1992 Skybox AAA, Ozzie Canseco

#124 Ozzie Canseco

Here is the fourth card of Ozzie Canseco that I have to show on here. Ozzie was the hitting coach for a season and a half with the American Association's Sioux Falls Canaries. The four cards were signed on two separate occasions at Wichita Wingnut games.

Ozzie had a few minor league cards that were available in packs, but this is the only one I have. It comes from the Skybox set that looks nearly identical to the Line Drive set from the previous year. How or why the two sets look nearly the same is unknown to me. I do know that I have very few of the Skybox cards, so I probably wasn't very impressed with the copycat look.

Ozzie was released by the A's after the 1990 season. He went to Japan in 1991 (though I can find no stats for him) before coming back to the States for the 1992 season. He spent most of '92 in Louisville and he hit 22 home runs for them, the most he ever hit in a single season at any level.

1992 Skybox AAA, Doug Linton

#228 Doug Linton

Here is the second and final Doug Linton card that I was able to get signed in Colorado Springs over the summer. Doug was the pitching coach for the Sky Sox and I got this card signed just prior to the game.

For some reason, I did not buy nearly as many of these Skybox cards as I did of the Line Drive cards that looked similar and came out the previous year. I'm not sure if that was because my local supermarket did not carry these or if it was because I was about to enter high school and collecting was about to hit the back burner. Either way, it kind of sucks because I have few of these cards to search through when looking for cards to get signed.

If you haven't already, you need to head over to The Great Orioles Autograph Project and enter his second annual postseason contest. It is real easy to enter and you could come out with cool and unique prizes. The deadline to enter is at first pitch tomorrow (Friday).

1997 Circa, Kevin Seitzer

#152 Kevin Seitzer

Here is the second Seitzer card that I got signed at Fanfest last month. The first card, which I posted one month and one day ago, can be seen here.

I bought this card for cheap from checkoutmycards.com just prior to Fanfest. I have a few Royals cards and a Brewers card signed by Kevin, but I still needed an Indians card signed by him. When I saw this card, I just assumed that it had to be from the incredibly crazy 1995 Fleer set. That is the only thing that I thought when I saw this card. So, I bought it and when I saw it in person, I could tell just how wrong I was. Maybe I should pay a little more attention when I buy my cards online.

As it turned out, this card is from Skybox's Circa set. Who would have thought it? If this crazy-looking set wasn't modeled after '95 Fleer, than I am losing my mind. Sure, this set may be a little toned down from the '95 Fleer, but just barely. They scrapped the biography information (height, weight, birth year) for a quote and threw some foil on the card and now we have Circa instead of Fleer. I guess it should come as no surprise that Skybox was owned by Fleer at the time. No wonder Fleer is not around anymore. They couldn't learn from their past mistakes. Maybe Topps could learn a little lesson from this.

But, overall, I am completely happy with the way this card turned out. Now, I just need to get an A's card signed by Kevin and then I should be good to go.

1992 Skybox, John Hudek

#40 John Hudek

Do you realize that it has been a month and a half since I have posted a card from 1993. In that time, I have had a contest, won two contests and took second in a third, posted a picture of my dog, posted three cards from 1968, gone to the College World Series, posted a autographed card from the Royals first round draft pick, and posted seven '81 Donruss cards. That is all going to change tomorrow when I post one more 1993 card before finally starting the '94s on Saturday. I was planning on having a contest to celebrate, but because of the holiday, I will hold off on that one for a couple of days.

Here is my second and final card of John Hudek that I got Astros Fanfest. I know what you are thinking, "only two of him?". Yep, only two. I had a third minor league card of him that I could have taken with me (it was a '91 Line Drive and looked almost identical to this card). But, I was determined to find a Major League card of him. When I couldn't find one, I had forgot about the third minor league card and took off to Houston without it. You can see the first Hudek card here.

John is playing for the Birmingham Barons in this card. The Barons are still around today and they are still affiliated with the White Sox. They gained a ton of exposure in the mid '90s when Micheal Jordan played for them.

1992 Skybox AAA, Ever Magallanes

#285 Ever Magallanes

I got this card signed last summer at a Rancho Cucamonga Quakes game. Ever was the Quakes manager. I wasn't able to spot him before the game, but I happened to run into his roommate and he pointed him out to me. He no longer had the mustache and had a shaved head, too. I waited around a little bit after the game and got this card signed while he was headed to the clubhouse. He would have signed more than this card if I would have had any since he started to sign the card of his hitting coach before I got him to stop. He chuckled about it, said something in Spanish to his hitting coach and then took off. I waited about ten more minutes to get Francisco Matos (the hitting coach) to sign. He was busy filling out charts, so I left with a defaced minor league card. Several months later, I found another card of Ever that I had in the 1991 Bowman set.

Ever only got a brief cup of coffee in the bigs. He got into three games in 1991 for the Indians and went 0-2 with a walk. He was drafted in 1987, but by 1989, he was in AAA. He played in AAA almost exclusively until 1994. Then he was out of baseball until 2004, when he played in 16 games with the AAA Tuscon Sidewinders at the age of 38.

Today, the Vancouver Canadians are a class A short season team. This is the last minor league card that I will have on here for at least a month or two. At least the posed shot on here is better than yesterday's card.

1992 Skybox AAA, Henry Rodriguez

#19 Henry Rodriguez

I'm not one hundred percent sure how I ended up with two of these. I know that I got them through the mail while Henry was probably still with the Dodgers. But I think I sent him one card, he kept it, and returned these two instead. It's a little strange, but it's not the only time that has happened to me (although it's the only time I got two back).

Henry had four really good seasons from 1996-1999. His best season came in '96 when he had 36 homers and 103 RBI. I'm not sure what happened to him after the '99 season, but I assume it was injury problems.

Check out the pose on this card. It has an outfielder playing super-shallow in the infield. Henry must have thought that that was pretty funny, too, based on that grin.

Since I have two of these, I will give one of them away. If you would like it, all you have to do is be the first one to claim it in the comment section.

1992 Skybox AA, Pat Mahomes

#295 Pat Mahomes

Here's another card that I got signed at the Grand Prairie AirHogs game. It was game one of the American Association championship and Pat pitched for the Sioux Falls Canaries.

These cards look almost exactly like the the 1991 Line Drive cards. There are only a few subtle differences. I don't know if Line Drive was bought by Skybox or what. The picture on this card was even used on Pat's 1991 card. That is why Pat Mahomes is wearing a different jersey than Pat Meares.

I always thought that those were some neat jerseys. They are kind of like the late '90s Angels jerseys (the sleeveless look that wasn't sleeveless) and the '70s Braves jerseys (with the feather on the arms). My American Legion team had jerseys just like this. I thought that they were the most original ones in the state. I still have mine somewhere.

In 1993, the Sun Rays switched affiliation to the Cubs and became the Orlando Cubs. In '97, they switched their names to the Orlando Rays. In '98, they were affiliated with the Mariners and in '99 they were with the Devil Rays. In 2004, they moved to Montgomery and changed their name to the Montgomery Biscuits. They are still affiliated with the Rays.

1992 Skybox AA, Pat Meares

#221 Pat Meares

Here is another card that makes the list as one of my favorites. Pat is one of four Major League ballplayers that's from my hometown, Salina, Kansas. He was the first one to make it to the show during my lifetime (the other one that made it didn't play here in high school). Pat went on to play at Wichita State before being drafted by the Twins.

I always remembered Pat being a light-hitting shortstop. I was surprised when I just looked over his stats. He had double digit home run totals three different times. In 1998, he had 70 RBI. Not bad for a light-hitting shortstop.

I'm not sure what Pat is up to these days. I think that he lives in Wichita. I faced his brother a few times in alumni games when I was playing American Legion. Last summer, I ran into his dad at Target (I didn't know who he was until I got to the car; my buddy was talking to him).

Oh yeah, I got this card signed through the mail after he got called up by the Twins. Also, I like the SunRays jerseys. It's hard to see in this picture, but they were much better than the ones they wore the previous year (don't worry, you'll get to see that one tomorrow).