1993 Bowman, Kevin Higgins

#574 Kevin Higgins

Here is the final 1993 Bowman card that I have to show. This is another signed Padre card courtesy of Rod, of Padrographs.

Kevin only played in 71 Major League games, getting 181 at-bats. All of those games came during the 1993 season. He spent all of 1994 in AAA and that was his last season in baseball. One of his stats that stands to me is his strikeouts. They are consistently low throughout his career. The most he ever struck out was 38 times and that was a season in which he had 403 ABs. Unfortunately, he never walked much, or he might have been a good on base guy.

Another thing that stands out is the positions he played. In his one season in the Majors, he caught 59 games, played third four times, played outfield and first three times each, and played second base once. This guy had some versatility.

I love the photo on this card. There is about to be a play at the plate and you can see the ball almost to the catcher and the on deck batter telling the runner that he had better get down. It doesn't get much better than that.

1993 Bowman, Matt Walbeck

#384 Matt Walbeck

Here is the one '93 Bowmans that I was able to get autographed by myself. I got this card signed in Kansas City last summer when the Rangers visited the K. Matt was their third base coach last season. At the ballpark, the Rangers were all stretching and getting ready to take batting practice. Matt was warming up with one of the other coaches. He had his catchers glove on and was down in a squat helping the other coach get ready to throw some BP. While he was doing that, I asked him if he would sign and he said something to the effect of "yeah, sure, just give me a minute". He caught a few more balls and then came over and signed all three cards that I had.

If you look at the Baseball Almanac autograph and compare it to this one, you can see how his signature has changed over the years. Both of them start off the same. But that is where the similarities end. On BA's auto, you can see two distinct names and Matt is easy to make out. On mine, it just looks like one word.

1993 Bowman, Tim Worrell

#138 Tim Worrell

Here is another card from Rod, of Padrographs. This one features long-time reliever Tim Worrell, the brother of Todd Worrell.

Tim pitched in the big leagues for 14 seasons with nine different clubs. He has a lifetime ERA of 3.97. He only had 71 saves, so he must have had a few different positions in the pen. He did have 38 saves for the Giants in 2003, though. That was good enough for fourth in the league, behind Gagne, Smoltz, and Wagner.

This makes two posts in a row where Baseball Almanac didn't have an autographed card of the player I was posting. That kind of makes me feel special. Thanks Rod!

1993 Bowman, Kerry Taylor

#63 Kerry Taylor

This card was given to me by Rod, of Padrographs. Before Rod gave me a bunch of autographed Padre cards, I had one card from this set signed. Now, I have four. One of the reasons I didn't have more of these signed is because I don't own too many of them. When the Bowman cards started to be more of a premium brand, I stuck more to the fifty cent packs. You could get at least twice as many cards that way.

As for Kerry Taylor, he had a brief Major League career. He was a Rule V pick by the Padres after playing A ball the year before. Somehow, the Padres kept him on their roster the whole season and he ended up with a 6.45 ERA with 49 walks and 45 strikeouts. The next season, he went to AAA. At some point during the year, he got called up to make a start for the Pads. He pitched 4.1 innings, giving up 4 runs on 9 hits. That was his last outing in the Majors. He played four more seasons in AAA before calling it quits after his 2000 season.

What is this card worth to You?

I just got a couple of blasters of '09 Heritage at Target. I was kind of disappointed in the packs until the second to last one that I ripped. And in disappointed, I mean that I got very few SPs and chrome cards. I'm usually not a big chrome person, but I've been getting them at about a 4:5 pack rate from the Wal-Mart 14 card packs. So, I guess that I just got used to them. In these two blasters, I only got four SPs and three chrome. And this...





The reason why I asked the question in the title is because I have no idea what this card is worth. I usually base stuff like this off of ebay sales, but I couldn't find one of these on ebay. I checked for other black refractors and found an Chipper Jones going for about $11, an Alex Gordon going for almost $18, and a Tim Lincecum going for around $22. I figured that this thing is worth at least the same price of the Lincecum and feel free to correct me if I am wrong.

So here is the deal. I am offering this card to anybody that will trade me a certified autograph. But, not just anybody. This card goes to whoever offers me the best auto'd card. I'm going to let this run until midnight, April 5th. The reason that I am letting it last that long is because I have to go down to Houston for a wedding next weekend and I do not not want anything of importance showing up while I am out of town. So, if I get some good offers, great. If not, I will just post this on ebay and see what I can get for it.

On a side note, this may be the lowest numbered card that I have ever pulled from a pack. I was pretty stoked at first. But, as an autograph collector, reality set in and I realized that it would be near impossible to get this card signed and have it look good.

1991 Procards, Trey Hillman

#3075 Trey Hillman

Here is the last card from Fanfest. Actually, it is the last pre-1993 card. Tomorrow, I'll be jumping into 1993 and I will have a few Padrographs leading off.

As for this card, it is the only card of the set that I have. I bought it on ebay about a week before Fanfest and it arrived at my house the day before. I was cutting it close with this card (and another one).

Trey put his number on the card. I thought that that was something new since he didn't do that on my '08 card that I got signed at the Royals parking lot. But, I was looking through some of my Royals-provided pictures and I found the one that he signed last year at Fanfest and it has the 22 also. So, maybe it is only something he does at signings.

Since this is my last Fanfest post for a while, here is another autograph that I got there.



These buttons were given out at a Royals game in 2007 after the Royals broadcaster, Denny Matthews, was elected to the Hall of Fame. I didn't even think to take this to Fanfest last year. I remembered this year and it turned out pretty good. I like how he added the Hall of Fame inscription without being asked.

1990 Donruss Best, Kevin Seitzer

#91 Kevin Seitzer

Here is yet another card from Fanfest. Kevin is the new hitting coach for the Royals. Therefore, he was signing with the players and coaches and not with the alumni. Unfortunately, he only signed one of my three cards.

At Fanfest, there was two separate autograph lines going at a time that featured current players/coaches. I spent most of my time in line B and the alumni line. Kevin was signing at B during the last session of the day. I was at the beginning of line A when the signing started. I told my dad to stay at the end of line B (ie, keep letting people in front of him). I got my cards signed from the line A guys and headed down to B to get in there. Well, my dad was nowhere to be found. After a few minutes, I found him in the middle of the line. He tried to get me to cut in there with him, but I wasn't about to skip over that many people. So, I just gave him what I wanted signed and he got what he could. Kevin, incidentally, was the only person in line B that only signed one item for me (or my father). Even Zack Grienke signed two cards, which amazed me.

I remember the '87 Fleer Kevin Seitzer/Stefaro (I think that is his name) card. In '87, that was the card to get here in Kansas. The year I went to the Danny Tartabull card show, I bought the Seitzer card for $5. I also bought a few packs of '87 Fleer and got one in there. I thought that I did pretty well that day.

This is another card that I got from Stats on the Back. This is also another card set that I had never seen before. I did a little looking and I guess Donruss made their "The Rookies" set just like this, but in green. While I'm not a big fan of the red borders, I can't say that I'm a big fan of the blue either. With the Royals powder blue uniforms, there is a ton blueish tint on this card. This might have the '88 Topps Thad Bosley card beat. Maybe.

Kevin has an interesting signature. It looks like there is an M in the middle of it. Also, I'm not sure if I can make out the inscription. John 3:3?