I just happened to notice as I was prepping for the 2024 Hall of Fame cards that I was about to hit 100 posts on this project. That's a pretty cool milestone and calls for a form of celebration, so instead of continuing one of my ongoing series sets or stating something new, I figure we can get a little bit self-indulgent.
I'm a big baseball fan, and as I was growing up, I sought out to get as many autographs of players as I could. There were numerous ways to accomplish that task. My personal favorite way to get autographs was to hit up a Minor League game and thrust a baseball or autograph book at a player among a mass of fellow fans and hope my offering was chosen to be signed. Some guys turned out to be nobodies, others turned out to be stars, which should make for a fun assortment of cards to make now.
So, using the random assortment of nobodies and stars as a guide for the Bot, let's see some of the men who gave me their autographs...
Pat Kelly was my first autograph ever. I was stoked to get the signature of not just someone who played for the Yankees, but a member of the 1996 team that won the World Series (never mind the fact that he didn't play that postseason to help them win). Kelly was usually a platoon or bench option in his career, but 1993 showed his one season of regular usage.
Lopez had a prospect card when he was drafted by the Blue Jays that I got him to sign when he was in AAA ball. I was hoping he'd turn out to be an elite player to boost the value of my card. Didn't quite go that way but I enjoyed following his career and especially his lone all star 2005 season seen above.
Speaking of prospects, Drew Henson was a hopeful one for the Yankees at the end of their 90's dynasty. I nabbed his name in a book while he was trying to iron out the problems in his game. He never panned out and abandoned baseball for the NFL, where he would fail there as well. Here is what a 2004 Showdown card would look like if the game took his garbage stats and made an official card.
Jay Tessmer was up and down from AAA and the Yankees in the dynasty years. He had 1 career win, and it came in the record setting 1998 season for the Yankees...on a side note, I'll be adding his card to the
'98 team set I made way back.
Scott Seabol only put in one year of regular service at the big league level, and it's easy to see why. Four teams laid claim to him over his career, and with the exception of one pinch hit appearance, only the Cardinals saw fit to give him playing time.
Young is another guy who just never caught on and he ultimately went to China to play ball. But before heading east, he found a little playing time up north.
Not every player in the minors is a prospect. Sometimes you find guys with a bunch of exp in the big leagues that is down on his years and looking to catch on with a new team in the minors. Shane Andrews is one such player I met. He had an official Showdown card in the 2000 set that led to me featuring him in my
Righting Wrongs series, but he also played in the 2000 season, however he didn't get a Showdown card for that season. Well now he does.
A good post-career move for a player is to be a coach in a teams farm system. Langford joined up with the Blue Jays organization in various coaching and instructional capacities in the 90s and 2000s. And sometimes even the coaches in a Minor League game will decide to come out and sign autographs. Langford in his heyday was a workhorse. In 1980 he pitched a mindboggling 22 complete games in a row, 25 of 26, and a league leading 28 for the year. For comparison, the most anyone completed in 2023 was THREE.
Hall of Famers will get those appearance fees to show up and sign autographs for lines of paying customers. I remember when Rollie showed up to a AAA game, signed autographs for an hour or so...left to go change into some advertisement heavy jersey...throw out the ceremonial first pitch...then change and go back to his table on the concourse to keep signing autographs. I was one of those kids who stood in line for him to come back to sign my baseball. Worth it.
Speaking of events, Goose Gossage did an event at a department store way back in the 90s I can barely remember, but I remember that facial hair. I also remember my dad being ecstatic to meet him. I've since met an assortment of the '78 Yankees, but Gossage was the first. I'd do the others now, but this post has a lot of Yankees already...
