#65 Sal Fasano

The next COMC pick-up is this card of Sal Fasano. Like most of the cards that I buy from this set, this one cost me one dollar.

There wasn't any real reason why I bought this card. Sal used to play for the Royals, which is a plus, but that is about the only thing that ties me to him. I guess I just really like his mustache. Unfortunately, Sal wasn't wearing his trade mark Fu Manchu when this card came out. Here is a better look at it.

I like to call this style of mustache the "Ft. Polk Special". When I was in the Army, I had to go to Ft. Polk for a week of training. While I was there, it seemed like every civilian working on the post had a mustache like this.

Sal played in the Majors for parts of eleven seasons with the Royals, A's, Rockies, Angels, Orioles, Phillies, Yankees, Blue Jays, and Indians. The journeyman catcher was mainly a third-stringer who only got called up when one of the first two catchers got hurt. His best season came with the O's in 2005 when he hit .250 with a career high of 11 home runs.

For his career, Sal was a .221 hitter with 47 dingers.

Sal is currently the Blue Jays catching coordinator.

1996 Leaf Signature Series, Ricky Bottalico

#31 Ricky Bottalico

Here is a card of Ricky Bottalico that I picked up from Check Out My Cards. This one set me back all of one dollar.

I have a thing with COMC where I do not like making a purchase from the site without adding at least one autograph to my order. And I like that one autograph to be cheap. Luckily, that is easy to do with this set as I have amassed a decent collection of it while rarely going over the one dollar mark. That is kind of sad considering how much a pack of this product used to cost back in the day and the reason for the cost was the one autograph in the pack.

Ricky Bottalico caught my fancy because he is a former Royal. He spent just one year in Kansas City and it was the first year I was a fan of the team. Ricky was brought in to be the closer on a team with a very powerful offense. The only problem was that the pitching was horrible and he did not get as many save chances as was expected. Plus, his ERA was close to 5.00, so he just became part of the pitching problem instead of actually helping to fix it. But, he did finish the season 9-6 with 16 saves. That was the last time he ever hit double digits in saves.

Ricky had his hey-day early in his career withe the Phillies. He had back-to-back 34 save seasons in 1996 and '97 and was an All Star in '96. After things went south in Philly (and his ERA went north of 6.00), Ricky saw time with the Cardinals, D-Backs, Mets, Brewers, and a second go-around with the Phils.

He finished his career after the 2005 season with a 33-42 record with 116 saves and a 3.99 ERA.

1993 Leaf, John Kruk

#366 John Kruk

There has been quite a few repeat players on here of late, but that is changing for the next few days. First up is the first of five John Kruk cards.

John was one of the signers at this year's College World Series Fanfest. I usually head up to the CWS on Saturday morning, but this year we decided to check out the Henry Doorly Zoo next to old Rosenblatt. Every year I have been to Omaha, I always said that I wanted to go to the zoo. Finally, after seven years, it actually happened. Since I had the family and my dad this year, I figured the zoo would be some good non-baseball entertainment for them. To make that happen, we went up there Friday morning. But, since I was in Omaha on Friday, I made sure we left the zoo in time to get to Fanfest to get autographs from Aaron Boone and John Kruk.

John signed at the AT&T booth on Friday and then made a surprise visit to the Buick booth on Saturday. Because of the two signings, I think I came home with five cards signed and a couple of 8x10s.

John's signing at the AT&T booth was probably the slowest moving line I had ever been in at that tent. Normally, that it not a positive thing, but with Krukker it was. It was slow moving because John would talk to every single person for as long as that person would stand there and talk back. It was pretty awesome. Most of the guys that are there are friendly, but nobody has come close to John Kruk's level. For instance, when my fiance and kid got up to him, he was asking how old he was and what position he played. He just went out of his way to make everybody feel welcome and that is not something done by many former athletes.

John Kruk is an awesome dude!

1992 Leaf, Dave Eiland

#488 Dave Eiland

Ready for back-to-back Dave Eiland signatures? I hope so because here is the first one.

I think I got five cards signed by Dave during his first year as the Royals pitching coach. All of him feature him as a Yankee, or Yankee minor leaguer, except for this one. When I saw that he had a couple of Padre cards, I picked one up off of Check Out My Cards for cheap. I like a little variety with my autographed cards.

Dave pitched in San Diego sparingly over two seasons. In his first season in 1992, he made 7 starts and pitched just 27 innings. Yikes, that is less than four innings per start! He was 0-2 with a 5.67 ERA and 5 walks with 10 strikeouts.

The next season, he made 9 starts and had a lone relief appearance and lasted 48.1 innings. He was 0-3 with a 5.21 ERA with 17 walks and 14 strikeouts. That is not a good strikeout to walk ratio.

He got released by the Padres in May of that year. He went on to pitch for two more organizations that season, but would not make it back to the Majors until 1995 when he resurfaced with the Yankees.

1992 Leaf, Bill Pecota

#244 Bill Pecota

Here is the fourth Bill Pecota card that I have posted from this year's Royals Fanfest. The first three featured Bill as a Royal. Now I finally have one of him as a Met.

The reason I wanted a signed Mets card of him is because he was packaged into the deal that is widely considered as one of the worst in Royals history. On December 11th, 1991, Bill and Bret Saberhagen were shipped off to New York for Kevin McReynolds, Keith Miller, and Gregg Jefferies.

The funny thing about that trade is that the trade really didn't benefit either team. Saberhagen, the centerpiece of the deal, would pitch four seasons in New York and pitch in twenty or more games once. Pecota played there just one season and hit just .227. For Kansas City, McReynolds lasted two seasons and hit .246 with just 24 home runs and 91 RBI. Jefferies only lasted a season and he hit .285 with 75 RBI. Miller played with KC for four seasons. But, after 416 at-bats and a .284 average the first year, he would see just 138 at-bats over the next three years.

So, all in all, the trade was a push.

Over Bill's career, he played every position at least once. He caught once, pitched and played center twice, and played the corner outfield spots less than twenty times. Most of his time was spent playing infield.

1991 Leaf, Dave Eiland

#184 Dave Eiland

Back to back Yankee posts? Considering that I have only posted twenty-eight Yankee cards on this blog, that is a rare feat. I once went two years between posting a card of a Yankee. And it's not like I try to avoid getting Yankee cards signed, because I take whatever I can get. It's just that I do not have much luck getting 'graphs from guys that played in the Bronx. I did add a new one Tuesday, though. Mr. Don Mattingly was nice enough to sign one item for everyone when he showed up to Kauffman Stadium. That was definitely the highlight of the day.

Anyways, on to this card. This card was signed by the Royals pitching coach prior to a game in 2012. Speaking of the Yankees, they were the visiting team that day. It was a Sunday day game, and I knew that the teams would not be taking batting practice, so I only took cards of pitchers. Unfortunately, it was kind of wet that day, so even the pitchers stayed off the field (pretty sure that was the same series Mariano Rivera got hurt shagging). Therefore, the cards that Dave signed for me were the only autographs that I got that day. But, at least I did not come home empty handed.

I really like the way this card came out. For some reason, I like it when a border matches team colors. While the Yankees are technically navy, it is such a dark hue that it looks black most of the time.

Tune back in later today and I will have the final results up from the College World Series Contest.