1990 Score 2

#391 John Moses

This is the third and final John Moses card on here. Like I said for the first two cards, I got these signed at a Oklahoma Redhawks game last summer when he was the hitting coach for Las Vegas. You can see the first two here and here.

John was a .254 career hitter with no pop in his bat. It sometimes amazes me that players like this go on to coach. I guess that it has more to do with theory and mechanics than the talent you had when you played, which makes sense.

John has an interesting signature. You can clearly make out "John" and can kind of tell where "Moses" is on there. But, in the middle, there is something weird. There is a line going up and down between his names, like a divider. Then there is a big hook which might be a curl to start his "M". I might be looking into this WAY too much, but I wonder if this could be some kind of Biblical reference, like Doug Jones' PTL or Mike Sweeney's Bible verse. Here is what I'm getting at. John and Moses were both disciples, so he puts a divider between his names so that each one stands out. Then, instead of having a curl on his "M", what if it is supposed to represent a shepherd's staff, since Moses was a shepherd? Like I said, I'm probably looking into this too much. I just get curious sometimes when there "appears" to be more to a signature than a name.

1976 Topps 3

#611 Rich Folkers

This is the final Padrograph from the 1970s. Tomorrow, Padrographs II will be jumping to 1984.

Here is another former Padre that I had never heard of. Rich was mostly a relief pitcher in the seven seasons he spent in the big leagues. He pitched for four different teams, but had his best season with the Cardinals in 1974. That year he pitched ninety innings with a 3.00 ERA. With those glasses and being left-handed, he reminds me of Paul Splittorff.

Rod likes to get signatures in ink besides the standard black and blue. Here is the first red one. I think that it looks really good on this card. Also, it looks like Rich put his number under his name. It looks like 05. According to Baseball Almanac, Rich wore the following numbers- 30, 28, 26, 45. Maybe the card was signed in '05 or it is actually 26 or 28? I don't know.

I have very few 1976 Topps cards, but I find it very unusual that the three I show on here are all pitchers that have close-ups of fake windups. You can see the original one here.

1990 Score

#236 Brett Butler

I got this card signed in the early '90s while Brett was playing for the Dodgers. Brett had a long career. He always had a good average and high OBP. He was a good lead-off man who stole over thirty bases a year for most of his career, although he never had a great stolen base percentage (.685 for his career).

This card wasn't a good choice to get signed as it is another dark card. It is slightly unique, though, as it lists his position as CF rather than OF. You don't see that too often (at least not that I recall).

1976 Topps 2

#266 Alan Foster

Here is the third straight Padrograph of a guy that I had never heard of until I got this card from Rod. Alan pitched parts of ten seasons with five teams. He was predominantly a starter, but spent most of his time relieving his last two years. Nothing in his stats really stands out much. He had a decent ERA. He has some bad strikeout/walk ratios, especially coming out of the bullpen the last two seasons.

Unfortunately, no yellow uniforms. Just your standard off-white, I guess. But, we do get to see the great hats that the Padres wore for about ten years. I always liked those hats. I even have the '80s version of that hat, which has a little bit of orange in it.

1990 Procards

#2149 Pat Mahomes

I got this card signed at game one of the American Association championship this past summer. Pat was the starting pitcher for the visiting Sioux Falls Canaries. He pitched eight innings, giving up two runs while walking two and striking out three and getting the win. After the game, he signed all three of the cards I had.

Pat last pitched in the Majors in 2003. He pitched in parts of eleven seasons with six different teams. He seems to have been as wild as Mike Corkins and has an even higher career ERA of 5.47. Yet, he pitched five more seasons than Mike. I guess that is one of the advantages of playing nowadays, there are more teams that need pitching. Since 2003, Pat has pitched with six different AAA teams and three different independent teams.

Pat was one of the few Canaries that didn't have a mustache. He did have blond hair, though.

This is the other set that was packaged with the CMC AAA cards. Also, the Visalia Oaks recently changed their name to the Rawhide.

1973 Topps

#461 Mike Corkins

This is the second Padrograph of a guy I have never heard of. Mike had a short career. He played in parts of six seasons and had five Topps cards made of him. He was mostly a reliever who made some spot starts occasionally. His career ERA was 4.39. In 1970 he had seventy five strikeouts to go along with seventy nine walks. Ouch. The stat that really stands out to me is his five home runs, one of which was a grand slam. In 1973, he had thirty-three at bats and hit three homers and only one double.

But, the best part of this card is obviously the yellow uniform. That thing is AWESOME! Have the Padres worn any of these games lately as throwbacks? It would be cool to see some modern players in those (even though the they are never the same as the originals). Unfortunately, this is the only card I have signed where the player is sporting a yellow uniform. But, at least I have one.

One last note. The card is not miscut. For some reason, the scanner lopped off the top.

1990 Fleer 4

#4 Robin Ventura

This card is from the Soaring Stars insert set. This is the only card from that set that I have. I bought a ton of wax of '90 Fleer and never got one of these, so it must have come in cello or rack packs. There are only twelve cards in the insert set.

I got this card for Christmas one year from my Grandma. Wal-Mart was selling these cards in the early or mid '90s. I think it was ten bucks for an autographed card and it came in a nice hard case and with a certificate of authenticity. The Wal-Mart in my town only had two different players, and Robin was by far the better of the two. I'll show the other one in a few months. Any guesses?

Robin had a long career in baseball and made lots of money. He made two All-Star teams and played in one World Series. He now does commentary for ESPN during the College World Series. But, for me, he is best remembered as being Nolan Ryan's punching bag.