The Rest of 2008 Upper Deck, Part I

#22 Lenny Dinardo
#36 Gregg Zaun
#146 Miguel Olivo
#162 Mike Bacsik
#185 Doug Brocail
#196 Chris Coste
#253 Kyle Davies
#336 Feilpe Paulino
#376 Brian Bannister

There are nothing but pitchers and catchers in this post.

Lenny Dinardo- Lenny signed this card for me before a game in Minneapolis in 2010 when he was with the Royals. It was at the final regular season series at the Metrodome.

Gregg Zaun- Lenny signed for me during batting practice at the K in 2009. He was with the Orioles at the time.

Miguel Olivo- I got this card signed by Miguel after a Royals game in 2008. He signed from the Royals parking lot.

Mike Bacsik- I got this card signed at a Wichita Wingnuts game in 2011. Mike was the starting pitcher for Ft. Worth that night and would not sign before the game. But, he came through afterwards, despite getting yanked in the first inning of the contest.

Doug Brocail- Doug signed this card for me at an Astros pre-season game at Minute Maid Park in 2009. Since it is dark picture, I thought that I would give the silver Sharpie a try. I did not like the results. Luckily, he was willing to go over it in blue for me.

Chris Coste- Last year, Chris got appointed to the coaching staff of the Fargo Moorehead Redhawks. So, I made sure to hit up a Wingnuts game while they were in town so I could get three cards signed. My two year old also got a card signed and he was thrilled as can be with it.

Kyle Davies- This is one of the many cards Kyle signed for me at the Royals parking lot in 2008.

Felipe Paulino- Felipe signed two cards for me at a Round Rock Express game in 2008. His unprepped '08 Topps card came out looking much better than this one.

Brian Bannister- Speaking of cards that came out looking bad, this one may take the cake. I am sure glad that I learned about prepping glossy cards at some point in 2009. This one was signed at a Royals game in 2008. He signed it after throwing 120 foot curveballs to Kyle Davies.

The Rest of 2008 Topps, Part V

Here are the final cards from 2008 Topps.

#UH207 Alberto Gonzalez
#UH211 Brett Tomko
#UH235 Eddie Guardado
#UH278 So Taguchi
#UH279 Alex Hinshaw
#TCP4 Luke Hochevar

Alberto Gonzalez- This is the second card of Alberto that I have posted on here and both have been lumped into a "best of" post. I have a third one coming up that will get its own post, so this is going to have to do for now. Alberto signed this card for me in 2015 while he was a member of the Wichita Wingnuts.

Brett Tomko- Believe it or not, but I did not get this card signed by the Royals parking lot. I actually got it at a Kansas Stars game in 2016.

Eddie Guardado- Eddie signed this one for me while I was waiting outside of Kauffman in 2017. Eddie was the Twins bullpen coach at the time.

So Taguchi- I got this card signed outside of Principle Park in Des Moines, Iowa in 2009. So was playing his final season in the U.S. that year and he spent the majority of the time with the Iowa Cubs. He signed two cards for me after the game and both featured his Japanese signature.

Alex Hinshaw- This is the first card of Alex that I have posted on here. But, I have another one that will get its own post. That one is a 2009 card, so it might not show up on here until 2022. Alex signed this card for me while he was with the Wingnuts in 2014.

Luke Hochevar- I have no clue where this card came from. Night Owl probably sent it to me. I am assuming that the card was a Target exclusive, but I am not even sure about that. All I know about the card is that Luke signed it for me at Fanfest in 2009.

And that is it for '08 Topps. You can say whatever you want about the design of the set, but I will say this- you will never get 2008 Topps confused with any other Topps set.

2007 Upper Deck, Chris Coste

#390 Chris Coste

Here is the first of three cards that I got signed by Chris Coste this past summer. Chris joined the Fargo-Moorhead Redhawks coaching staff prior to this past season and I was able to get him at a Wingnuts game one morning. That's right, it was at a morning game. The Nuts hosted camp day at the park and a bunch of daycares and YMCA clubs showed up to a really hot day of mid-week morning baseball.

Chris is from the Fargo-Moorhead area and it was cool to see him with the Redhawks, a team he used to play for. Tim was born in Fargo and played college baseball in Moorhead. He then played with the Redhawks for four years before getting signed by the Indians prior to the 2000 season. He then played mostly AAA ball for five years before making his Major League debut with the Phillies in 2006 at the age of thirty-three.

The best season for Chris was probably his rookie season. Though he played in just 65 games, he hit .328 with 7 homers and 32 RBI. He would never hit over .300 again and he would only top his home run and RBI numbers in 2008 when he would play in a career-high 98 games.

For his career, Chris hit .272 with 23 home runs and 108 RBI.

2007 Topps, Mike Zagurski

#UH198 Mike Zagurski

It has been a week since I last posted a card. Since that last post, I have worked every single day for twelve hours a day. I have three more days of this, but my shift is about to change. Instead of working 6 A.M. to 6 P.M, my next three shifts will be from 6 P.M. to 6 A.M. Then, I will get a couple of days off and be back to normal. The one exception is that I am going to be on nights for good. So, I am not quite sure how that is going to affect my posting. I hope, at the vary least, that I will still post about twelve to fourteen cards a month. Who knows? Maybe I will be able to post more often on this schedule. Only time will tell.

Anyways, here is a card of Mike Zagurski that I got signed at Spring Training this year. Mike was in camp with the Brewers and I was able to get him at the team's minor league morning workout. I caught him as he was trying to leave the fields and head to the clubhouse. The Brewers were hosting the Royals that day, so I had some Royals gear on. Mike saw that and let it be known that he was not a Royals fan. I told him that I was from Kansas and I remembered that he played his college ball at KU. Once we got to talking, I found out that he played ball in community college in Hutchinson, which is twenty-five miles down the road. It is always fun to meet up with someone on the backfields in Arizona that has some Kansas ties.

That day, I did not even plan on 'graphing the Brewers minor league complex. I had planned on going to the game, but I wanted to hit up the White Sox morning practice first. When I got to Glendale to see the Sox, it was dead. We stood around with one other family waiting for the gates to open before someone from the other family made a phone call and found out the White Sox were hosting a night game that evening. Because of that, the gates to the practice field would not open until 3:00. So, we jetted over to Maryvale and did what I could there. Lesson learned.

As for Mike, he has seen stints at the big league level with the Phillies, Diamondbacks, Pirates, Yankees, and Brewers. Those stints were over six seasons that spanned twelve years. He made his debut with the Phillies in 2007 and then would not make it back to the Majors until 2010. He then saw action in 2011, '12, and 13. He then spent a few more years in the minors and in Japan before resurfacing with the Brewers for one inning of work this year. Over that time, he has a 1-1 record in 91 games with an ERA of 7.78. He is averaging a strikeout per inning, though.

2006 Topps, David Dellucci

#UH25 David Dellucci

Here is the second card that David Dellucci signed for me at the Kansas Stars game last year. I posted the first card in June and that one can be seen here.

That first card showed David with is second team, and the one that he stayed with the longest, the Diamondbacks. After the D-Backs, David played for the Yankees and Rangers before landing in Philadelphia for the 2006 season. He did well for the Phillies that year, hitting .292 with 13 home runs and 39 RBI. He was used more as a pinch hitter that season than a starter, but he still did well enough to get a three-year deal from the Indians for about 3.75 million dollars a year.

The Indians would end up releasing David during the final season of that deal and he would finish the year with the Blue Jays. He called it a career after that, finishing with a .256 average, 101 homers, and 398 RBI for his career.

2005 Fleer, Ryan Madson

#142 Ryan Madson

Here is the second of three cards that I got signed by Ryan Madson at a Royals game in 2015. I posted the first card two years ago and it can be seen here.

When I posted that last card, Ryan had just come off of a World Series victory with the Royals and signed himself a nice three-year deal with the A's. His tenure in Oakland lasted just a year and a half, though, as he was traded to the Nationals at the deadline last year. He pitched well for them down the stretch last season, but was a bit shaky this year, posting a 5.28 ERA in 44.1 innings of work. Nonetheless, the Nats were able to send him to the Dodgers at the end of August for a minor league player. Unfortunately, things haven't gotten any better in Los Angeles as he has racked up a 7.36 ERA in just 7.1 innings of work.

Being 38 years old and having an expiring contract, I would be surprised to see Ryan pitching next year. But, you never know. I didn't think he was going to make the Royals roster in 2015 after not pitching in four years and he still has a job in the Majors.

1998 Pacific Online, Rex Hudler

#562 Rex Hudler

I believe that this is tenth card of Rex Hudler that I have posted on here. Rex took over the Royals color commentator role in 2012 and I seem to get him to sign at least once a year. But, I am slowing running out of cards of him. And, at this point, he is not a priority anymore. I got the cards signed by him that I wanted signed. But, I still take cards of him to games just in case he might be the only autograph I get.

This card was first Phillies card that I got signed by Rex. I got it signed at a Royals game two years ago. I thought it would be the only Phils card of him that I would own, but I picked one up from a former co-worker last year and got that one signed at Spring Training this year. I posted that card last month and it can be seen here.

Rex spent his last two seasons in the Majors with the Phillies. He saw limited playing time and had less than spectacular results. He got 175 at-bats with the Phils and he hit .196 with 5 home runs and 12 RBI.

On the Royals broadcast last night, Rex was telling a story about how he once ate a June Bug at a game on a dare. Plus, he made $800 by doing so. It tasted like bacon he said.

1997 Collector's Choice, Rex Hudler

#422 Rex Hudler

Here is one of my newest Rex Hudler autographs. My older son got this card signed for me at Spring Training this year. The two of us had the same arrangement as last year where I would give him a dollar for every card that he got signed. Unfortunately, he had a rough time this year and only netted five bucks. Three dollars of it was courtesy of Rex.

A couple of years ago, I found out that a work colleague of mine used to collect cards. We had worked side-by-side daily for a year before she transferred to another store. Somehow, during that whole year, I had no clue that she had ever collected cards. I didn't even realize she knew anything about baseball. The only reason I found out about it was that she gave a few cards for Christmas one year. When she told me that they came from her collection, my mind was blown.

Last year, she dropped off a container of cards that were from 1995-1998 and she told me to take anything I wanted. There were a lot of star cards from the day in the box, but those weren't the ones I was looking for. I was looking for cards that I could get signed. That is where this card came from.

I like the vague position listed on this card- IF/OF. In case you were wondering, The Hud played mostly second base in 1996 and he appeared at that position 53 times. He also played first 7 times, center field 15 times, and left field 8 times. I think that they probably could have just listed him as a second baseman.

1986 Topps, Milt Thompson

#112T Milt Thompson

It has been a nice run with the '86 Topps set, but this is the final one this time around. I already got a new '86T that is ready to go whenever I make it back to this set.

Here is the second card of Milt Thompson that I got signed at Spring Training this year. The first one was his '86 Fleer card and it can be seen here. I originally wanted both of his '86 Topps cards signed, but the base card that I had was not in the best of shape. So, I settled with the Fleer just to have a card of him as a Brave.

Milt was traded to the Philliies after the '85 season. The Phils sent over Pete Smith and Ozzie Virgil and got got back Milt and 1987 Cy Young Award winner, Steve Bedrosian. I think the Phillies got the better deal in that trade.

Milt stayed in Philly for just three seasons before heading to St. Louis, only to end up back in Philly four years later. Thanks to the two stints with the team, that was the club that he played for the most. Over his years as a Phillie, Milt hit .279 with 22 home runs and 173 RBI. His best season was with them, too, when he had career-highs in hits (159), home runs (7), and stolen bases (46) during the 1987 season.

Milt's lone postseason exposure was with the Phils in 1993. In the Fall Classic, Milt had a very respectable series, hitting .294 with a home run and 6 RBI in the six games.

1983 Topps, Steve Carlton

#406 Steve Carlton

With regional play starting today, the first phase of the College World Series contest is closed off. Phase two will start in about ten days and you can get back into the contest then.

Speaking of the College World Series, here is a card that I got signed there in 2014. While I always get autographs when I make it to the opening weekend, I do not always get cards signed. Quite a few of the players will only sign the 8x10s provided. I got lucky in 2014 and got 8x10s and cards signed by both Steve Carlton and Dennis Eckersly.

I really like the 1983 Topps set. Having the second inset picture was a cool addition, in my opinion. Even though the All Star cards lack the inset picture, I still love the way they came out looking. I miss when the days when Topps had a redesigned All Star subset. Nowadays, they just add a logo to what basically looks like a base card.

I'll be heading up to Omaha two weeks from Friday. I am already getting a little anxious to see who AT&T is going to bring in for autograph sessions. I hope it is someone new that signs cards and is a need for the '81 Donruss set.

1981 Donruss, Steve Carlton

#481 Steve Carlton

Here is a card of Hall of Fame pitcher, Steve Carlton, that I was lucky enough to get signed at the College World Series in 2014. Steve was signing at the always popular AT&T tent and was one of the few Hall members that would sign anything. Most of the guys in that tent will only sign the provided 8x10.

Steve was the first big name player that I had seen there more than once. I had the pleasure of getting an 8x10 signed by him at the CWS in 2007. That was my first trip to the CWS in ten years and I had no idea that they brought players in to sign. But, the big names that show up are one of the main reasons I keep going back every year.

Steve has two cards in the '81 Donruss set, his base card and this Cy Young card. I unfortunately do not have his base card, so I got a couple other random cards signed by him. Still, it would have been nice to have knocked off both of his cards from the set in one setting. All the more reason I need to put a want list up and get the set knocked out. One of these days.....

'81 Donruss Tracker: #217

1981 Donruss, Dallas Green

#415 Dallas Green

I know it is hard to tell, but this card really is signed. While I am not a huge fan of ballpoint pen signatures, they usually turn out OK on the thin '81D card stock. That was not the case with this card. I'm not sure what kind of pen was used, but that thing had seen better days.

Dallas managed in the Majors for parts of eight seasons. The Phillies were his first gig and he had the most success with them. He took the team to the playoffs in each of the two seasons he started the season out at the helm and won it all in 1980. He then became the Cubs general manager for a bit before going on to manage the Yankees for less than a season and then the Mets for about four seasons. He ended his managerial career with a record of 478-487.

Sadly, Dallas passed away last month from kidney failure. He was 82.

This card was signed through the mail in 2014.

'81 Donruss Tracker: #213

1981 Donurss, Bob Boone

#262 Bob Boone

Here is another player from the '81 Donruss set that would later go on to manage. This is the card of Bob Boone that I got signed through the mail in 2014. It took about three weeks to get this card, and one other, back from Bob.

Bob had a nineteen year career catching in the Major Leagues. Over that time, he did it all. He won one World Series, played in seven postseasons, made four All Star teams, caught a perfect game, and won seven Gold Glove Awards. That is an impressive resume. On a side note, I had no idea that the Phillies made the playoffs so many times in the late '70s. They were like the National League version of the Royals which would have made the 1980 Series that much better.

Bob managed the Royals and Red for six seasons and did not do too hot. He finished with a 371-444 record as a Major League manager.

I got this card signed by sending it to the Washington Nationals, Bob's current employer. He serves as the the team's Vice President, Senior Advisor to the General Manager.

'81 Donruss Tracker: #198

1968 Topps, Don Lock

#59 Don Lock

Here is the third and final card that I got signed by Don Lock at Rock's card show in 2013. The first card Don signed for me can be seen here and the second one here.

The first two cards I posted showed Don with the Senators, the team he spent the majority of his time with. But, that all changed when Washington traded him to the Phillies after the 1966 season. He did pretty good his first season in Philly when he hit .252 with 16 home runs and 51 RBI in just 112 games. But, his numbers fell off in 1968 and he hit just .210 with 8 dingers and 34 RBI. Those were all career-lows for him.

He played in four games with the Phils in 1969 before the dealt him to the Red Sox. He got into 53 games with them and had just 58 at-bats in the process. He finished that season with a .224 average with a home run and 2 RBI. He played one more season of AAA ball with the Sox before calling it a career and becoming a minor league manager for a few seasons.

For his career, Don hit .238 with 122 home runs and 373 RBI.

2007 Topps Heritage, Ryan Madson

#116 Ryan Madson

Here is one of my more recent signatures as I was able to get this card signed at a Royals game this past summer. Ryan was out on the field playing catch during pregame at the day game I attended and he was nice enough to come over and sign afterwards. He signed all three cards I had, though one got a little screwed up in the exchange.

Before this past season, Ryan last pitched in the Major Leagues in 2011. Because of that, I was a little skeptical when he got invited to Spring Training last year. I was then shocked that he made the team. But, he earned his way into the pen and he did a better job than anyone could have imagined him doing.

He ended up pitching 63.1 innings and posting a 1-2 record with 3 saves, a 2.13 ERA and 58 strikeouts. That ERA was the best of his career. At one point in early August, I thought the wheels were about to fall off when he gave up seven earned runs over two separate outings where he did not record an out. Though he had 1.2 innings of scoreless ball between those outings, his ERA rose from 1.69 to 2.64. I figured his arm was worn out after not pitching for four years. But he bounced back and allowed just two earned runs over the next twenty appearances. He was then a little shaky in the postseason before settling down in the World Series, where he pitched three scoreless innings while striking out five.

Overall, it was a great season for a player who's career was pretty much over two years ago. Plus, he was able to turn his success last season into a three year contract with the A's for $22 million. That is quite a turnaround.

2006 Topps, Kenny Lofton

#97 Kenny Lofton

Here is the fifth and final card that I got signed by Kenny Lofton last year at the College World Series. Kenny signed at the Capitol One tent and, for some reason, there was a much smaller crowd there than at the main signing area at the AT&T tent. Because of that, I was able to go through the line three times. I could have gone through more, but I ran out of cards.

Here are the previous cards that I posted.

Minor League card

Astros

Indians

Yankees

Even with the addition of this card of Kenny with the Phillies, I am still missing some of the teams he played on. I do not have signed cards of him as a Brave, White Sox, Giant, Pirate, Cub, Dodger, or Ranger. Kenny sure got around over the final few years of his career.

With the Phillies, in 2005, Kenny had a really good season. He hit .335 with 22 stolen bases. That was the second highest batting average he ever had for a season. His best average took place eleven seasons earlier while with Cleveland.

Kenny played in the playoffs every season except for one from 2001-2007. The one season he did not appear in the postseason was his year in Philadelphia.

2005 Bowman, Mike Costanzo

#BDP89 Mike Costanzo

Here is another card that was sent to me by Ryan, from The Great Orioles Autograph Project, a few years back. When I first got this card, I had not heard of Mike Costanzo. So, I just figured it was another Bowman card of a guy that never made it. It turns out I was wrong.

Mike Costanzo played in 17 games for the Reds in 2012. He was used as a pinch hitter or defensive replacement in all but two of those games. In those games, he got 18 at-bats, but recorded just a single hit (.056). He drove in 2 runs, both on sac flies, and he walked twice while striking out 10 times.

After that, it was back to AAA for Mike. He finished up the season in Louisville before joining the Nationals organization via free agency. He lasted with them until getting released in July of 2013. The Reds picked him back up and he spent the past season and a half back in Louisville.

Mike's Major League page says he is signed right now, but I can find no evidence that backs that up. He is not listed on the Bats roster. After searching, without much luck, I came across an Italian baseball site. Mike played for Team Italy in the 2013 WBC and, according to the loose translation on the site, Mike is without a team right now. He sounds like an Atlantic League candidate to me.

2001 Upper Deck, Bruce Chen

#239 Bruce Chen

Here is the latest autograph from Bruce Chen. As far as I can tell, it has been two and a half years since the last time I posted a card of him. It will not, however, be the last. I have one more coming up next month and then I have some newer ones that may or may not ever be posted on here.

I got this card signed this past season at the first game of the year I attended. It was a Sunday game and the Royals brought back their autograph afternoons for Sunday games. My family got in one of the lines that day and it ended up being Bruce's. I ended up with two new autographs from Bruce and they are the last items I got signed by him.

I had bought this card a couple of years ago just to try to get a card signed by Bruce that pictures him on a different team. I already had cards of him that I have posted as a Brave, Met, and Oriole, not to mention Ranger and Royals cards that haven't been posted yet. Now I can add the Phillies to that list, too.

Bruce pitched for the Phils for two half seasons. He was traded to them mid-season in 2000 and he went 3-4 with a 3.63 ERA. In 2001, he was 4-5 with a 5.00 ERA before being dealt to the Mets in July. In Bruce's "season" in Philly, he was 7-9 with a 4.28 ERA over 31 starts.

On an unrelated note, the Royals announced their Royals Caravan route today. Much to my surprise, they are rolling through my hometown this year. They have not yet announced who was going to be on that leg of the trip. But, since I have that day off, I know I will be there.

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.

1994 Ultra, John Kruk

#7 John Kruk

Here is the last card for some time that John Kruk signed for me this summer. John was at the College World Series with ESPN and he was nice enough to do two free autograph signings during the opening weekend of Fanfest. I made my way through each line once and I must say that John was one of the most talkative guys I have seen at CWS Fanfest. It really was a pleasure to get to meet him.

This card certainly fits the bill of one of my more fun cards that I got signed this summer (right along with his Collector's Choice checklist card). If you have never seen one of these cards before, it might be because you are not a Phillies fan. The Phillies Finest insert set was a small one dedicated to two players with bad haircuts- John Kruk and Darren Daulton. The set included twenty-four cards, twelve of each player. There were ten cards in each series and four cards were available as a wrapper redemption. Fleer even included 1000 signed cards by each player. Pretty rad, huh?

The back of each card chronicles the career of each player. This one talks about what lead to John being dealt to Philadelphia.

I am pretty sure that I had that exact same pair of cleats that John is wearing, but in black. They just don't make them like they used to.