1995 Signature Rookies Preview, Wilton Guerrero

#16 Wilton Guerrero

Here is a card that I picked up from COMC for a mere sixty cents. I normally try to avoid buying Signature Rookies cards if I can. But Wilton falls into a certain category where I make an exception. Like John Mabry, I got something signed by Wilton at a game once and it was not a baseball card. It was a wrong that needed corrected and I could not pass it up for sixty cents.

I got a roster signed by Wilton in St. Louis in 1998. Jim Eisenreich also signed the roster and I posted a picture of it a few years back. It can be seen here.

Wilton broke in with the Dodgers in 1996 and was a regular in 1997. He hit .291 with them that year and had career highs in home runs(4), triples(9), and RBI(32). He was then packaged in a deal at the deadline in '98 and shipped off to Montreal for Carlos Perez and Mark Grudzielanek. He played with the Expos for two and a half seasons, and got some decent playing time, before signing with the Reds in 2001.

He played sparingly in Cincy for a season in a half before being part of a three team deal that included Carl Pavano, Cliff Floyd, and Ryan Dempster. He finished off the 2002 season with the Expos before spending all of '03 in the minors. He resurfaced in the Majors in '04 for 24 games with the Royals. I am a die-hard Royals fan, but I had no idea Wilton was ever on the team. I was in basic training for most of that season, so I guess that is my excuse. 2004 was the last time he played a Major League game.

For his career, Wilton hit .282 with 11 home runs and 127 RBI.

Speaking of Royals, did anyone notice that they went up 2-0 in the ALCS today? Whether you like the Royals or not, you have to admit that they sure make their games interesting.

It is impossible to tell in this scan, but this card is a mini-sized. It is not quite Allen and Ginter mini, but is the same size as the Old Judge card I posted yesterday.

1994 Signature Rookies Draft Picks, John Mabry

#97 John Mabry

When I first started going to Royals games regularly in the early 2000s, I wasn't into getting cards signed. Instead, I took balls to get signed. It was fun and had some advantages, but overall, it didn't make as much sense as getting cards signed. For one, official Major League balls are expensive. Secondly, signed baseball take up a lot more room than cards. Then, when the only signature you get at the park on that expensive ball is Tony Eusebio, it is kind of a let down. So that is why I try to get cards signed. But before I switched over to cards, I got a ball signed by John Mabry.

That was my first experience 'graphing the parking lot in Kansas City and I did it after a day game. John was the only member of the Mariners to sign that day. The set-up outside of the K was much better back then than it is today ('graphing-wise), but I guess the M's were just ready to get out of town. At least I did not go home empty handed.

Since all I had signed by John was a ball and not a card, I picked this one up from COMC for $0.75. It is not the best-looking card out there, but who is going to argue over $0.75?

John played in the Majors for fourteen seasons with the Cardinals, Mariners, Padres, Marlins, Phillies, A's, Cubs and Rockies. He was a .263 hitter with 96 home runs and 446 RBI. His best season was with St. Louis in 1996. That season, he hit .297 and had career highs with 13 home runs and 74 RBI.

I got to see John play eight times and he did really well in those eight games. He was 8-19 with 5 runs, 6 RBI, a double, and 2 home runs. The reason why he did so well at those games is because he signed a ball for me. Signing autographs is just good karma. It might have helped that most of those games were against crappy Royals pitching, too.

This card is an odd one for this set. This is a draft picks set and John was drafted in 1991. I have no idea why they put him in this set, but I am glad that they did.

Here is the ball he signed for me in 2003.

1994 Signature Rookies Draft Picks, Jamie Bluma

#65 Jamie Bluma

I mentioned a couple of posts ago that I like to pick up autographed cards every time I make a purchase from Check Out My Cards. That is how I got this card. I picked it up almost two years ago for just $0.99.

Most people would not think much about a certified auto of Jamie Bluma that costs less than a buck. But I picked this card up for two reasons. The first is that Jamie is a former Royal. But, the main reason is because he is pictured on the card in his Wichita State uniform.

When I was growing up in the late '80s and early '90s, there was probably more talk in the spring about Wichita State baseball than Royals baseball. The program was in its heyday and they really were the talk of the state, at least for baseball fans. They made the College World Series six times in a nine year span and won it all in 1989, while finishing runner-up twice. Even though the program has almost dropped off of the map since 2008, I still support them, even though my alma mater Kansas State program has really stepped up its game.

I met Jamie at Fanfest this year and I gave my kid an unsigned version of this card to get signed. Jamie just laughed when he saw it and commented that he has signed about 8,000 of these cards. I asked him how long it took him to sign the cards for Signature Rookies and he said that it took him several weeks to do it.

1994 Signature Rookies Draft Picks, Aaron Boone

#62 Aaron Boone

Here is a card that I got signed at the College World Series this summer. Aaron works for ESPN and he was in town to work the games. All State took advantage of him being there and had him at their booth signing autographs the day before the games started. His line went rather quick and I was able to get all three of my cards signed, and a few 8x10s, while I was standing in line for John Kruk.

I had a really hard time finding cards of Aaron to take to get signed. My card storage system is rather lacking. I need to spend some serious time getting my stuff together and sorted. I can find stuff for all of the current players and all of my cards pre-2004 are pretty well sorted. But, I have to do some major digging to find cards of any player that has retired in the past ten years.

That is how I came to get this card signed. It would not have been my first option, but I could not find anything better. I found this card, a minor league card, and an '08 Topps Heritage card. Do you know what team he is playing for on the Heritage card? The Astros. Do you know how long his career as an Astro lasted? Thirteen at-bats. I could not find a single Reds card of him, or even a Yankee or Indians card. I need to get my stuff together.

Even though this was not my first choice, I am still glad I got it signed. It was at the College World Series and it shows him playing for USC. The 8x10s they handed out also depicted him as a Trojan.

1994 Signature Rookies, Todd Hollandsworth

#14 Todd Hollandsworth

That was easily the longest title to a post on here ever.

Here is a card of Todd Hollandsworth that I picked up from Check Out My Cards. Just about any time I buy cards off of there, I always try to add an autograph or two before I checkout. On one summer day last year, I came across this card. Since this card was mass produced (8650 of them were signed), it was very cheap. It was so cheap that I could not pass it up. This card set me back all of sixty cents! Can you believe that? It is hard to find common cards on COMC for less than sixty cents sometimes.

Todd had a twelve year Major League career with the Dodgers, Rockies, Rangers, Marlins, Cubs, Braves, Indians, and Reds. Out of all those teams, I only remember him as a Dodger. But, I apparently saw him play a couple of times as a Rocky and Cub. The highlight for his career was winning the 1996 National League Rookie of the Year Award. Todd was the last Dodger to win the award and was the fifth of five straight ROYs that the Dodgers pumped out in the mid-90s. That season, he hit .291 with 12 home runs and 59 RBI. The RBI and home run marks were career highs for him.

After that breakout rookie campaign, Todd hit a slide. His average dropped to .247 the following season and he hit just 4 home runs. He turned into a part-time player after that and only saw action in 100+ games in one other season. That was with the Cubs and Braves in 2005.

For his career, Todd hit .273 with 98 home runs and 401 RBI. He played in one World Series with the Marlins in 2003 and was 0-2 with a strikeout. But, he got a ring.

1996 Signature Rookies Autobilia, Darin Erstad

#B3 Darin Erstad

Way back in March, I attended my first baseball game of the year. Unfortunately, it was not a Spring Training game. It was just a college game. But one of the teams involved was Nebraska and the newest addition to the Nebraska coaching staff was none other than Darin Erstad. So, rather than being "just" a college game, it was one of the few college games played in my area where a former big leaguer was a part of the coaching staff. Not only did I leave the park with my first ballpark autographs of the year, but I also got to see a Kansas State victory. It was a good day all around.

I took this card with me to get signed for two reasons. The first reason is because I like this card. If I remember correctly, this card was a preview card that was inserted into a Signature Rookies football set. The set it was previewing never came out, so I would think that this card might be harder to find than most other Darin Erstad cards.

The second reason why I took this card is because it shows Darin in his old Nebraska uniform and that is the team he coaches with now. Plus, it was nice getting a non-Angel card signed even though it technically is an Angel card.

I was surprised to see the other day that Nebraska is coming back to Manhattan again next season. That surprises me because Nebraska is no longer in the Big 12. So, if anyone needs a Darin Erstad autograph this spring, let me know and I will see what I can do.

Here is a fun Nebraska themed fact- Darin was the punter on the 1994 Nebraska National Championship football team and he was the fourteenth best punter in the nation, based on average punt.

1994 Signature Rookies, Robbie Beckett

#23 Robbie Beckett

Like yesterday, this post is of a Padrograph that I posted about two years ago. The very first package of Padrographs arrived with 150+ different signed Padre cards and one of them was a 1991 Score card of Robbie. I didn't have much to say about Robbie then, so I will look into him a little more this post.

Robbie was drafted out of high school in the first round of the 1990 draft. By '94, Robbie had advanced up to AAA and it wasn't pretty. He posted an 11.79 ERA in 23 relief appearances. He ended up spending all of '95 at the AA level.

In 1996, he was picked up on waivers by the Marlins coming out of Srping Training.He pitched for their AA team for less than a month before getting claimed by the Rockies. He pitched for the AA and AAA teams for the remainder of the season and then got a September call-up. He made his Major League debut on September 12th of that season against the Braves and he pitched a scoreless inning while recording his first Major League strikeout. The victim of the K just happened to be Chipper Jones. Robbie finished that month with 13.50 ERA in 5.1 innings of work. It obviously went downhill from his debut.

Robbie pitched in AAA for most of the '97 season, but he did get another call-up in September. That month, he only got into two games and he posted an ERA of 5.40 in 1.2 innings of work. He went on to play in the minors for three more seasons, but he never reached the Major League again.

For his career, Robbie was 0-0 with an 11.57 ERA with 10 walks and 9 strikeouts. He gave up 7 hits and 3 of them went for home runs.

All in all, this is an interesting card. It is kind of weird how the photo is cropped and doesn't take up all of the card. It is also strange that it points out that Robbie is a first round draft pick even though that happened four years before the card was made. I also like how Signature Rookies announces that there are only 45,000 of these cards out there. For the record, Robbie didn't sign 45,000 cards. Rod got this card signed some other way. It didn't come out of a pack signed.

Robbie is playing for the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes in this card. It appears that the smog was nice and thick on the day this photo was taken, just like it was when I was at a Quakes game in 2008.

1995 Signature Rookies, Ivan Arteaga

#3 Ivan Arteaga

Here is another non-Padre card that Rod, of Padrographs, was nice enough to send my way. So far, I now have three cards from '95 Signature Rookies that were given to me by three different people, and none of the three cards look the same. I did not buy any Signature Rookies in 1995, so I have no idea which is what.

Ivan's professional career lasted six seasons with three organizations, an independent team, and a Mexican League team. He was originally signed by the Expos and he played in their system for only a year before being sent to the Rockies. In their system, he played another two years, both at the AA level. After that, he missed two seasons with an injury. Then the Mets gave him a shot and he spent one season with them split between high-A and AA. After that, he played a year and a half in the independent Norther League East (a league I had not heard of) and part of a season in Mexico. 2000 was his final season playing.

When I first saw this card, I thought that the NH on his hat might have been New Hampshire. It turns out that it is the old New Haven Ravens.

This is the first autograph that I have posted on here of someone whose first name starts with an "I".

1996 Signature Rookies Autobilia, Johnny Damon

#B4 Johnny Damon

First off, I don't know too much about this card. It is a preview card for a set that never came out. I can't even remember which set I got it out of. It might have been from the Autobilia football cards that Signature Rookies defaulted on. I can't even find this card on Beckett.com. There were a few more preview cards, but the only other one I remember is A-Rod. But, I think that it is a good looking card. If nothing else, it is original.

I got this card signed at a Royals Caravan appearance at the mall when I was in high school. Johnny was there with Micheal Tucker. That was probably the best caravan I attended until 2008. They usually had some rookies signing prior to that, but it was more like Kevin Koslofski than anyone that would be around for awhile.

I wish that I would have had him sign another card for me. But, this was the only card I took. I bought a pennent there and had him and Tucker sign that. I still have that. I may have a signed Royals-issued photo, too. I'm not sure if I grabbed one of those or not.

I first became a Royals fan in college when I realized I only had to drive an hour and forty-five minutes to get to the ballpark. That was in 2000 and the Royals had the best offense in team history. Unfortunately, their pitching was horrible. The outfield consisted of Damon, Carlos Beltran, and Jermaine Dye while Joe Randa and Mike Sweeney were the main guys in the infield. That was a fun ballclub. You could pretty much expect a 9-7 game every night.

Here is a picture of Johnny from photo day that year.

1995 Signature Rookies, Matt Beaumont

#DD1 Matt Beaumont

Here is another card that I know nothing about. I am assuming that this card was in the same set as yesterdays card. Judging by the "1 of 10,000" line and the number on the back, this must be an insert card. Matt got off lucky and only had to sign just over a fifth of the 10,000 cards made of him.

Matt never made it to the Major Leagues. In fact, he really struggled at the AA level. He pitched in AA in parts of six seasons and only pitched in two games in AAA. For his career, he posted an ERA that is around 5 for the AA level.

I must say that this is one of the ugliest cards that I have ever seen. What is up with that border? The only good part to the design of this card is the imaginary Angles uniform that Signature Rookies invented.

I got this card earlier in the week from dayf, the Cardboard Junkie. I won a Gwinnett Braves schedule and he sent this card and a Dennis Leonard card along with it. Thanks!

1995 Signature Rookies, Jason Hutchins

#14 Jason Hutchins

This card was given to me by Paul, of Paul's Random Stuff. I must have got my fill of Signature Rookies in 1994 because I did not own a single card from this set until I got this card. One of the first things I notice about it is that it has a "torn" edge on it with the player's name, just like the draft pick cards in yesterdays Pinnacle set did. At least I think that that is supposed to be a torn edge. I guess that it could be mountains since Jason was in the Rockies system.

As for Jason's career, it was a short one. He only lasted three years in pro ball. His third season was in AA and he posted a 3.86 ERA in 14 innings of work, striking out 14 and walking 14. I have no idea if he was just released or if an injury ended his career.

As for the "CV" on his hat, that must have been from his days with the Central Valley Rockies of the California League. The team was located in Visalia and for two years, decided against the Oaks moniker.

1994 Signature Rookies Tetrad, Phil Geisler

#88 Phil Geisler

I got this card in a pack of Tetrad in 1994. Tetrad was Signature Rookies version if Classic 4-Sport. I'm not sure if they had hockey cards in the product or not, but they did have baseball, basketball, and football. Each pack had one autograph in it. I only bought a few packs of Tetrad and my best autograph is of the late basketball player, Yinka Dare.

As for Phil, he was a career minor leaguer. He was the Phillies number three prospect in 1994. While he raked in the lower levels of the minors, he really struggled in AAA. In '94, he hit .197 for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in 183 at-bats. The next season, he hit .186 in limited at-bats for SWB. He went to the Mets organization after that and hit just over .250 in AA ('96) and AAA (97). In 1998, he played 42 games with three different teams at the AAA level. That was his final year in pro ball.

This is the last Signature Rookie card for 1994.

1994 Signaute Rookies Draft Picks, The Rest, part 2

Well, I made it back from Pocono today. I went to one game while I was there and got to check out another baseball hot-spot. But, I will save that post for tomorrow. Tonight, I will finish up with the Signature Rookies Draft Picks and then do some catching up with the blogs.

Here are the players on this sheet, left to right, top to bottom- Carlton Loewer, Paul Wilson, Aaron Boone, Jason Sikes (check out his dollar sign "S"), Ryan Nye, Doug Jennings, Paul Failla, Tommy Davis, and Corey Pointer.

Unlike the last page, only six of these guys got a chance in the Major Leagues.

Carlton Loewer- For some reason, this card was a short print autograph. Only 3,350 of these were signed. Carlton was drafted 23rd overall in the draft. I'm not sure why they thought he was so special that he didn't need to sign as many cards as the rest of the players.

Carlton made 41 appearances with the Phillies in 1998 and '99, with less than spectacular results. He resurfaced a couple more times as a Padre and didn't do well there, either. He has a 10-18 record as a Major Leaguer, with a 6.12 ERA.

Paul Wilson- Paul was the number one draft pick that year and this was the card to get. But, the thing that sucks about getting draft pick autograph cards is the wait. For most of these guys, I'm just now realizing that they ever made it to the Majors. That was not the case for Paul Wilson. I only had to wait two seasons for him to make his debut with the Mets. Then, after arm problems, I had to wait four more seasons for him to appear again in the Majors with the D-Rays. He went on to pitch for the Reds and seemed to be doing pretty well until he had more arm problems in 2005. He spent all 0f '06 in the minors and was released by the Reds in Spring Training in 2007. He tried to make a comeback last year with Reno in the Golden Baseball League, but got released after five games.

For me, my lasting memory of Paul Wilson will be him getting speared by Kyle Farnsworth.

Aaron Boone- Here is a card that I didn't realize I had for some time. I always had the card, I just didn't realize that I had a card of an everyday Major League player until maybe 2001 or 2002. Aaron will probably be remembered the most for his pennant winning home run off of Tim Wakefield.

Aaron was supposed to play for the Astros this year, but he ended up having heart surgery in March.

Jason Nye- Jason made five appearances with the Phillies in 1997 and '98. He had five Major League appearances and was 0-2 with a 9.69 ERA. He recorded 10 strikeouts, but issued 9 walks.

Doug Jennings- Here is another questionable addition to this set. By the time this set came out, Doug's Major League playing days were over. Doug was a second round pick in 1984. He made his Major League debut in 1988 with the A's and played his final Major league game with the Cubs in 1993. On this card, he appears to be wearing an Indianapolis batting jersey. Maybe this was 10-year anniversary of the '84 draft commemorative card.

Tommy Davis- Tommy Davis' Major League was very short. In 1999, he went 1-6 with the Orioles. He played three more seasons in AAA, but he never got another shot in the big leagues. At least he got a taste.

Also, there is still time to enter Trader Crack's contest for a Razor Cut Signature. You don't want to miss out on this one.

1994 Signature Rookies Draft Picks- The Rest, part 1

I got a box of this stuff for Christmas or my birthday in 1994. Each pack contained one autograph. Rather than go through them one by one, I'll divide them up into two posts.

From left to right, top to bottom, this page has- Andrew Lorraine, Mark Farris, Oscar Robles, Jayson Peterson, Jacob Cruz, John Dettmer, Hiram Bocachica, Kevin Witt, and Mark Johnson.

Out of those nine, seven of these players made it the Major Leagues.

Andrew Lorraine- This card was some sort of insert card. For starters, Andrew was drafted in 1993. Also, the card itself is number to 20,000 and the signature is numbered to 2,100. I'm not sure what uniform he is wearing, though. I always thought that it was a Vancouver Canadians uniform, but he wasn't traded to the White Sox until 1995. Plus, it looks like he has a 125th anniversary patch on his sleeve. Is this an Angels jersey that is really doctored up?

Andrew pitched in parts of seven seasons with seven different clubs.

Oscar Robles- Oscar got into 110 games with the Dodgers in 2005. It took him eleven years to make the Majors, but he made the most of it and hit.272 that year. Unfortunately, he didn't do as well the next year as he only hit .152 in 29 games. He appeared in 24 games in 2007 with the Padres, as well. He played for Portland and Lehigh Valley last year and this year has played in the Mexican League.

Oscar was an undrafted free agent. I'm not sure why he is in a draft pick set.

Jacob Cruz- Jacob's career was similar to Andrew Lorraine's. He played parts of nine seasons in the Majors with five different clubs. The only season that he got any decent playing time was in 2005 for the Reds. He appeared in 110 games that year, almost exclusively as a pinch hitter. He finished the season at .236 mark with 4 homers and 18 RBI. He also played in Mexico this year.

John Dettmer- Out of the seven guys with Major League experience, this guy has the least amount. He only got into 12 games with the Rangers- 11 in '94 and 1 in '95. He has a 0-6 record and a 4.47 ERA for his career.

John was drafted in 1992. This is another questionable addition to the set.

Hiram Bocachica- Hiram appeared in 273 Major League games, with five teams, before taking off for Japan. He was a .215 career hitter in the States. Last year, he hit .251 with 20 home runs and only 47 RBI with the Seibu Lions. He played for Puerto Rico in the WBC this year.

Kevin Witt- Kevin played for four different teams in the five seasons he spent in the big leagues. His most successful season was with the Tigers in 2003, when he .263 with 10 home runs in 93 games.

Mark Johnson- This is one of three Mark Johnsons that have played Major League baseball. One was a first basemen/outfielder, one was a catcher, and one pitched. This is the catcher. This Mark has played parts of eight season in the Majors with four different teams. Most of his time was with the White Sox. I was amazed to see that he appeared in 10 games last year with the Cardinals. This season, he is playing for the Iowa Cubs and is currently on the DL.

Tomorrow, I will post the second, and final, group from this set. I didn't do a post yesterday because I am in the Poconos in Pennsylvania. I am helping out a friend who is racing in the ARCA series out here. The last three posts were written on Tuesday night. I started to run out of time, so I skipped Wendesday and Friday. I should be home tomorrow and will get another post in.

1994 Signature Rookies Draft Picks, Steve Woodard

#82 Steve Woodard

To be honest, I still am not sure how I got this card signed. I got it signed last year while I was at a Round Rock Express game. Steve was pitching for the Albuquerque Isotopes at the time.

Now, in order to set this story straight, I have to start at the beginning. And the beginning of this story starts in the seventh inning. Albuquerque's Scott Nestor is pitching and he is the thrid Isotope pitcher at that point and the team was down 6-2. Nestor gave up three straight singles (and a run) and was facing Yordany Ramirez with no outs and runners on first and third. Yordany had hit a two-run home run in the previous at-bat. On the first pitch, Nestor hit him with a curve ball and immediately got tossed by the home plate umpire. The Isotopes manager came out and argued for a good twenty minutes. He had been tossed early in the argument, but he was reluctant to leave the field. Whoever took charge of the 'Topes didn't even bother to bring in a new pitcher until the manager left the field. When he finally left, Steve Woodard was brought into the game. Since he was entering the game because of an ejection, he had all the time he needed to warm up.

As he was warming up, he kept saying stuff to the third base umpire. He finally threw his final warm-up pitch and got ready to face the hitter. He said something else to the third base umpire (who said something back) and finally toed the rubber with the bases loaded and no outs. Before he even got the sign, he looked over at the third base umpire. I'm not sure if he said anything or not, but he got tossed before he even threw a single pitch. I've been to quite a few games, but that was a first for me.

So, the 'Topes had to bring in another pitcher that had as much time as was needed to warm up. From the time of the beaning to the next pitch was a good 45 minutes. It was pretty ridicoulous.

So, Steve headed for the locker room. In Round Rock, the locker room is behind the left field fence. In fact, it is so far behind the fence that the players have to walk across the concourse to get from the field to the locker room (it is a great place for autographs, by the way).

Steve ended up watching the rest of the game from the concourse there. I went up to him and asked for an autograph and he told me that they weren't allowed to sign during the game. So, I waited around that area until the game was over.

While I was waiting, I ended up standing next to one of the EMTs that was assigned to the game. I must have been going through my book to see who I still needed because she ended up asking about it. She thought that it was pretty cool and I told her that I was waiting for the game to get over so that I could get Woodard's autograph and I pointed to him so she could see who I was talking about.

As soon as the last out was recorded, I walked straight over to Steve, but he had already started to head back to the locker room. I asked him to sign and he either didn't hear me or ignored me, and he kept on walking. So, I found a spot to stand to wait for the other players that would be coming across the concourse when the EMT walked up to me. She told me that if I wanted Woodard's autograph, I had better get it now and pointed to where he was. I headed over to him and he signed my three cards and headed back into the clubhouse.

Apparently the EMT was able to get him back out there for a second. I have no idea how she did it, but I certainly appreciated it.

Click on the Steve Woodard link at the top. It will take you to the Baseball Almanac page that has this card on it. But their card was one of the insert autographs from this set. Check out how much his signature has changed from 1994 to 2008. It's pretty drastic.

1994 Signature Rookies Draft Picks, Jason Camilli

#39 Jason Camilli

I got this card signed last summer at a Staten Island Yankees game. The Yanks were playing the Vermont Lake Monsters and Jason was their hitting coach. I got him to sign the card before the game. While he was signing it, a few of his players came over to check out the card. He told them, "yeah, that was me in rookie ball". You could definitely sense that he missed playing in the way he said that.

Jason never made it to the Majors. He played in the minors for nine seasons, but only got into 56 AAA games in two different stints. He spent most of the time in the Montreal organization and was a .238 hitter for his career.

Check out that jersey. Signature Rookies didn't have a minor league licence. They were like the '90s version of modern day Donruss. Rather than just airbrush out the team name, they decided to add some ridiculously large numbers to the front of the jersey. It looks like he is wearing a cheap, button-down, football jersey.

1994 Signature Rookies, John Burke

#21 John Burke

John Burke was drafted three times. He was drafted in the 34th round by the Orioles in 1989. He didn't sign, and instead attended the University of Florida. Two years later, he got drafted again. This time it was by the Astros in the 1st round, 6th overall. Again, he didn't sign and he went back to school. In 1992, he was drafted a third time. This time he had the distinction of being the Rockies first ever draft pick (1st round, 27th overall). He signed with the Rockies and even made 10 starts with the Bend Rockies that year where he went 2-0 with a 2.41 ERA.

The next year, he made 28 starts between high A Central Valley and AAA Colorado Springs. After that season, it seems that he started getting injured. And with a pitcher, that usually means arm problems. In 1994, he only made 12 appearances. In '95, he made 19 appearances. He must have been feeling much better in '96 as he made 38 appearances, 11 of them with the Colorado Rockies. He pitched 15.2 innings for the Rockies and had a 7.47 ERA. The next year, he had 17 appearances, 8 of them starts, for the Rockies and finished with a 2-5 record and a 6.56 ERA. In 1998, he made 2 appearances with Salem and 6 with Colorado Springs. He hung up the spikes after that.

I bought this card for $5, around 1994 or '95, at the local card shop (which is still alive and kickin'). Signature Rookies usually came with one autograph per pack, but the packs usually consisted of minor leaguers or draft picks. I never bought any packs of from this. I just bought this one card of a player that I was hoping was an up-and-comer. I didn't do too well on that one.