The Rest of 2008 Stadium Club

#137 Brandon Jones
#139 Jayson Nix

This is it from the resurrected 2008 Stadium Club set. I have just three cards signed- one from a pack and two in-person sigs. Both of the in-person autos were obtained in Wichita's now extinct Lawrence-Dumont Stadium.

Brandon Jones- It has been four years since I posted a card of Brandon Jones. The former Braves prospect played in only five games in 2007, but he somehow got a decent amount of cards in 2008 sets. He played with the Braves for parts of three seasons and he hit .257 with 1 homer and 22 RBI over 51 games. His one home run was off of Ervin Santana. Brandon signed this card for me at a Winguts game in 2014 while he was a member of the Kansas City T-Bones.

Jayson Nix- I posted my first Jayson Nix card just six months ago when I finally got around to posting cards from 2008. In both initial posts of Jones and Nix, I talk about how I once thought I was going to run out of autographs for this blog. Silly me. Anyways, I got this card signed at a Kansas Stars game in 2016 when the team made their NBC World Series debut.

Next up is 2008 Topps. I probably have about sixty cards from the set signed. But, the majority of those cards are going to be repeats, so I should be able to get through the set in about a dozen posts. It might take me a full month to do twelve posts, but we will make it through.

2008 Stadium Club, Brent Lillibridge

#157 Brent Lillibridge

Here is a card that I pulled out of a blaster in late 2009. I guess I was really wanting to open some packs at the time and there wasn't anything new out. So, I found a year old blaster at Walmart for a reduced price and went that route. It worked out well for me as I got this card in it.

Brent spent parts of six seasons in the Majors with six different clubs. He made his debut with the Braves in 2008 before being dealt to the White Sox after the season. He then spent nearly four years in Chicago before they dealt him to the Red Sox in 2012. His tenure in Boston lasted exactly one month before they shipped him to Cleveland. He finished off the season with the Indians before signing with the Cubs for the 2013 season. He lasted in the Cubs organization for for half the season before they sold him to the Yankees. Though he played AAA ball in 2014, he never made it back up to the Major Leagues.

For his career, Brent played in 358 games and hit .205 with 19 home runs and 71 RBI. His best season was with the White Sox in 2011. That year, he played in a career-high 97 games and he hit .258 with 13 homers and 29 driven in.

Nearly three years after pulling this card, I would get Brent's autograph in-person. Actually, my oldest boy got it for me and then held the card against his Royals jersey and smeared it. So, this is one of the rare instances where I prefer a certified autograph over an in-person autograph.

2001 Stadium Club, Scott Thorman

#159 Scott Thorman

Here is a card that I got signed at Spring Training last year. Scott is the manager of the Royals South Atlantic League affiliate, Lexington, and I was able to get him to sign two cards for me after the Royals minor leaguers worked out.

Out of all the Arizona League home's that I have been to, the Royals side of Surprise Stadium is one of my favorites. While you are not going to get any 'graphs from the big leaguers, it is a great spot to hit up the guys in the minors. The main reason for that is that the Royals put names on the back of the jerseys. Most of the teams do not do that and it is a pain trying to identify the lesser known guys. Also a plus is that the players have to walk quite a ways to get back to the clubhouse. There is no easy exit for them and you can get guys that you missed just by catching up to them.

The Lexington Legends finished up the first half of their season 2.5 games out of first place. It is still early into the second half, but they are off to a sluggish start. Through eight games, they are 2-6 and bringing up the rear of the South Atlantic League Southern Division.

I bought this card online as I wasn't really collecting cards in 2001. It just seems odd to me that Stadium Club would have draft pick cards. I know they did some draft pick sets early on in the brand, but this card feels out of place to me. This seems like something that should have been in Bowman.

1994 Stadium Club, Jason Bere

#212 Jason Bere

Here is the second card that Jason Bere signed for me at a Royals game in 2016. Jason was the Indians bullpen coach at the time and he signed for me from the visiting team's bullpen.

Jason pitched with the White Sox for the first five and a half seasons of his career. Over that time, he was 39-32 with a 5.21 ERA. His career got off to a great start with Chicago. In his rookie season, Jason went 12-5 with a 3.47 ERA. He followed that season up with a 12-2 mark and a 3.81 ERA the next year and earned himself his lone All Star Game invite. But, the wheels fell off the next season and Jason went 8-15 with a 7.19 ERA. He started having arm problems after that and would make only eleven appearances over the next two seasons. He was back for the 1998 season and had a 3-7 record and a 6.45 ERA when the Sox released him mid-season.

Jason got to pitch in the All Star game that he made in 1994 and it did not go too well for him. Jason got the nod in the tenth inning of a 7-7 game. He gave up a lead-off single to Tony Gwynn (who started the game) and followed that up with a double to Moises Alou that scored Gwynn. Game over.

1993 Stadium Club, Freddie Benavides

#456 Freddie Benavides

Here is a card that I got signed at Spring Training last season at the Reds game I attended. Freddie is the first base coach for the Reds and he signed for me by the Reds dugout. This was the only card that he signed.

Freddie spent parts of four seasons in the Majors with the Reds, Rockies, and Expos. Over that time, he was a .253 hitter with 4 home runs and 52 RBI while playing all four infield positions.

Freddie had his best season playing for the expansion Rockies in 1993. He played in 74 games that year and had career highs in average (.276), home runs (3), and RBI (26). He took the field as the starting shortstop in the Rockies first game and, like most of his teammates that day against Doc Gooden, went hitless in three at-bats.

1992 Stadium Club, Tony Perezchica

#454 Tony Perezchica

Here is the second and final card that I got signed by Tony Perezchica this past season. Tony is the third base coach for the Diamondbacks and he stopped briefly to sign after getting off the team bus. I posted the other card in November and it can be seen here.

I find it amusing that I have four Major League cards of Ozzie Canseco, who played in 24 Major League games. Tony, on the other hand, played in almost three times as many games as Ozzie. They have about the same number of base cards made, but this is the only non-minor league card of Tony that I have.

Tony got into 35 games with the Indians in 1991 and '92. In those games, he got 44 at-bats and he hit .238 with 3 doubles and an RBI. He finished his career as a .228 hitter.

1991 Stadium Club, Darryl Strawberry

#301 Darryl Strawberry

Two summers ago, Darryl Strawberry made an appearance at a church in Wichita to preach. While I don't usually get all excited to go to church, I made an exception that day. The whole family made the trip to see and hear him and we all got to meet him afterwards. While his message might not have been entirely appropriate for our eleven year old, it was still a good message all the same. After his sermon, we got to get some cards signed and get our picture taken with him. I am sure I will show that picture on one of the posts.

Darryl played for four teams during his career and I got cards signed from three of those teams. I already posted the Mets card, so here is the Dodger one. Needless to say, Darryl's tenure in Los Angeles did not go as well as anyone would have hoped. He did good his first season there, hitting .265 with 28 home runs and 99 RBI. But, he could not stay healthy the next two seasons and played in only 75 games over the two years. The Dodgers ended up releasing Darryl during the 1994 season with a year and a half left on his contract.

With LA, Darryl hit just .243 with 38 home runs and 136 RBI.

1997 Stadium Club, Jeff Montgomery

#135 Jeff Montgomery

At what point is too many autographs from one person a bad thing? From a collector's standpoint, I don't see it as a problem. If you have every card that was ever made of a player and they are all signed, that would be a neat collection. But, for the purpose of this blog, I think four autographs are too many. I can usually spread out enough material for three posts on one player. I might be able to do four if I have an interesting tale of how I got one of the signatures. For some guys that never even made it to the Majors, though, two can be too many. I guess it just depends of the guy.

The point of all of that rambling is that I have posted too many cards of Jeff Montgomery on here. Jeff is a really nice guy and he is at Royals Fanfest nearly every year. In fact, Fanfest is where this card was signed nearly eleven months ago. But, by my best estimate, this is the ninth card of Jeff that I have posted on here. And I am out of things to write about him.

So, here are all of the Jeff Montgomery cards that I have ever posted. I am sure that I will have some more after Fanfest next month.

1991 Stadium Club, Andy Hawkins

#487 Andy Hawkins

I have posted a few Andy Hawkins cards recently that I got signed by the Royals parking lot last season while Andy was the bullpen coach for the Rangers. This one was also signed while Andy was the Rangers bullpen coach, but this one was signed back in 2012. For some reason, it was the only card of him that I took and he signed it before the game from the visiting team bullpen.

The last card of Andy that I posted shows him as a Yankee. His tenure with New York came to an end early in the 1991 season. He was released after starting the year 0-2 with a 9.95 ERA over four games, three of which were starts. Oakland picked him up and he fared much better with them. In fifteen games (fourteen starts), Andy was 4-4 with a 4.79 ERA and a complete game. However, it just was not enough for him to keep a job there and he was released towards the end of August. That was the end of Andy's pitching career.

For his career, Andy was 84-91 with a 4.22 ERA. He never made an All Star team, but he did pitch twelve relief innings of World Series baseball. All of those innings came in 1984 and he allowed just one earned run on four hits. He was 1-1 in that series.

Andy is still the Rangers bullpen coach.

I really love this inaugural Stadium Club set. Unfortunately, it was a little out of my price range in 1991 and I do not have many cards from the set. Because of that, this is just the second card from the set that I have got signed.

1991 Stadium Club, Bret Saberhagen

#28 Bret Saberhagen

Here is what I beleive is the fourth Bret Saberhagen card I have posted in the past couple of months. I am running out of stuff to say about Bret, so I guess I'll talk more about the card than him.

This is the first card that I have got signed from the inaugural Stadium Club set. The set was so pricey when it came out that I did not buy too many packs. As a result, I have little to rummage through when I try to find cards to get signed.

This card is from the Members Only set and, to be honest, I know nothing about the set. I don't know how they were obtained or how many cards were in the set. All I know is that they say "MEMBERS ONLY" in foil on the front and the backs are completely different than the regular set. The regular set had stats on the back and other stuff while this card here just talks about Bret no-hitting the Pale Hose. And yes, it actually calls the Sox the Pale Hose.

So, even though this card is from the Members Only set, I am still happy to have a '91 Stadium Club of any kind signed.

1995 Stadium Club, Jeff Montgomery

#286 Jeff Montgomery

This is the third and final Jeff Montgomery card that I got signed at last months Royals Fanfest. I went through Jeff's line two times and, rather than go through for a third time, I sent my dad through at the tail end of it. This was the card that I had him get signed. If I had remembered that I already had a signed 1990 Leaf card, I probably would have got this card signed first if for no other reason than that it is so cheesy.

The fire truck in the photo looks a little out of date, even by 1995 standards. I hope that is not what the KCPD was running around in during the '90s.

Since this is the third Jeff Montgomery post in as many weeks, there will be another post up in a few hours or so.

1993 Stadium Club Braves, Melvin Nieves

#28 Melvin Nieves

Here is another card that was sent to me by Rod, of Padrographs. At first, I thought that this was some random autograph that Rod had acquired through the years. But, after checking out Mel's career stats, I noticed that he actually played for the Padres from 1993 to 1995. I am assuming that Rod got this card signed in person while Mel was playing for the Las Vegas Stars, but I could be wrong.

Melvin played in the Majors for seven seasons with the Braves, Padres, Tigers, and Reds. His best season was probably 1996 as a Tiger. That season, he got into 120 games and he had career highs in hits (106), doubles (23), triples (4), homers (24), walks (44), and strikeouts (158). The next season, he struck out 157 times while getting 72 less at-bats than the previous year. His power numbers were still there, but his average dropped down to .228. After that season, the Tigers flipped him to the Reds for Paul Bako and Donne Wall. He played one season in Cincy before heading back to the minors to finish his career. 2006 was his last full season of playing ball, though he did have a brief comeback in the Mexican League in 2008.

This card is actually from a Braves team set that Stadium Club put out that year.

In 1993, the Braves traded Melvin and Donnie Elliott to the Padres for Fred McGriff. I don't think that trade worked out too well for the Padres.

1999 Stadium Club, Kevin Polcovich

#6 Kevin Polcovich

This beautiful card was sent to me by the Collective Troll. It is the only '99 Stadium Club card that I own and I think that, based on this one card, I missed out on that set. This card looks great and I would hope that the rest of the set would look just as good.

As for Kevin, he was a 30th round draft choice for the Bucs out of the University of Florida. In his sixth year of pro ball, Kevin got called up to Pittsburgh. He got into 84 games that year and he hit .273 with 4 homers and 21 RBI while mostly playing shortstop. One of his homers was off of Curt Schilling.

The next season, Kevin was on the big league roster all year. But, in 81 games, he only hit .189. That was his last season in the Majors. After that, he played two more years in AAA and one year that was split with an indy team and a AA team.

Even though his final big league season was less than spectacular, at least this great looking card came out of it.

Also, there is still time to claim a spot in the previous post. If there isn't any more selections by 9:00 central time tonight, feel free to grab more than five slots.

1994 Stadium Club, Lloyd McClendon

#511 Lloyd McClendon

This is the third card in a row that was basically given to me out of the blue. The first two came from Padrographs last year. This one came from the Collective Troll just last month. The Troll was having a giveaway last month that featured some '87 Donruss Opening Day cards. I chimed in that I wanted the Royals team set, if it was available. CT emailed me back and said that it was mine.

Then the next day, he emailed me again to say that someone had claimed them before I had, but that he would make it up to me. I told him not to worry about it, but he sent me a package anyway. Well, this is the first card from that package that I have shown on here.

Lloyd played eight seasons with the Reds, Cubs, and Pirates. He never played in 100 games in a season despite being versatile enough to play first, third, outfield, or catcher. He was only a .244 career hitter. But, in three playoff series, hit hit .625 in 16 at-bats. He went on to manage the Pirates for five seasons and is currently the hitting coach for the Tigers.

I believe that this autograph was acquired during Spring Training at some point.

Check out how he signs his last name. It looks like a pretzel.

1994 Stadium Club, Tim Mauser

#200 Tim Mauser

Here is another card that was given to me from Rod. This one features Tim Mauser, a relief pitcher that spent parts of four seasons in the big leagues. He made his Major League debut in 1991 with the Phillies. He pitched in three games that year and posted a 7.59 ERA. He spent all of 1992 in the minors and reemerged with the Phils in '93. After eight games with them, he was dealt to the Padres for Roger Mason.

With the Padres, he appeared in 28 games and posted a 3.58 ERA. He was back with the Padres the next year and he appeared in 35 games and he dropped his ERA to 3.49. In 1995, he only appeared in 5 games with San Diego and he had a 9.53 ERA. The inflated ERA was helped by his 9 walks in only 5.2 innings. He spent one more year in AAA and then his career was over.

1994 Stadium Club, Ricky Gutierrez

#75 Ricky Gutierrez

This is one of the cards that Rod, from Padrographs, sent me last year. Prior to that package, I did not have any cards from this set signed. Now I have three- two from Rod and one from another blogger that I will get to on Thursday. But, I haven't gotten any of these cards signed in person. I don't have too many cards from this set, but I have one that I am going to try to get signed next month.

As for Rickey, he played twelve seasons with six different teams. He spent most of his career in Houston after being dealt there in the crazy eleven player trade that included Derek Bell, Ken Caminiti, and Steve Finley. According to Wikipedia, he was the only player to reach base in Kerry Wood's 20 strikeout game.

The purple signature looks great on this card.

1993 Stadium Club Marlins, Nigel Wilson

#1 Nigel Wilson

Here is the first Marlin, not just on this blog, but for the franchise. Nigel was the first pick for the Marlins (second pick overall) in the 1992 expansion draft. While the Marlins had drafted some players in the regular draft before this, I've always considered Nigel to be Marlin number one.

I got this card at Wal-Mart a long time ago. This card was packaged alone and signed and cost around ten dollars. The only other card that they sold like this was the Soaring Stars Robin Ventura.

I guess that this card came from a team set. I don't have any other cards that look like this and the design is different than the regular Stadium Club.

As for Nigel, he never really accomplished much in the Majors, let alone for the Marlins. In 1993, he went 0 for 16 with 11 strikeouts for the expansion Marlins. In 1995, he went 0 for 7 with the Reds. In 1996, he finally got his first big league hit and ended up 3 for 12 with the Indians. That was his last stop in the Majors. After that, he went to Japan. According to Wikipedia, he had a very successful career there.

1993 Stadium Club, Brian Williams

#714 Brian Williams


I got this card signed at the Astros Fanfest earlier this month. Brian was one of the Astros from the '90s that appeared. He only pitched for the Astros for four seasons, so I was kind of surprised that they had him attend (the same can be said for James Mouton).

For some reason, part of the right side of this card got clipped of while scanning. But, overall, I really like the design of this set. It is probably my favorite Stadium Club design. But, just like the SP, I do not have too many of these. I finally got one signed, though. When I was getting my autograph book ready, I noticed that there was a crease at the top of the card that went through Brian's head. Normally, I wouldn't take it to get signed. But, I wanted one of these cards signed bad enough that I took it anyways.

1992 Stadium Club, Brian McRae

#270 Brian McRae

I think that this is the final B-Mac card that I have on here, but I could be wrong. You can see the first three here, here, and here. I really have no clue how or where I got this card signed. It was probably at a Royals Caravan event, bit I'm not sure.

Brian was at Royals fanfest this year. But, he only appeared on Sunday and I went on Saturday. I was hoping to get some cards signed by him just so I would have some cards where I knew when I got them signed. Plus, I had some Cubs and Mets cards to get signed so that I could mix it up a bit.

This is one of the few Stadium Club cards that I have signed.