Card-ography #6 – Mike Montgomery

It’s been a little more than a month since I’ve added to this series, and I have quite a few autographs from my player collections to show off.  I don’t have an autograph of everyone (looking at you Bryant and Rizzo, among others), and I think a couple of the relievers have no certified autos at all, but I do have enough to put the series into the double digits.  Today we’re looking at starter turned reliever turned maybe starter again, Mike Montgomery.

Even after having a hand in the case-breaking world, Autographed cards still fascinate me.  Allow me to explain with this series introduction from the early days of the blog.  To see the other parts of the series, click on the “Card-ography” tag at the bottom.

Now that I’m back into collecting, one of the biggest surprises greeting me at the door was that signatures on cardboard (or on stickers placed on cardboard) are now a regular part of the hobby.  In fact, it’s basically expected at this point.  I know there are plenty of people who feel that if their box doesn’t have an auto – or even the RIGHT auto – then it’s a waste of money.  Hell, I’m still not completely jaded by relics, so I can’t understand this theory.
I know that most of the autos aren’t all that valuable, but seeing that blue, red, and sometimes black ink on a card in your hands still holds significance to me.  It still makes for some of the most enjoyable moments in collecting.
That’s why I’m starting a series that will analyze the signatures we see.  It’s common to see people lump them into “good” and “bad” categories, but I want to take it farther than that.  This player took the time to sign your card (although some of them don’t take tons of time).  I’m going to take the time to inspect it.

Never played with the Royals

This was one of my finds at the National this past year.  Bowman is a good (?) resource for finding autographs of a lot of the reliever types, because it seems like almost everyone gets an autograph.  Die hard fans of the blog will recognize this card from a 2011 post that Andy did before he left the blog and collecting for personal reasons.  In there, he cites the higher prices Mike’s cards were going for at the time.  Well…patience is a virtue and a money saver.  This card is not the exact same one that he has (or had, not sure if he actually kept his Royals): I checked.

Literal:
If you didn’t know his name, what would you think this said?  “Miles NHarry”

Style points:
There’s very little style to be found.  It’s quite up front and straight forward.  These are the letters in my name and I will write them.

Space Usage:
Not ideal. He decided to scrunch it all down at the bottom and slightly overlap the nameplate area.  For a pitcher, location is everything, and he missed the strike zone.

Laziness:
The signature isn’t lazy, especially compared to other people with shorter names, but it’s not all that exciting either.

Intangibles:
It’s all about the glow behind the ears.  It’s not a very flattering picture of the Royals first rounder for a 1st card.  However, I look forward to seeing a blue refractor of this in person some day.

Overall:
It’s nice to get my first auto of Mike out of the way.  The odds of it being my last are pretty low.  Right now there are less than 100 cards for me to collect and over 1/4th of them are autograph cards from a quick count.  I’ll keep my eyes peeled at the next card show or shop I get to attend.

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