I have very few card collections given my limited resources and space, but I did decide some time ago to begin collecting on-card Royals autographs. It’s been a blast so far trying to track these things down and this is the latest addition to my collection. To view the cards currently in the collection, take a look at the Gallery. If you have any on-card Royals autos- especially one you don’t see in that gallery there- chances are I need them so don’t hesitate to drop me a line!
Worst bunt form ever.
Until I started collecting random Royals autos, I had no idea what was happening with cards between 1996 and 2003. Maybe more significantly, I had no idea what Upper Deck had done since 1993, the last year I collected more than just Topps (I was 12… I had a budget). Probably the most confusing thing I’ve run into from them is the SP series. SPx, SP Authentic, SP Rookie Edition… can someone explain what the hell the differences are between these things? And wasn’t there an SPx Finite where everything was numbered to something stupid? I’m glad things are so much simpler now!
Aaron Guiel had an interesting minor league career punctuated by interesting stints in indie leagues dotted with some interesting injuries erased by one interesting season in the MLB and parenthesized by a huge exclamation point in Japan where he hit 35HR for the Yakult Swallows in 2007. Last year he hit .199 with 15 HRs for the same team so I’m not exactly sure how much more ink he’s got in the pen, so to speak.
Cool. I remember seeing Guiel back in 94 in Cedar Rapids, when he was with the Angels. Cool to see he made it far enough to get an on-card auto issued of him. Wow, and even Japan.
At the turn of the millennium, my brothers and I were pretty into MLB Showdown and kept drafting teams. The most famous incarnation was a team of my brothers that absolutely dominated thanks to a lot of really good early picks (Manny, Maddux, Ralph Kiner) and his last pick, Aaron Guiel.
The guy was not very good in the game, but somehow he overcame his bad stat ratings to dominate. I’ve always had a silent respect for the guy since then, even though it was just a bunch of dice rolling.
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I really wish they’d bring back MLB Showdown. I wanted to get into it back in the day but was on a college kid’s budget. I think they could do some really interesting things with it, much like Topps Attax doesn’t.
Hey Andy,
It seems you have a nice Royals on-card auto collection started. I have an addition you would probably enjoy.
2008 Allen & Ginter Brian Bannister Autograph
These are on card even though they are behind a small layer of plastic. It’s beautiful despite it being of Brian Bannister. Let me know if you are interested.
I completely agree Andy. It was good stuff. And luckily I was on a high school kid’s budget (and my little brother was on an elementary school kid’s budget) so we ended up with quite a few packs of the stuff. Someday when I visit home I’ll try to dig them up and show them off.