Recent Royals: 2002 Fleer Showcase Sweet Sigs Mike Sweeney

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!

WTF is that material and what does it have to do with baseball?

Hey look! A  real, legitimate major league baseball player! Kinda.

Sweeney spent a long long time with the Royals and had some truly great years with them in his prime. His name has always been kind of nebulous to me as a Cubs fan because he spent all but part of a season in the American League, but I’ve heard his name a lot. He’s apparently considering retirement this year as he dipped towards the Mendoza Line last season between Seattle and Philadelphia. If he did, he’s retire with just over 200 home runs and 900 RBI to his credit. Not a bad line, really, even if injuries slowed his career.

If Wikipedia is to be believed, he was gracious enough to Kansas City for their support and help. I love hearing stuff like that. Of course, he also was on a billboard against embryonic stem cell research which is, as the saying goes, a different discussion for a different blog. What I will discuss here is the confusion I felt upon seeing the material this was signed on. It’s a rubbery substance that has no earthly business on a baseball card. Very weird. It also makes the signature impossible to see. I wonder what Mike Sweeney was thinking as he signed nine hundred and sixty freaking five of these things. And I wonder how many barrels of oil were used to make the plasticine rubberized mystery swatch on which it the signature appears. All fair questions. All unknowable.

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