The Cards That Define Me: #3 Mike Scioscia

When I lived in the middle of Texas there was almost never any excitement when it came to pro athletes. Maybe a kid who went to Texas Tech would get drafted and be back in Lubbock for some reason, but that was the extent of it. So when I moved to southern California, I was shocked when my mom showed me an ad in the paper that said Mike Scioscia would be literally down the street at Howard's TV signing autographs. Still to this day Mike is loyal to Howard's and still endorses the King of Big Screens.



I was at first stunned and then just sort of in a state of disbelief. I pawed through my box of 1991 Upper Deck and quickly found the card I needed. My dad took me down to Howard's and I was expecting a mob scene. I mean, a major league baseball player, a two time All-Star was going to be signing autographs, pandemonium would surely ensue. Well...not exactly. I stood in a line about 12 deep, quickly moved to the front and found myself in front of the Dodger catcher. I handed him my card and a Mike Scioscia/Howard's plush baseball that was handed out and watched as he gripped his BALLPOINT PEN and signed away. He had a few nice words to say and laughed at my wearing an Angels hat and then moved on to the next person.


As for the card itself, a pretty sweet picture of Mike gunning down a Red at second base, or more likely not throwing out Billy Hatcher as Barry Larkin looks on from just outside the batter's box. To the best of my detective skills, this appears to be the June 3rd, 1990 game between the Reds and Dodgers. A game in which Scioscia entered late only to have two players still bases off of Jay Howell. The photo is a typical nice action shot from Upper Deck and as you can see, Mike's ballpoint signature is still holding up to this day.


So why does this card define me?

1. This was a huge time in my life. For the first time, I was living where the action was when it came to major league baseball. My parents would often take me down to the Big A for games and in the small city I lived in, a player like Mike Scioscia would actual come to sign autographs. We didn't exactly have a Mean Joe Greene moment or anything and I can recall very little from the encounter, but it still resonates as such a big moment in my life when I think back on it.

2. This was only my second card that I was able to get signed in person. My first will be discussed in a later post, but to me this was exciting. Little did I know that this would someday be the guy to lead my favorite team to its only World Series victory in history. This card and its ballpoint scribbles will forever hold a special place in my heart.

Go Halos!

The Cards That Define Me: #2 Mark Grace

As I mentioned briefly in a previous post, Mark Grace was my first true player collection. Growing up in the middle of Texas, I didn't really have a hometown team. The Angels were my favorite team because during summer vacation my family would drive out to California and my grandfather would always take me to an Angel game. Nowadays, not having a hometown team means nothing because you have MLB Extra Innings and a billion different sports networks showing games.

In 1988, if you wanted to see baseball on a regular basis you were watching WGN or TBS and no offense to the Braves fans out there, but I absolutely hated the Braves and their announcers. But more than that, even at the age of 10 I was a man of principles and I couldn't stand the fact that TBS started all their shows at 5 after the hour. Start your friggin' show at 1:00, not 1:05.

Although I had been collecting some before 1988, this was definitely the year that I became more and more invested. I found a local card shop to go to, I'd do more than simply buy random packs, and I had a number of friends who were collecting and trading. The summer hadn't gotten too far along before I had a favorite player to watch everyday. Mark Eugene Grace. Dawson, Sandberg, Dunston all of them were cool, but there was something about a young Mark Grace that just drew me in. It didn't hurt that Harry Caray could actually pronounce his name without stumbling over it and turning it into the name that sounded like a small European country.

From the bginning, I was a completist. I started to fill my binder up with multiple cards from 1988. I had 4 Rated Rookies, about a dozen Fleer Major League Prospects cards with Darin Jackson stealing some spotlight. I'm not sure when I got the next couple of cards or even how I obtained them, but they quickly moved to the top of page 1 in the binder.




That's right, not one but two Mark Grace Iowa Cubs cards. These cards were fascinating to me. I had a very vague understanding of minor league baseball and even less of an understanding of legitimate card companies and what a minor league issued card would be. To me these were priceless. No one else had them when we would flip through each other's binders and boxes looking for cards to trade.

After coming in second in the Rookie of the Year voting, (Screw you Chris Sabo!) Grace quickly became a hobby darling and my friends were always on the look out for Grace cards and my collection was soon rivaled by many of my friends, but not a single one could lay claim to a Mark Grace Iowa Cubs card.

So why does this card define me?

1. Mark Grace was my first true player collections and one of the reasons I fell in love with collecting baseball cards. There was something about the way he played that excited me and following the Cubs NL East championship in 1989, I was forever a fan of this guy.

2. These cards were special and unique in a time when, well...cards weren't very special and unique. I'd rather not deal with all of the artificial scarcity and numerous parallels that are so popular today, but I do enjoy having a rare card from time to time. In 1988, these cards absolutely qualified as special, unique, and rare. I was the envy of my friends, even if I wasn't able to spend as much money or have a father buying me any of the cards I wanted at the local card shop.

I'm proud to say I still have that first player collection binder and my Grace cards are still stuck to the inside of the binder pages, but I wouldn't have it any other way. The Grace player collection still lives, even if I haven't added a card in a dozen years.



Go Halos!

The Cards That Define Me: #1 Luis Polonia

"The Cards That Define Me" will hopefully be a series I can keep going throughout the year or at least until I run out of cards that define me. I'm not that complex, so expect this to peter out by Valentine's Day.

Luis Polonia probably seems like an odd choice to start out a series of cards that defines a person, unless of course you had the misfortune of watching the early 1990's Angels play baseball.

Luis came over in a trade from the Yankees in late April of 1990 for Claudell Washington and Rich Monteleone. Angels 1 - Yankees 0. You may have signed Teixeira, but we completely owned in you in this swap.

Luis quickly became my favorite Angel during this period. Wally Joyner was nice, but that was part of the problem, he was too nice. I needed an Angel with some edge. The man with the jheri-curl mullet, had that edge.

As for the card, a 1991 Upper Deck Luis Polonia, #187 in the set. Yeah that's right, Upper Deck gave him card 187, the Cali penal code for murder. Did I mention this guy had an edge?


Classic Luis. I'm assuming he's breaking up the double play here or perhaps more likely, the A's knew better to even attempt to go after Luis at second and instead just went after Winfield at first following another of his spectacular ground outs that season.

Even better is the back.


Is there any doubt that this was one of Luis's three errors on the season? Not that I care, Luis made the game fun for a 12 year old watching from the Upper View Level. Note the Jheri curl mullet peaking out the back. There should be a word for this, I vote "jhullet". I miss cards where the back was often as exciting as the front. I've had my fill of flipping to the back only to find the image from the front cropped into a tiny box...yes, I'm looking at you Stadium Club.

So why does this card define me?
1. I loved Luis Polonia. He was everything that made baseball exciting for me. Sure, I loved the bombers just like everyone else, but Luis was the only guy I would stare at for the entire game.

2. I was able to get this card signed in person during the last home stand of the year, when the Angels would have fan appreciation days. It was almost impossible to get to someone like Joyner, Winfield or Abbott, but Luis was not exactly mobbed. He signed my card, talked to me for a bit and made me a fan forever.

I often think about going back and trying to pick up all the old Luis Polonia cards that I can find, but well...Luis isn't exactly a guy filling up the eBay auctions or easily found in the monster boxes at your local card shop. One day Luis I'll do my collection of you proud, but for now I'll just enjoy the memories of your jhullet and this card that defines me.

Go Halos!