Sweet Sweet Sweeneys

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!

1997 BCM: Before Chrome Mattered.

A couple of days ago I posted the latest addition to my Royals On-Card auto collection– a 2001 Upper Deck SP Authentic Mike Sweeney auto. I called him out as one of my favorite players or, at least, one of my favorite types of players. Solid player, humble, not too greedy- a team player. The UD SPA may be my latest Sweeney, but it’s not the only one. Before my unintentional hiatus from collecting for the first part of 2012, I amassed quite a few Sweeneys, including some near-RC autos (I don’t think he had an auto in 1996, which is when his actual RCs came out). That guy above is what Bowman looked like in 1997. I don’t love the giant rectangle for the name, but I kind of prefer it to the modern “PUT AUTOGRAPH HERE” box in Bowman Chrome. There was BC in 1997 but I don’t think Sweens had an auto in it… just a silly Roy Halladay RC in that.

Second banana to the Bowman. But not by much.

1997 Donruss Signature: the set that inexplicably wrote its name under the autograph 400 times. I MUCH prefer 1996 Leaf Signature but this’ll have to do. There are parallels of this… a green /1000 I know of. Probably some others. I also have a 1998 Donruss Signature Jeff Conine, the design of which I much prefer to this if only for its more obvious late-90sism.

0

Another base Topps on-card autograph... I thought it wasn't possible!

Ahh, 2002… when Topps sacrificed whatever animals or virgins it needed to in order to get on-card signatures in its flagship product. Typically boring design for a 2000s base set auto (but loads better than 2005 Topps… eesh!). Theblue on blue is working against the Royals in this particular set but I think Sweeney’s the only one I need from it so let’s just call it a day, shall we?

And this one's on a bat! What won't they think of next!

Oh wait, one more! A signature on a random piece of wood! Well, it beats a random piece of blue rubber. For some reason, I think there’s a leather version of this one too but I don’t have the patience to look for it at the moment. I’m sure it will come to me eventually As will a good way to end this post.

Nope. Wrong on both counts.