1981 Donruss, Charlie Leibrandt

#421 Charlie Leibrandt

Here is the last '81 Donruss card that I got signed at Fanfest. I got this card signed after I got Greg Pryor's and right before I got Jamie Quirk's. He was walking as he was signing, so I'm not sure if his signature always looks like this or if the walking threw it off.

Charlie won 140 games in his career and helped his team go to the World Series three times, once with the Royals and twice with the Braves. While never making an All-Star team, he won 15 or more games four times including a career high of 17 with the 1985 Royals. That season, he won pitcher of the month twice and he finished fifth in the Cy Young award vote (with two other Royals finishing in front of him).

In three World Series, Charlie made three starts and five total appearances. He was 0-4 in the Series with a 4.84 ERA. Most of those numbers come from his Braves days. In the '85 Series, Charlie was 0-1 in two starts with a 2.76 ERA. The one game he lost in the Series was after he had pitched eight scoreless innings. With the Royals up 2-0, Dick Howser sent him out in the ninth and he gave up four runs before Dan Quisenberry came in to end the half of the inning. His next appearance was in the infamous Dekinger game. In 7.2 innings of work, Charlie limited the Cardinals to one run off of four hits.

The picture on this card throws me off. Most of the photos in this set were taken in Chicago. It is hard to tell where this one was taken. The batting cage blocks most of the background, but it appears that there is a blue outfield wall.

'81 Donruss Tracker: 44/100

1981 Donruss, Jamie Quirk

#341 Jamie Quirk

Like Greg Pryor, this is probably my sixth Jamie Quirk autograph that I have obtained. I also got this card signed in the same fashion as the Pryor card.

After I got Brett's autograph, I went over to where Pryor had been signing and was able to get his signature after his session was over. Feeling like I was on a roll, I went over to the third autograph line and waited for it to get over. The line was still pretty deep and I had to wait there about a half hour for it to finish. By the time that happened, there was about twenty people standing around doing the same thing.

I was able to get one signature fairly quickly (you'll find out in tomorrows post). After I got that, I looked around to see who was where. The only other person I saw signing was Jamie and he was walking away while he was doing it. I caught up to him and just barely got this card signed right before he went "backstage".

I think that the Collective Troll sent me this card.

'81 Donruss Tracker: 43/100

1981 Donruss, Greg Pryor

#278 Greg Pryor

I think that this is the sixth Greg Pryor card on here. But, this one is different from the rest. This one is on an '81 Donruss which makes it the best out of the six. Plus, you just can't beat the early '80s White Sox uniforms. Those collared jerseys just scream disco.

I got this card signed after I got the George Brett card signed. At Fanfest, there was three autograph tables set up. Since this year is the 25th anniversary of the Royals lone World Championship, they had a bunch of guys there from that team. There was about eighteen of them there and they were all divided up six apiece for the three tables. As soon as I exited the line with George Brett, I made my rounds to the other two lines to see if I could still get in one. They were both closed off, so I went back to the George Brett line to get in line for the next session.

While I was standing there, some guy ran up to his wife and said that Bret Saberhagen was signing for extra people. He got what he needed from her and made a beeline over to Sabes. I followed him and by the time we got there, Saberhagen was gone. But, Greg Pryor was standing around signing a couple of extras and I was lucky enough to get this card signed then.

I picked up this card from checkoutmycards.com.

'81 Donruss Tracker: 42/100

1981 Donruss, Dusty Baker

#179 Dusty Baker

Here is the second Dusty baker card that I got back a couple of weeks ago. This card was the main reason for writing Dusty. I threw in the '75 Topps card since I found it at the card shop and I like the set.

Like I said in the previous Dusty Baker post, I sent this card to Dusty during Spring Training last year. During the summer, I went to a Royals game when they were hosting the Reds. I was kind of frustrated because I didn't have his '81 Donruss card with me to get signed. In fact, by that point, I had practically given up on it. Luckily, he didn't sign any autographs that day, so I didn't miss out. By October, I had given up on this card and even put it on my want list so that I could try again. GCRL was nice enough to send one my way and now I have a duplicate.

I don't care for cards signed in ballpoint, but it doesn't look bad on the '81 Donruss set. This one looks much better than the one on the '75 Topps card.

I like how Dusty signs his name. His "t" and "y" morph together to form an original letter and then continues on to the "B" with out lifting the pen.

'81 Donruss Tracker: 41/100

1981 Donruss, George Brett

#100 George Brett

Here is my highlight from Royals Fanfest. I finally have a George Brett autograph and it is on an '81 Donruss card.

As for George Brett, he seems like the most unpleasant person in the world. You could just tell that he was hating life during the autograph session. He wouldn't talk to anyone in line or even look at them. It was very obvious that he did not want to be there.

The funny thing was that I ran into a guy I've met while getting autographs at Royals games and I asked him if he got George's autograph. He pulls out a ball that is signed and has a Hall of Fame inscription. I was surprised that he actually added the inscription and the guy said that he was pretty good with that and that there was a couple of people in front of him that even got him to sign his middle name. I asked him if George talked or looked at him and he said "no, but at least I got his autograph".

But, if you give George a microphone, he will talk and talk and talk. He's always good for interviews. I don't know if he is just sick of signing stuff for thirty-five years or what the deal is. Maybe he is just a private person. Well, he can't be too private. You'll know what I mean after seeing the following clip (NSFW).



That is the George Brett that I will remember. Maybe the next chance I have to get his autograph, I'll have him inscribe it "I shit myself twice a year".

'81 Donruss Tracker: 40/100

1977 O-Pee-Chee, Jim Rooker

#161 Jim Rooker

Here is the third and final Jim Rooker card I got signed at Fanfest. I of course got this card from checkoutmycards.com and even though it has a nice crease in it, I couldn't pass up getting a '70s OPC card signed. I think that I now have four OPC cards signed- one each from the '70s, '80s, '90s, and '00s.

It seems that the main reason Jim was at Fanfest was to promote his new career. He is now writing baseball themed childrens book. Nearly the whole day I was at Fanfest, Jim sat at a desk selling books and signing autographs. The only time I didn't see him there was when Royals broadcaster Denny Matthews was there selling books and signing autographs. During that time, Jim was on the main stage being interviewed about his books. I was too far away to hear much of that interview, but if you are interested, you can check out his site here. If you buy a book, you can even get a free autographed card from him.

1975 Topps, Jim Rooker

#148 Jim Rooker

Here is the second Jim Rooker card that I got signed at Fanfest.

When I finally got through the long line to get into Fanfest, I headed to the first autograph line that I could find. I stood there for about an hour until the signing started. After I got my cards signed, I headed over to the next line to catch the tail end of it. To my amazement, they were not letting any more people into the line. Instead of signing for a certain amount of time like they had done in the past, they were only signing for a set number of people. So, I had been there for about an hour and a half and only had three cards signed. To add to my frustration, it would be another hour and a half until I got any more cards signed.

So, my Dad and I got in another line where a lady said that Billy Butler would be signing. Rather than just stand there, we took turns exploring the rest of Fanfest. There wasn't much there that interested us, but I did find a booth I didn't know about where Jim Rooker was signing. So I hopped in a line that had about six people in it and got my cards signed. Jim was nice enough to sign all three cards that I had of him.

While I was waiting in that short line, I saw another Royals alumni in the same area just checking things out. Once I had my Rooker cards signed, I went over to the other alum and he signed four cards for me. Those seven autographs were enough to cool me down a bit and I wasn't as pissed off as I had been before. But, my frustration would return about two hours later (I'll get into that one next week).

All three Jim Rooker cards I have were purchased from checkoutmycards.com. Of the three, this one is in the best condition. I probably could have bought this card at the local shop in better shape, but it is so much easier just getting it online.