"I
collected baseball, basketball and football cards when I was a kid
& have passed my collection on to my four sons. A funny story is that I
traded most of my Ken
Griffey Jr collection (including the Upper Deck Rookie) in 1993 to my
best friend Alan Beck for his collection of Ryne Sandbergs & Nolan
Ryans. My Dad never collected as a kid so my collection is from
1986-1994 but my Great Uncle gave me a 1962 Topps Luis
Aparicio which is my oldest card by far.
When
I was in the Gulf Coast League in 1999, we had to sign our Topps contract,
in which they payed a check to every player for $5 in the clubhouse
after being in
the heat all day. I did not realize that they would take the signature
(in which I intentionally did not sign in my normal penmanship) &
stamp it on my card 5 years later.
If I had known, I would have signed properly so that you could actually
read it! So
if you see my 2004 Bowman Chrome card & compare to any card I have
ever signed, you can’t miss how different the signatures are.
My
favorite card in my collection is the only one I ever had signed. I
went to Spring Training in Arizona several years when I was younger
& never asked for signatures
on my cards. When we moved to North Carolina, my Dad took me to a
Greensboro Hornets game in 1993 to see this shortstop that he had read
about in the newspaper. When he told me the name, I remembered that I
had his card and found his 1993 Pinnacle 1st
Round Draft Pick card in my collection. I waited outside the clubhouse
after the game & got him to sign it along with a great conversation
about hitting & playing shortstop in pro ball. Little did I know then that
Derek Jeter would become one of the greatest players
in New York Yankee history."
Thanks! Here is a card of him from my collection.
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