1991 Line Drive AAA, Johnny Guzman

#536 Johnny Guzman

Just like the last card I posted, this one was also given to me by Rod, from Pardographs, when we met up at a Hillsboro Hops game in 2015.

While I was familiar with this card, since it was in my collection, I was not familiar with Johnny Guzman as a player. Like most of the players in the Line Drive sets, I just assumed that he never played in the Major Leagues. Turns out I was wrong. Johnny logged 8 innings in the Majors with the A's in 1991 and '92. While he did earn one win, it was a rocky 8 innings. He ended up striking out 3 and only walking 2. But, he gave up 9 runs on 19 hits to the tune of a 10.13 ERA. In Johnny's defense, he did not allow a home run and he was 21 or younger in each of his appearances.

In his one win, Johnny entered a tie game with two outs in the eighth with two runners on. After going to a full count, he got the Tigers Lou Whitaker to ground out to the second baseman to end the inning. The A's came up in the bottom half of the inning and put up a six spot to secure the victory. Some guy named Dennis Eckersly came out for the A's and pitched the ninth inning.

Johnny would go on to pitch only one more season before calling it quits at the age of 22. Though coming out of the Dominican Republic back then, it is hard to say if that was his actual age or not. But, that is pure speculation on my part.

1990 CMC, Bruce Fields

#591 Bruce Fields

Here is the second card that Bruce signed for me at a Royals game in 2012. Bruce was the Indians hitting coach at the time and he signed the two cards while his club was taking batting practice. The first card can be seen here.

By the time this card came out, Bruce's Major League career was over. He was originally drafted by the Tigers in 1978 and made his minor league debut that season. He spent his first six seasons playing A-ball or lower before finally getting the bump up to AA in 1984. He spent two seasons at the AA level before moving on to AAA in 1986. That season coincided with his first Major League call up with the Tigers where he got into 16 games and hit .279.

It was then back to AAA where he spent most of the remainder of his career. He did catch a couple of breaks with the Mariners in 1988 and '89, but that accounted for 42 games over those two seasons. He wrapped up his career after the 1991 season after failing to get called up by the Braves or the Blue Jays. He was thirty years old when he retired.

Bruce played in just 58 Major League games, but he got into 1381 games in the minors. He saw time with five organizations and he hit .295 with 41 home runs and 235 stolen bases.

Bruce is pictured with the Tacoma Tigers on this card. The Tacoma Tigers had no affiliation with the Detroit Tigers. They were the AAA team for the A's, hence the green and gold uniforms. There is still a team in Tacoma and they are called the Rainiers. They are affiliated with the nearby Mariners.

Bruce has an interesting signature. There is a lot going on with it.