1997 Pinnacle, Craig Paquette

#58 Craig Paquette

Here is another former Royal player that I was able to get through the mail earlier this year. I sent this card to Craig in January and I had it back eight days after I sent it.

Craig played in the Majors for eleven seasons with the A's, Royals, Mets, Cardinals, and Tigers. He could play just about anywhere, but spent most of his time at a corner infield or outfield spot. For his career, he was a .239 hitter with 99 home runs and 377 RBI. He got to play in three playoff series with the Cardinals in 2000 and 2001.

Craig spent just two seasons in Kansas City. He had a career year there in his first season, 1996. That year, he mainly played third and left and he hit .259 with a career high of 22 home runs and 67 RBI. His production fell off the following year and the Royals let him walk after the 1997 season.

I did not buy very many cards in 1997. I am not even sure if I bought any from this set or not. I never noticed all the words in the gold foil on this card until I was getting ready to send it out. All of the words on the card are specific to Kansas City or the Royals. Some of the things on there are- George Brett, fountains, Ewing Kauffman, and Negro League Hall of Fame. That is kind of cool. I am have tempted to see if I have any other cards from that set just to see what it says for other teams.

1996 Pinnacle, Troy Percival

#296 Troy Percival

Here is a card of Troy Percival that I got signed at a Kansas State game last year. Troy is the head coach for his alma mater, UC Riverside, and they had the misfortune of playing baseball in Kansas in March.

I had planned on going to the game as soon as the schedule was released and I saw Troy was coaching. But, come game day, it was freezing out. I do not remember the exact temperature, but it had to have been between 30-35 degrees with a strong wind. I did not want to go to a game in those conditions and I certainly wasn't taking my one year-old out in that. So, I did the next best thing. We all drove to the park. The family stayed in the car and I went and bought one general admission ticket. I went in, got Troy's autograph, used the restroom, and then left. I was in and out in five minutes. We then left and enjoyed the day in lovely Manhattan, Kansas.

As for Troy, he was real easy to talk to as I asked him about coaching and the weather. He was clearly disappointed that they were not playing in California where it was 80 degrees at the time. I can't say that I blame him.

I got three cards signed by Troy, but this was the only Angel card. This card kind of reminds of some current Donruss cards, with the exception of some barely visible logos.

Troy is the Angels all-time save leader with 316 of them. He has 108 more saves than the second place closer and no current Angel is even in the top ten. I am sure his team record will be intact for some time.

1994 Pinnacle, Greg Gagne

#354 Greg Gagne

Here is a card that I got signed through the mail this past November. Greg seemed like a good TTM signer, so I sent this card to him just to have an autograph from him on a Royals card. It took him just eight days to get this one back to me.

Even though Greg spent three seasons in Kansas City, I still always think of him as a Twin. I guess that is because he spent his first ten seasons as a big leaguer in Minnesota. Over that time, he helped the club to two World Series titles as the starting shortstop in all fourteen Fall Classic games.

Even though Greg built his reputation with the Twins, he was a very solid player when he came to Kansas City in 1993. In fact, he probably had his best season ever that summer. He set career-highs in average (.280), doubles (32), and RBI (57) en route to being named the Royals Player of the Year.

Greg finished his career with a .254 average with 111 home runs and 604 RBI. In 2009, he was named to the All-Metrodome team.

1993 Pinnacle, Dave Magadan

#237 Dave Magadan

Here is a card that I got signed in Kansas City last summer. Dave is the batting coach for the Rangers and I was able to get him to sign one card outside of the ballpark before the last Royals game of the season.

Dave played in the Major Leagues for sixteen seasons. He saw time with the Mets, Marlins, Mariners, Astros, Cubs, A's, and Padres. He was a corner infielder throughout his career who saw a tad bit more time from the left side of the diamond. Dave was a .288 career hitter with 42 home runs and 495 RBI. He finished his career with a .390 OBP and had about 150 more walks than strikeouts.

His best season came with the Mets in 1990. That season, he had career-highs in average (.328), home runs (6), and RBI (72).

I had three cards of Dave that day, but he just signed this one. I would have preferred that he signed his '87 Topps Future Stars card, but beggars can't be choosers. This is still a good looking card that commemorates the inaugural Marlins team. Plus, it is the only card that I have signed from this set.

1994 Pinnacle, Luis Lopez

#259 Luis Lopez

Here is another Padrograph from the latest package that Rod sent me. Technically, I think this is the first actual Padrograph from the bunch that I have posted. All of the others were non-Padres cards. The one exception might be the Thomas Howard minor legue card that shows him as a member of the Padres AAA team, the Las Vegas Stars.

This is the second Luis Lopez autograph that Rod has sent me. The first one was posted about a year and a half ago and it can be seen here. In that post, I suggested that Luis' signature looked like three "support our troops" ribbon magnets all orientated at different angles. I still stand by that claim with this card.

This is a great looking card and I doubt that Rod could have found a better one to get signed.



I tried.

1996 Pinnacle, Marc Newfield

#51 Marc Newfield

Here is another Padre autographs courtesy of Padrographs. This one features Marc Newfield. I remember Marc's rookie cards. He seemed to have a few prospect cards in various sets in the early '90s as a Mariner.

Unfortunately, he could never live up to the prospect status. In a three year period, he only played in 58 games as a Mariner and hit around .200. The M's shipped him and Ron Villone off to San Diego for Andy Benes. Marc played for the Padres for basically one year and got into 105 games and hit .264. With those numbers, the Padres were able to trade him and Ron Villone (and Bryce Florie) to the Brewers for Greg Vaughn. So in the end, the Padres basically traded Bryce Florie, Andy Benes, and some guy named Greg Keagle for Greg Vaughn. I would say that that was a very good trade.

After the trade, Marc hit .307 with 31 RBI in the final 49 games of the season. He only got into 50 games the next season and he hit .229. The next year, he got into 93 games and hit .237. That was the last time he appeared in the big leagues. The following season, he appeared in 4 games with Boston's AA team and 7 games with Oakland's AAA team. He appears to have hung them up after that.

I have no idea what is going on with his signature. All I can say about it is that it is unique.

1995 Pinnacle, Scott Elarton

#171 Scott Elarton

Here is another through the mail success, I think. This one was done by the Collective Troll who then sent it to me a few months ago. I have no idea when this autograph was obtained.

For me, I mostly remember Scott for being a Royal. He was the number one pitcher on a couple of very bad Royals teams. He had a lot of arm problems throughout his career and that trend continued during his time in Kansas City. He only pitched in 29 games in his two years as a Royal. 9 of those games were in the second year after coming back from an injury. He posted 10.46 ERA during those 9 starts and somehow he got 2 wins and only 4 losses. That is amazing. I was quite happy the day the Royals released him. He was, however, a 17 game winner in 2000 with the Astros before he started having arm problems.

The Indians picked him up after the Royals had let him go and he ended up getting into 8 games in 2008, all in relief. He pitched pretty well and posted a 3.52 ERA in 15.1 innings of work while striking out 15.

These draft pick cards remind me of the 1994 Score Select set with the torn edge in them. I think I like the base cards better, even though they had more foil on them.

1995 Pinnacle, Charles Johnson

#158 Charles Johnson

Here is another through the mail success that I had in the mid '90s. Just like Chipper Jones, I was expecting great things from Charles Johnson. While he did spend parts of twelve seasons in the Majors and made two All Star teams, I think that it is fair to say that he never lived up to the expectations. He was a career .245 hitter that showed signs of having some pop.

His best season in baseball was deffinitely his 2000 season, spent with the Orioles and the White Sox. He hit 21 dingers in 84 games as an O. He then hit 10 more in 44 games with the Sox. He finished the season with 91 RBI and a .304 average. Those were all career highs for him.

Johnson was traded to the Dodgers in 1998 in the big Piazza trade. After his one season in LA, he bounced around a bunch. He ended up playing for a total of six teams in his career and did two stints with the Marlins. His final season was 2005 with the Devil Rays. He played in 19 games for them before being released.

1995 Pinnacle, Chipper Jones

#111 Chipper Jones

This is another awesome TTM that I got back in the mid-'90s, most likely 1995. Looking back, it is great to see a few successful TTMs from young players that turned out to be really good. More often than not, you end up with the Ted Woods and Phil Hiatts.

I don't think that I need to say much about Chipper. His career speaks for itself. His batting average did fall 100 points from last year, though. For most players, that would be catastrophic. But not for Chipper. He still finished at .264, which was the second lowest of his career. It makes me wonder if it was an off year or is his age catching up with him?

So, what do you think? If Chipper retired today, would he be Hall of Fame worthy?

The back of this card lists Chipper's position as "Infield/OF". He can do it all.

1994 Pinnacle, Mike Macfarlane

#488 Mike Macfarlane

Here is the third and final Mike Macfarlane card that I got signed at Fanfest this past January. You can see the first one here and the second one here.

I would write more, but it has been a rough week as a Roayls fan and it isn't getting any better. To sum it up (and to tie it into this post, somewhat) I will relay the thoughts of one postgame caller to the local KC radio station this past Friday. He references Mac-N-Seitz, a Kansas City hitting academy owned by Mike Macfarlane and Kevin Seitzer. He basically said that "there is no way that Kevin Seitzer should be a Major League hitting coach; if the players wanted advice from him, they could just go down to Mac-N-Seitz, drop down a roll of quarters and get all of the advice they needed". And while the hitting hasn't been the problem since the All-Star break (it has been the bullpen), I still thought that it was funny and barely applied to this post.

Brian, your Rangers look to be in good shape for the weekend.

Also, I will say that based on the four cards from Pinnacle that I posted, 1994 Pinnacle had some great photography.

1994 Pinnacle, Joe Carter

#345 Joe Carter

Here is a card that I got signed last month at the College World Series. Joe was the last former player to sign at the AT&T Fanfest booth on the first Sunday of the event. Joe signed right after Rollie Fingers.

Joe seemed like a very nice guy. He was really talkative and would sign anything anybody wanted. The was a list of approved items that the players were allowed to sign, but Joe did what he wanted and was signing just about everything. There was a couple in front of me that got a bat signed (not an approved item) and a ball signed. They guy asked Joe if he would inscribe the ball with how many home runs he hit. Joe jokingly told him that there wasn't enough room on the ball to list all of his home runs. Then he inscribed it 396 HR and then he told the guy that "they were all legit, too".

I took a couple of cards to get signed by Joe. But, while I was at the card shop across the street, I stumbled upon this one and got it signed instead of my other one. I just lived the photo on it. Plus, check out the guy in the first row with the Don Mattingly shirt on.

1994 Pinnacle, Raul Mondesi

#242 Raul Mondesi

Here is another through the mail success that I got in the mid 90s. In 1994, Raul was the third straight Dodger to win the Rookie of the Year Award. The franshise went on to win five straight with Eric Karros and Mike Piazza winning the first two and Hideo Nomo and Todd Hollandsworth winning the last two. Only two franshises have won the award more than two years consecutively and the Dodgers have done it twice. They won four in a row from 1979-1982. The other team is Oakland and they won three straight from 1986-1988. In fact, Dodger players have won the award more than any other franchise. They have won it 16 times. The team that has won the second most times is the Yankees and they have 8.

I always liked Raul while he was a Dodger. He hit for power, he could run, and he had a cannon for arm. He was so pround of his arm that he actually got a cannon tattooed on it. I'm pretty sure that there was even a baseball card made that showed off the tattoo. But, prior to the 2000 season, Raul was traded to the Blue Jays for Shawn Green. He played for Toronto for two and a half years before being dealt to the Yankees. After a year in a half in New York, Raul started to bounce from team to team. He played for three more years for four different teams and never played in more than 45 games a year. In 2005, he hit .211 for the Braves in 41 games before being released at the end of May. After that, his career was over.

This was one of my favorite signatures while growing up. While the actual autograph is rough on the eyes, I liked that he added his number. It seems that baseball players aren't as big on adding their numbers as basketball and football players are (at least in the late 80s to the mid 90s). So, it was always cool to get a number added to a card. Plus, the photo is great.

1994 Pinnacle, Orel Hershiser

#58 Orel Hershiser

Here is another Hershiser card that I have signed. The last one I posted on here was obtained during the College World Series. But, this one is actually a through the mail success that I obtained in the mid-90s. I'm pretty sure that I got this one signed while Orel was an Indian.

This was actually my second attempt at getting Orel's signature TTM. I was not so lucky the first time. On the first attempt, I got my card back unsigned along with some other Dodger stuff including a pocket schedule and a decal. It also came with this postcard.



Here is the letter on the back.



These were fairly common in the late 80s and early 90s. I have some of these from Don Mattingly, George Brett, Mike Paizza, David Cone, and Dave Justice, just to name a few. Sometimes, if you were lucky, you would get something like this that was actually signed, like Shane Victorino and Tim Lincecum do these days. But, that was not the case with Orel.

I think that the main reason I wrote to him a second time was to see if he had one of these cards made of him as an Indian. Luickily, he didn't, and he signed my card instead.

1992 Pinnacle, Tim Raines

#605 Tim Raines

I dropped the ball on this one. Of all the Tim Raines cards out there, I just had to send him this one. This dark one. This dark one where he isn't an Expo on it.

Here is another card that I got through the mail in the early '90s. I thought that this was a pretty cool card back then. I loved the Oakley M Frames and loved these cards. They got the idea for these cards (I think) from a subset that they put out in the hockey cards that featured goalies masks. Boy, was I stupid. You can hardly see the signature on it. For once. the scan looks great. It looks much worse in person. I don't know why I sent such a dark card to get signed. I'm sure that I had some junk wax from the late '80s I could have sent. I guess I sent this one because it was a cool card. I wouldn't know what to think if cards like this came out today.

Either way, Raines was a great player and I am glad that I have his autograph in my collection. Now that Rickey Henderson is off of the ballot, Raines might get a little more support for the Hall of Fame.

1992 Pinnacle, Jose Guzman

#98 Jose Guzman

I got this card signed through the, wait no I didn't. Sorry. I had been in a rhythm for a week or two now. I actually got this card signed at a Rangers game last September. Jose works for one of the Spanish speaking radio stations as a color man.

An autograph seeking Rangers fan helped me out on this one. We were standing around trying to get some of the Rangers pitchers autographs. I mentioned that I didn't come as prepared as I usually do. He asked what I meant and I told him that I completely forgot about the rosters expanding on the first (I had been on the road for for five days seeing four ballparks). He asked who I needed cards of and I told him. He went through his stack and pulled out a card for each person I named. I thanked him and asked if he would like a couple of hot dogs or a beer or something, but he politely declined. Well, none of those guys signed after their workout, so I gave the cards back to him. He didn't want them back but after I explained that I already had all of those cards and that he may need them before I would, he took them back. Then, he pulls out this Guzman card. He tells me to go up to the club level (or mezzanine or what ever it's called there) and walk under the booth with all of the flags. That is Jose's booth and he'll sign if you ask. So, I thanked him again and he got ready to leave and turned to this little boy that wasn't having much luck getting autographs. He hands the boy an '08 Topps Heritage card that he had gotten signed by Josh Hamilton that morning. What a nice guy!

So, after I did a few things that I needed to do, I went up by the booths. This is the only ballpark that I can think of where you can reach up to the booths from the seating area. Jose wasn't there, so I left and came back a little later. He still wasn't there. But, the guy that gave me the card was. He was getting one of the Mariners TV guys to sign (it was either Randy Velarde or Mike Blowers, I'm not sure why I can't remember which). He pointed out which booth it was again and told me to wait. The usher there was super-nice and she told be to have a seat until he got there. Eventually, he came and signed this card.

I never got the guy's name who gave me this card, but thank you.