1994 Triple Play, Pat Meares

#257 Pat Meares

This is the second Pat Meares card that I have shown on here. As I said in the first post, Pat was the last big leaguer born in my hometown. Even though I was never a Twins fan (or Pirates fan), I was always pulling for Pat to succeed. If I remember correctly, a wrist injury shortened his career.

I probably got this card signed in 1995. It was during the offseason and Pat was signing at the annual RV/boat show here in town. That was definitely one of the stranger places that I got a card signed.

Speaking of my hometown, today we had a hurricane-like storm pass through around noon. There were wind gusts up to 100 mph and a few inches of rain fell in a short time. Afterwards, there were limbs down everywhere and power outages around the county. Here is the picture that I took from my front porch. Unfortunately, you can't see a whole heck of a lot because of the rain.

1992 Triple Play, Bobby Bonilla

#GS-1 Bobby Bonilla

I got this card signed through the mail this past November. I sent Bobby two cards to sign. You can see the other card that he signed here.

These Triple Play cards were made by Donruss and you can't have a Donruss product without a Diamond King-like insert set. That is what the Gallery of Stars is. The pictures were even painted by Dick Perez, so you know they are the real deal. I bought a box of this stuff and got four GoS cards- Danny Tartabull (Yankees), Jack Morris (Blue Jays), and Frank Viola (Red Sox). I don't know about any of you, but when I think of those players, I don't picture them with the teams that they are representing on those cards.

1992 Triple Play, Royce Clayton

#123 Royce Clayton

Here's another card that I got signed through the mail in the '90s. I swear, once I get done with these 1992 cards, the "through the mail, early '90s" posts will start to thin out. So, just bear with me for another week or so.

Royce had an amazingly long career. It's hard to believe that he lasted as long as he did. He played Major League ball for 17 seasons. 2007 was his last year. I don't remember him retiring after the season, so maybe nobody decided to sign him and forced him into retirement. It seems like that is happening more and more each year. I wonder if he played any indy ball last year.

1992 Triple Play, Travis Fryman

#86 Travis Fryman

Here is another through the mail success from the early '90s. Travis quietly had a very productive career. He mainly played on a crappy Tigers team and an Indians team at the end of its run. But during that time, he had three 100 RBI seasons, seven seasons of 20 or more home runs, and was a five time All Star. He even had one Gold Glove and one Silver Slugger. Last year, he was the manager of the Mahoning Valley Scrappers, a New York-Penn League affiliate of the Indians.

1992 was the first year of Donruss' Triple Play brand. It was a cheap set compared to the regular Donruss. It wasn't glossy at all. It would have been a good bunch of cards to get signed. For some reason, I only have a couple cards signed from this set and I bought a box of this stuff. But, I guess I bought boxes of many of the 1992 cards, so that might be a reason.

It is very odd how Travis signed the side of the card like he did. Also, I love the picture with the beltless pants.