1991 Line Drive AAA, Bill Dancy

#499 Bill Dancy

Here is the second and final card that I got signed at the Rickwood Classic by the manager of the Tennessee Smokies. You can see the first card here.

Bill played professionally for six seasons in the Phillies and Mets systems. He made it up to AAA, mostly as a middle infielder, and he actually spent parts of four seasons at that level. But after his playing days, he went into coaching and that is where I cannot find much information on him. There is nothing on the Smokies site about him and all that Wikipedia has to say is that he was the Phillies third base coach from 2005-06. Other than that, I know nothing about his coaching career. I wish that there was some sort of site out there that listed all of the coach's stops. I'm sure that it would be hard to put together, but it sure would be a useful tool if it could be done.

1990 CMC, Jim Wright

#249 Jim Wright

Here is the second and final card that I got signed by Jim Wright prior to the '85 Classic. You can see the first card here.

Like I said in the first post, I got the cards signed by the players entrance as they were arriving for the game. After Jim signed my cards, I went over to where my buddy was having a beer and he asked me if I got Jim Wright's autograph. I was amazed that he knew who Jim was since he isn't much of a baseball fan. I asked him how he knew who it was and he said his name was embroidered on his luggage. I wasn't as amazed after that.

This card is the third Red Barons card that I have signed from this set. The cards feature the manager, the pitching coach, and a player at the end of his career that would eventually be a coach. All three cards have the close-up mug shot with the player/coach wearing his navy warm-up jacket. I just went through the rest of the Red Baron cards that I have from the set and they are all similar. These cards are the worst to get signed since most guys don't sign across their face and the dark colored jacket makes it hard to see the signature. But, when it is the only card you have of a player, it is either that or nothing.

1990 CMC, Bill Dancy

#244 Bill Dancy

Here is another card that I got signed at the Rickwood Classic. This one was signed by the visiting dugout since Bill is the manager of the Tennessee Smokies. I tried to get him to sign earlier that day as he was coming onto the field from the clubhouse, but he either didn't hear me or he ignored me. But I was able to get him to sign a little bit later as he was standing by the dugout and chatting with his players. He must not see too many baseball cards of himself because the players that were sitting on the dugout next to him made sure to take a good look at the cards he was signing. So, I guess it is his players that don't see too many cards of him.

I always find it strange when I get a card like this signed. The thing I find strange is that Bill was a AAA manager in 1990. Twenty years later, he is managing at the AA level. I would think that if he was a AAA manager, he would be a canadate for a Major League slot. But instead, he is Ryne Sandberg's replacement in AA. I guess that some guys are just better at developping the younger players than others.

1990 CMC, John Gibbons

#236 John Gibbons

First off, I want to say that I meant to have two posts up but now. But, there was this freak storm that hit a couple of hours ago that knocked out the electricity. Rather than sit around while it got hot and dark in the house, I went to the bar to pass some time. So, there is only going to be this post tonight and it is the second post of this guy since I finished up with the 1993 cards. I would say that I would make it up to you tomorrow, but I wouldn't want to lie on here.

Anyways, here is the second John Gibbons card. I usually don't link to a player's stats after I have posted them once. But, I did this time and I did it a little different as well. I normally use Baseball Almanac for my stats link and they only show the Major League stats. Tonight, I used the Baseball Cube since they show all of their minor league stats also. I thought that since I was showing a minor league card that was made three years after his last Major League card, some minor league stats might be appropiate.

Like I said, this is the second card of John Gibbons on here. Here is the first. I got this card signed at the first regular season game I went to this year as John was coming off of the field after batting practice (he's the Royals bench coach). He signed a third card, too. But it is from when he was the Blue Jays manager, so it will be some time before I get to that one.

As for the Scranton-Wilkes Barre Red Barons, they are no longer the Red Barons. Instead, they are the Scranton-Wilkes Barre Yankees. I think that the SWB Red Barons may have been the longest name in professional sports until the Long Beach Armada of the Golden Baseball League officially changed their name to the Long Beach Armada of Los Angeles of California of the United States of North America Including Barrow, Alaska, in 2007.