1995 Signature Rookies Preview, Wilton Guerrero

#16 Wilton Guerrero

Here is a card that I picked up from COMC for a mere sixty cents. I normally try to avoid buying Signature Rookies cards if I can. But Wilton falls into a certain category where I make an exception. Like John Mabry, I got something signed by Wilton at a game once and it was not a baseball card. It was a wrong that needed corrected and I could not pass it up for sixty cents.

I got a roster signed by Wilton in St. Louis in 1998. Jim Eisenreich also signed the roster and I posted a picture of it a few years back. It can be seen here.

Wilton broke in with the Dodgers in 1996 and was a regular in 1997. He hit .291 with them that year and had career highs in home runs(4), triples(9), and RBI(32). He was then packaged in a deal at the deadline in '98 and shipped off to Montreal for Carlos Perez and Mark Grudzielanek. He played with the Expos for two and a half seasons, and got some decent playing time, before signing with the Reds in 2001.

He played sparingly in Cincy for a season in a half before being part of a three team deal that included Carl Pavano, Cliff Floyd, and Ryan Dempster. He finished off the 2002 season with the Expos before spending all of '03 in the minors. He resurfaced in the Majors in '04 for 24 games with the Royals. I am a die-hard Royals fan, but I had no idea Wilton was ever on the team. I was in basic training for most of that season, so I guess that is my excuse. 2004 was the last time he played a Major League game.

For his career, Wilton hit .282 with 11 home runs and 127 RBI.

Speaking of Royals, did anyone notice that they went up 2-0 in the ALCS today? Whether you like the Royals or not, you have to admit that they sure make their games interesting.

It is impossible to tell in this scan, but this card is a mini-sized. It is not quite Allen and Ginter mini, but is the same size as the Old Judge card I posted yesterday.

1995 Old Judge, Kym Ashworth

#2 Kym Ashworth

To commemorate the beginning of the American League Championship Series, here is a card of Kym Ashworth. What does Kym have to do with the ALCS you ask? Absolutely nothing. But, this card was given to me by Ryan, from The Great Orioles Autograph Project. The Oriole are, of course, hosting the Royals tonight for game one, so there is the tie-in.

Speaking of the start of the ALCS, the Royals Playoff Contest is officially closed. Thanks to everyone that entered and good luck. But, most importantly, go Royals!!

As for Kym, he was an Australian that was signed by the Dodgers at a young age. He made his professional debut with the Great Falls Dodgers in 1993 at the tender age of fifteen. Yikes! That has got to be quite an adjustment for a fifteen year-old to come halfway around the world to play a professional sport. At least he already spoke English. He made eleven starts that summer and went 3-3 with a 2.44 ERA with 52 strikeouts to 14 walks.

He was bumped up to the California League the next season and went 6-7 with a 3.95 ERA and 109 strikeouts. He even made one start at the AA level as a seventeen year-old. He took the loss in that game, but did strike out six with no walks.

He was in the Florida State League for the '95 season and was 7-4 with a 3.52 ERA and 97 strikeouts. Then he ended up missing all of the '96 season to injury and made just thirteen appearances in '97. He played one more season in the Tigers organization before calling it quits are the age of twenty-one.

This is the second card from this set that I have and both of them are Dodger players. I think it is kind of funny that the two guys got different D's airbrushed on their hats. Here is a link to the first one.

Kansas City Royals Playoffs Contest

It has been a while since I have posted a contest on here. Since my team has made it further than everyone thought that they should have, I have decided to hold a contest. It is the first annual Royals Playoff Contest. I hope that this will be a yearly thing.

All you have to do is predict how the Royals season will end.

If you think they will lose in the ALCS, just comment that they will lose in the ALCS and in how many games (4,5,6,or 7). Then guess how many runs they will score in the series. But, if you think that they will make it to the World Series, leave a comment that states whether or not they will win or lose the World Series, how many games it will take for that to happen, and how many runs they will score in the World Series.

In order to win, you first must have to predict their outcome (lose ALCS, win WS, lose WS). If you get that right, it will then go by games in the deciding series (4,5,6 or 7). If there are still two or more people still tied at that point, it will go down to runs scored by the Royals as the tie-breaker.

Say they win the World Series in six and and three people pick that they win, but one each picks game five, six, and seven. Whoever picked six would be the winner. But, if they won and two people predicted it and one said five and one said seven, it would go to the runs scored tie-breaker.

Just to hopefully avoid any confusion, the tie-breaker only applies to the following scenarios.
1. Two or more people correctly guess the same outcome and number of games. 2. Two or more people correctly guess the outcome, but are all off by one game (ie, two pick game 4 and one picks game 6 in a five game series).

If it happens to be that it goes six games and one person picks seven and two or more pick four, whoever picked seven will be the winner because that person was closest.

As far as picking the runs scored in the deciding series, you cannot pick a number picked by another contestant, regardless of whether or not you both picked the same initial outcome. And, in the off chance that it comes down to a tie-breaker and each contestant is off by the same amount, I will evoke the Price is Right Rule. Whoever is closest without going over will win. But, that will only happen if it comes down to two people and one is over by the same number that one is under.

It has been a really long day for me, proceeded by a really long week. I hope that this all makes sense. If something does not, email me at zman40 at hotmail dot com.

Just leave your picks in the comments to this post. You must enter by the time game one of the ALCS starts on Friday.

As far as winnings, the winner will win these three signed cards. Each person here has done something to help the Royals advance as far as they have.

We have signed cards by Christian Colon, Eric Hosmer, and Greg Holland.

Good luck and thanks for playing!

1995 Fleer, Carl Willis

#217 Carl Willis

I did my best for eighteen years on not getting a card from this set signed. Then, last year at Spring Training, I relented. Carl was the pitching coach for the Mariners at the time and this was the lone card that I took of him with me. I had gotten three cards signed by him in 2009, so I was low on cards of him that were unsigned. This was the only one that I found, so I broke down and got this special looking card autographed.

For some reason, I completely forgot that I needed him on my '09 Topps Heritage Indians coaches card that is only signed by two of the four guys.

This has to be the most horrific set ever made. I believe that there were a couple of different layouts, each one as bad as the rest. I don't think that I have to tell you how bad this card is. It speaks for itself. I do have to wonder, though, why Fleer thought that they had to include the player's height and weight on the front of the card. Very strange.

Despite the layout of the card, the signature came out looking OK. Not bad for a card where the player looks like he is pitching in a Cypress Hill video.

I mentioned in the last post that I got married over the weekend. Here is another picture from after the ceremony. We decided to do our pictures at our local ball field and I could not be happier with the results. I can't wait to see the rest.

1995 Bowman's Best, Raul Casanova

#67 Raul Casanova

Here is a card that was given to me by Rod, from Padrographs. He sent me this card about three years ago, but I somehow forgot to post it the last time I was in a between years recap. So here it finally is.

This is actually the second Raul Casanova card that Rod sent. I posted another one five years ago and it can be seen here. Both of the cards he sent me were pretty cool, but I think I would have to go with the Bowman's Best if I had to pick a favorite of the two.

It has been over a week since I have posted and, for once, I actually have a good excuse for the lack of posts. On Saturday, I married the love of my life. We had been together for about two and a half years and engaged the past ten months. While she is nowhere near the baseball fan that I am, she puts up with my fandom and actually enjoys going to ballgames with me. She is now a diehard Royals fan and we had the luxury of taking our very short honeymoon to the Royals game three clinch of the Division Series. Next Monday, assuming she can get off of work, we will be heading back to Kansas City for honeymoon part II, ALCS game three.

So, between the wedding and the Royals in the playoffs, it has been a whirlwind week. I'll be happy when everything gets back to normal and the Royals are World Champions!

Here are some pics from the game.

Here is us tailgating right after we got there. You can barely make out Kauffman Stadium over our vehicle. We got to the park two hours before first pitch and had to walk a ways to get to the ballpark.

Here is the view from our seats in the bottom of the first. We ended up in the very last row of the upper deck. But, at least we had seats. A buddy of mine bought standing room only tickets off of stubhub and paid about four times what we paid. Plus, we were covered when it rained.

My fifteen years of being a Royals fan have finally paid off. Plus, I now have a partner to enjoy going to games with for the rest of our lives. Can't wait until Monday. Go Royals!!

1994 Ultra, John Kruk

#7 John Kruk

Here is the last card for some time that John Kruk signed for me this summer. John was at the College World Series with ESPN and he was nice enough to do two free autograph signings during the opening weekend of Fanfest. I made my way through each line once and I must say that John was one of the most talkative guys I have seen at CWS Fanfest. It really was a pleasure to get to meet him.

This card certainly fits the bill of one of my more fun cards that I got signed this summer (right along with his Collector's Choice checklist card). If you have never seen one of these cards before, it might be because you are not a Phillies fan. The Phillies Finest insert set was a small one dedicated to two players with bad haircuts- John Kruk and Darren Daulton. The set included twenty-four cards, twelve of each player. There were ten cards in each series and four cards were available as a wrapper redemption. Fleer even included 1000 signed cards by each player. Pretty rad, huh?

The back of each card chronicles the career of each player. This one talks about what lead to John being dealt to Philadelphia.

I am pretty sure that I had that exact same pair of cleats that John is wearing, but in black. They just don't make them like they used to.

1994 Ultra, Jeff Russell

#17 Jeff Russell

Here is the third and final card that Jeff Russell signed for me this summer. Jeff is the pitching coach for the Grand Prairie AirHogs and he signed the cards for me before a game in Wichita. You can see his A's card here and his Rangers card here.

Jeff pitched in Boston for a season and a half. After landing there via free agency in 1993, he had a very solid first season. He was 1-4 with 33 saves and 2.70 ERA. That was Jeff's third and final 30 save season. It was a little more rocky the following season, though. That year he was 0-5 with 12 saves and a lofty 5.14 ERA. The Sox traded him to Cleveland mid-season and he went 1-1 with 5 saves to finish off the season.

The following year, Jeff was back with the Rangers, the team where he had had the most success. He spent his final two seasons there and was 4-3 with 23 saves over the two years.

Jeff finished his career 56-73 with 186 saves and a 3.75 ERA.