1992 Classic Draft Picks, Brant Brown

#58 Brant Brown

Here is the 45th, and hopefully final, post of the month. That may seem like chump-change to some of you hardcore bloggers, but I haven't had this many posts in a single month since December of 2008. But, I guess doing about a post and a half a day and running a drawn-out contest can do that to a person.

Anyway, here is the first of three Brant Brown signatures. I got this card signed in Springdale, Arkansas earlier this month while I was on my annual ballpark road trip. Brant is the batting coach of the Frisco Roughriders, the AA affiliate of the Texas Rangers.

By just looking at Brant's signature, it is easy to assume that this is just a hurried ballpark sig. While it is a ballpark sig, it was in no means hurried. Brant was very slow and deliberate in deciding where to sign each name on the card. I know that it looks like he signed the same thing for his first and last name, but he sure seemed to take his time about it and he tried to have the same spacing on all three cards. It may not be the best looking signature, but at least all three cards were consistent.

I now have two Classic draft pick cards signed (this one and a 4-Sport) and both of them feature a player from Fresno State. Since the College World Series just ended yesterday, I am going to throw out this tidbit of info- The 2008 CWS champions, Fresno State, were the lowest ranked team to ever win a national championship in any NCAA sport. They barely made it into the 64 team field. How 'bout that?

1991 Line Drive AAA, Bill Dancy

#499 Bill Dancy

Here is the second and final card that I got signed at the Rickwood Classic by the manager of the Tennessee Smokies. You can see the first card here.

Bill played professionally for six seasons in the Phillies and Mets systems. He made it up to AAA, mostly as a middle infielder, and he actually spent parts of four seasons at that level. But after his playing days, he went into coaching and that is where I cannot find much information on him. There is nothing on the Smokies site about him and all that Wikipedia has to say is that he was the Phillies third base coach from 2005-06. Other than that, I know nothing about his coaching career. I wish that there was some sort of site out there that listed all of the coach's stops. I'm sure that it would be hard to put together, but it sure would be a useful tool if it could be done.

1991 Line Drive AAA, Andy Tomberlin

#445 Andy Tomberlin

Here is the third and final Andy Tomberlin card that I got signed at the Rickwood Classic. You can see the first one here and the second one here.

All three cards that I got signed by Andy are minor league cards. He had a few Major League cards available, but I do not have one. I could have picked one up on checkoutmycards.com before I left for my trip. But, I spent $50 on the site buying cards of the minor leaguers that I would be seeing and I figured that the cards I had would work just as well. So I held off.

Speaking of Andy's Major League career, it spanned parts of six seasons with the Pirates, Red Sox, A's, Mets, and Tigers. The most games that he ever got into in one season was 63 with the Mets in 1996. He finished his career with a .233 average with 11 home runs and 38 RBI.

I like the team logo on this card. It is different than the one used by CMC in 1990. Any team logo that puts the ballpark's name in it is alright by me.

The Richmond Braves are no longer around. They moved to the Atlanta suburbs and are now the Gwinnett Braves. Richmond has a new team and they are the Flying Squirrels. They play in the Eastern League (AA).

1991 Line Drive AA, Steve Foster

#158 Steve Foster

Here is the second of three cards that were signed for me earlier in the year by the Royals bullpen coach. Speaking of him being their bullpen coach, every time I see Steve on TV, he always has on a pair of catcher's shinguards. He obviously is a former pitcher and I have never seen him behind the plate in the bullpen, but he always looks like he is ready. I was amazed when I got this card signed that he didn't have them on yet. I thought that I wasn't going to be able to recognize him without them, but I got lucky and he was the only person in the pen at the time.

Steve is playing for the Chattanooga Lookouts on this card. The Lookouts are still playing in the Southern League, but they are no longer affiliated with the Reds. They are now part of the Dodgers organization.

1991 Bowman, Ever Magallanes

#61 Ever Magallanes

Here is a card that I got signed in Birmingham prior to the Rickwood Classic. Ever, or Mags as I heard someone else call him, is the manager of the Birmingham Barons. He signed both cards that I had of him.

This is actually the second time that I have got Mags to sign for me. The first time was in 2008 while he was managing the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes in the California League. The Quakes are an Angels affiliate and the Barons are affiliated with the White Sox. So, at some point, he changed teams.

I had this card in 2008, but I didn't realize that Mags had a Major League card until later in the summer. That was in the days before I knew about Beckett.com. I tried to get this card signed last year in St. Louis where he coaching at the Futures Game, but I was unsuccessful there. So, I was happy to finally get it signed earlier this month.

1990 Winter Haven Red Sox Star, Al Sanders

#24 Al Sanders

Here is a card that was given to me by Rod, of Padrographs. This is only the second time on here that I have featured a card that was given to me by Rod of a player that never played for the Padres. I know, it is pretty crazy. But, you had better get used to it because there are a few more on the way.

When I first saw this card, I thought that it was out of the 1989 set. I had no idea that Star turned this border out two years in a row without changing it. I don't think that Star produced a pack based set in 1990, only team sets.

As for Al, he never made it to the Major Leagues. His professional career lasted five seasons in the Red Sox organization as he advanced up to AA. In 1991 with the New Britain Red Sox, Al had the misfortune of finishing the season 4-15. While he led the team in losses, he was one of three pitchers that had double-digits in that category on a team that finished 47-93. His 4 wins were good enough to tie him for third on the team lead. He went on to pitch one more season at AA before calling it quits.

I know it is hard to see, but this card is autographed. It was signed in ballpoint and it looks like it might have faded a bit over time.

The Winter Haven Red Sox are no longer around. Their last season was 1992. They operated in the Florida State League and moved to Ft. Lauderdale for one season before moving on to Sarasota. After 2005, it looks like the Red Sox moved their high-A team to Lancaster, California. Currently, their high-A team is in Salem, Virginia.

CWS Contest Finale

Well, the College World Series isn't over, but this contest is. Nobody picked South Carolina or UCLA to make it to the finals, so there is no point waiting for a champion.

Here is the final tally.

Ryan- 9 pts
Brian- 6 pts
Captain Canuck- 5 pts
PAB- 5 pts
Skoormit- 4 pts
Dave- 2 pts
Rod- 2 pts

Ryan racked up 4 points by picking half of the teams that would make it to Omaha and Brian guessed more game winners than everyone else, so I guess it is appropriate that they are the two winners. If TCU would have knocked off UCLA, Brian would have won by even more points and PAB would have scooted into second. But that was not the case. Brian and Ryan will each be getting a signed '07 A&G Augie Garrido card. Some more prizes will be made available at the end of the CWS and you two can divide them up then.

Congratulations to the winners and I want to thank everybody for playing along. I'm already looking forward to next year's contest and I would appreciate everyone's feedback on how I could make it better/easier/simpler. I was a little disappointed in the lack of participants, but I wanted all the points to come from the CWS, not from pimping my blog. Maybe I will change that next year, though. Let me know what you think.