Autograph Appreciation: Jeff Conine

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 or the other posts in this series. I’m working on getting a legit want list together on my trade page but, in the meantime, if you have any on-card Royals autos that it looks like I don’t have, don’t hesitate to drop me a line!

 

Used to confuse this dude with John Olerud all the time for no good reason.

No, I’m not doing an actual series called Autograph Appreciation to compete with Night Owl’s Cardboard Appreciation posts. I just wanted to take a break from the pun titles (“Ice Cream Conine” was the first thing that popped into my head and I wanted to jump out a window).

The point is, I like this card a lot. Here are the reasons:

1. It has a distinct late-’90s insert look about it.
2. It’ Jeff Conine, a good player from the era even if he wasn’t a star.
3. His signature is smooth like butter.
4. He’s wearing some sweet shades.
5. It cost me one eBay. (One eBay = $.99 plus shipping. Pass it along).

Conine is best known as a Marlin so it’s nice to see that an auto of his landed on a Royals card. They drafted him back in 1987… in the 58th round. Their first pick that year was Kevin Appier. No one else drafted by the Royals in 1987 had any real impact in the majors. Unless you count Terry Shumpert. But I don’t. Anyway, just goes to show.

Point is, Conine had three stints in the Majors with the Royals: 1990, 1992 and 1998. Conine had a couple of great years early in his career, garnering some ROY votes in 1993 and a few MVP votes in 1994 and 1995.

As far as I can tell, this auto and his 1996 Leaf Signature auto (as a Marlin) are his only certified offerings. A bummer as he was a solid player for the bulk of his career and I know he’s got a bunch of fans. He’d be a great inclusion in  a Fan Favorites type set as a Marlin for sure!

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