Featured autograph - Rick Waits

I dug around through some monster boxes at my LCS to find cards to get signed in-person before a Seattle Mariners @ Angels game - I consider Waits the 'anti Van Slyke,' since I got the Seattle Mariners pitching coach's attention and after looking for a way to sign my cards without me having to launch my autograph book towards him over the dugout, he came over to the camera well and signed without a problem.

Waits pitched in the Major Leagues from 1973-1985 and while he wasn't great [79-92 won-loss record], he hung around for 12 years - I usually laugh and scoff at the cards of rank-and-file guys, but there are players [maybe lefthanders since they tend to hang around even past their primes] whose careers are a trip.

Even though I might not have been around [literally] to follow their Waits' career first-hand - having his cards and doing a little research makes me think about what he did as a professional baseball player.

One of the cards he signed was his 1985 Fleer [which shows him at Anaheim Stadium] and while it's not a big deal - it's ironic I got him to sign where he was pictured on the card, even though the stadium is now called Angel Stadium and the place has probably gone through a bunch of cosmetic changes since 1984.