1990 CMC, Neil Allen

#148 Neil Allen

Here is the third and final card that Neil Allen signed for me in Kansas City this past season. Neil was the pitching coach for the Twins and he signed for me after stepping off the team bus outside of The K. You can see the first card I posted of him here and the second one here.

Even though the Twins captured the second Wild Card spot after finishing the year 85-77, Neil was let go by the club after the season was finished. He was replaced by Garvin Alston. That means that I will not be getting Neil to sign his '81 Donurss card next year when the Twins come to town. That is, if I actually had that card ('81D want list posted underneath blog header, hint, hint).

By the time this card came out, Neil's Major League career was over. He appeared in just three games with the Indians in 1989 and was 0-1 with an ERA of 15.00. With Nashville in 1990, he pitched in twelve games before calling it a career.

For his career, he was 58-70 with 75 saves and a 3.88 ERA.

1991 Line Drive, Leo Garcia

#256 Leo Garcia

Here is the second card that I got Leo Garcia to sign at Spring Training this year. Leo is the batting coach for the Dodgers Pioneer League team, the Ogden Raptors. He signed two cards for me and the first one can be seen here.

Since I could only find two minor league cards of Leo, I assumed that he never played in the Majors. WRONG! It turns out that Leo had two stints with the Reds in the late '80s. He got into 31 games in 1987 and went 6-30 with 8 runs, 2 RBI, and a home run. He got into 23 games the following year and was 4-28 with 2 runs and a double. For his career, Leo hit .172.

Speaking of being wrong, something funny happened to me the other day at a Wingnuts game. Earlier this year, the Sioux Falls Canaries had signed Chris Duffy and I had been planning on going to a game in Wichita to get some cards signed. And by Chris Duffy, I assumed that it was this Chris Duffy, the former Pirate.

Turns out that it was this Chris Duffy. See any differences?

Luckily, it was obvious that it was the wrong Chris Duffy and I did not make an ass out of myself.

1990 CMC, Leo Garcia

#140 Leo Garcia

Here is a card that I got signed at Spring Training this year. This one features the former Red, Leo Garcia.

On the day I got this signed, I was 'graphing the Dodger minor league side of Camelback Ranch. The Dodgers were already off for Australia at the time, so I figured that would be a good time to hit up their minor league complex. I was going to a White Sox game afterwards and, since I 'graphed the White Sox minor leaguers last year, I figured I would give the Dodgers a shot this year. Plus, with the big league club half a world away, I figured that there would be less people there.

When I got to the Dodger camp, I was disappointed to find out that their minor leaguers do not have names on the back of their jerseys. With so many literal "no-names" out there, it makes it really tough for someone like me who knows none of the guys. Luckily, I found another 'grapher from Nashville who found a website with many of the guys numbers. That helped out, though I didn't get too many cards signed from the minor league players. It didn't help that two of the main ones I was wanting made the trip to Australia- Zach Lee and Joc Pederson.

But, I did do okay with the minor league coaches. That is how I got this card signed by Leo Garcia. He is the hitting coach for the Dodgers Rookie team in Ogden, Utah. He was nice enough to sign two cards for me after practice that day.

The highlight of the day, though, was meeting Tommy Lasorda. I did not expect him to be there since I figured he would have made the trip down under. Because of that, I did not take any cards of him. Fortunately, though, I had a ball on me that I have been carrying around to games for three years. So, I busted that out of the wrapper and finally put it to use. I would have preferred an '81 Donruss signed by him. But, since I don't even own that card, the ball will do just fine. That is just another example of why I need to complete the '81 Donruss set. One of these days....