1991 Line Drive AAA, Robbie Wine

#572 Robbie Wine

Here is the third and final Robbiw Wine card that I got signed at a Wichita State game this past spring. Robbie is the head baseball coach for the Penn State Nittany Lions.

This card shows Robbie as a member of the Tidewater Tides. The funny thing about this card is that Robbie never played a game for the Tides. Robbie's Baseball Reference page lists 1990 as his final season as a player and that season was spent with the Indians AA team. So, I guess that the Mets signed him after that season and assigned him to their AAA team and then cut him before he ever appeared in a game for them? Sounds good to me. At least he was around for photo day to take this nice posed shot.

I went to the Royals game today and it could have been a good day for 'graphing if the weather would have cooperated. It had been cloudy all day, but the rain stayed away. But, shortly after the gates opened, it started to sprinkle. I still got a few signatures, but it would have been much better if it was dry. I missed out on the White Sox Matt Thornton, Sergio Santos, and Chris Sale because I didn't want to get my cards signed while it was sprinkling. If you have ever tried 'graphing cards in wet weather, it is usually not a good idea. The smallest sprinkle of rain on a wet Sharpie signature shows up real easily and if the Sharpie hits a water drop on the card, you end up with a two-tone signature. Either way, it is not good. About half of the cards that I did get signed today had one of those two problems associated with it.

1990 CMC, Orlando Mercado

#372 Orlando Mercado

Here is a card that I got signed in Kansas City last month. The Angels were in town and Orlando is their bullpen coach. I only got one card signed by him because this is the only one that I have. I thought that I would have had his '87 Topps card, and I did, but I didn't want to break a set to get it.

Orlando was pretty much a third catcher for his career. If a catcher got hurt on the big league club, he was the first one to get called up. He played in the Majors for parts of eight seasons with eight different teams (Mariners, Rangers, Tigers, Dodgers, A's, Twins, Mets, and Expos) and three seasons were actually with the same team (Mariners). He only got into 253 games in is Major League career, but I'm sure he enjoyed every minute of it.

His first Major League home run was a grand slam.

1990 CMC 5

#365 Tim Bogar

I got this card signed this past summer at a Royals game. Tim was the Quality Assurance coach for the Tampa Bay Rays. In his playing days, he was mostly a utility player for the Mets, but he did get some decent playing time in his two years with the Astros. This is the first of three cards that he signed for me. At the game, he was the last player/coach off of the the field. He signed for quite a few people (though most people probably didn't know who he was).

This is the last card from the CMC set. I know very little about these cards. They are nice looking and are pretty glossy for 1990 standards. The backs are colorful and include a head shot taken from the card front. I have no idea what CMC stands for and I haven't seen another set made by them. Interestingly, these cards came in packs that also included Procards. CMC made the AAA cards while Procards was AA and A.

This card shows Tim as a Tidewater Tide. The team is now called the Norfolk Tides. They ended a nearly 40 year affiliation with the Mets a few years back and are now with the Orioles. The card before this one showcased a Syracuse Chief card. That team is still the Syracuse Chiefs, but they spent about ten years as the Sky Chiefs to lose the Native American moniker. Now they are the Chiefs again, but their logo is a train. Their long affiliation with the Blue Jays just ended. The two cards before that featured Richmond Braves. The Braves are in the process of leaving Richmond and are going to be playing in the Atlanta suburb of Gwinnett County next season. And, the first card of this set had an Indianapolis Indian. That team hasn't changed much since then besides their logo and affiliation.