2001 Quad City River Bandits Grandstand, Terry Tiffee

#24 Terry Tiffee

Here is the second card that Tiffee gave me when he came by my house while I was in college. You can read about that here.

Surprisingly, these are the only two cards that I have signed by Terry. I have two of his 2003 Topps cards (one regular and one gold), but I have been unable to get those signed so far. I had planned on getting the regular issue one signed at a Oklahoma Red Hawks game in 2008. Terry was with the Las Vegas 51s at that time. But, he got picked to represent Team USA in the summer Olympics that year. It worked out well for him, though, as he was able to capture the bronze medal at the games. I do, however, have a few signed balls from him and an autographed bat that looks great.

Terry made his "#" sign on his "ff" on this card and then forgot to add his number.

2000 QC River Bandits Roox, Terry Tiffee

NN Terry Tiffee

Here is one of my favorite autographs. The reason why I like this card is because Terry Tiffee is the only person I have personally known to make it to the Major Leagues. Tiffee and I were teammates with the 1998 Pratt Community College Beavers. Not only were we teammates, we were also close friends during the two years we went to school there.

In 2001, my buddy Dustin and I made our inaugural ballpark roadtrip. We saw games at Camden Yards, Veterans Stadium, Yankee Stadium, Fenway Park, Skydome, and Wrigley Field. The game at Wrigley was a day game, so after that we high-tailed it to Davenport, Iowa to see Terry play for the Quad City River Bandits. We hit some heavy traffic leaving Chicago and ended up getting to the game in the fourth inning (which worked out fine since we got in for free). After the game, we met up with Terry and he gave us some balls and stuff. We would have went somewhere to hang out, but Terry's folks were in town that weekend.

Once his season was over, Terry was heading to Liberal, Kansas to see his girlfriend (now his wife). I was going to school at Kansas State at the time and he called me up and asked if he could crash at my place for the night. My roommate at the time also played at Pratt, so we were more than happy to have him stay. As soon as he got to our place, he gave us both a couple of cards that he had signed. It was pretty cool seeing an actual baseball card of someone you knew. That will probably be the last time that that ever happens to me.

I like how Terry signed this card. He made the bottom of the two "f's" in his last name look like the # sign and then put his number after it.

As mentioned before, Terry is playing for the Quad City River Bandits in this card. The River Bandits are still around today, although they did briefly change their name to the Swing of the Quad Cities for a bit. One difference is that they are now affiliated with the Cardinals instead of the Twins.

How is this for foreshadowing? When we were at Pratt, Terry actually owned a River Bandits hat.

1992 Classic/Best, P.J. Forbes

#376 P.J. Forbes

I got this card signed at the Wilmington Blue Rocks playoff game. PJ was the manager of the visiting Lynchburg Hillcats. At the game, I was trying to get autographs from the Rocks. I had my buddy getting autographs from the 'Cats for me. He wasn't able to get PJ's before the game because he didn't know which one he was. I was able to get the card signed after the game. It was easier to spot him then since he still had on his coaching helmet.

PJ had a long minor league career. He had two brief call-ups to the Majors. The Orioles called him up in 1998 and he got 10 at-bats in 9 games and got one hit. The second call-up came in 2001 with the Phillies. With them, he only got 7 at-bats in 3 games with 2 hits. That was it for his Major League career. He played one more year of AAA ball and that was the end of his playing career.

I like PJ since he played for Wichita State and was on their lone NCAA championship team in 1989. This is the fifth player from that team that I have an autographed card of.

On this card, PJ is playing for the Quad City River Bandits. The Bandits are still around even though they changed their name to the Swing of the Quad Cities for a few years. They play in a beautiful ballpark in Davenport, Iowa that gets flooded from the river occasionally.