1986 Donruss Jose Canseco RC #39

If nothing else, this pickup allows me to have a copy of one the best rookies in the hobby, circa 1991 - I think about building up a collection of the hottest cards whose values have come and gone, but I'd be once proud to show off as young collector.

In real life, my youth is ancient history and I don’t know if can find others anywhere who might care - when I dig around and look for occasional baseball card 'war' stories on social media, forums or blogs mentioning this card in particular, I’ll pat myself on the back for having a nostalgic status symbol from way back when.’

As it stands, Canseco is a buffoon, a shyster and a Twitter troll - maybe long declared irrelevant, I did enjoy parts from his two books where [regardless of where one stands as far as Canseco 'ratting out' his old teammates, friends and frenemies] he exposed how the raw the Steroid Era was.

He said he wouldn’t have made the big leagues without PEDs but he had some staying power - maybe for three or four years, he might have been Mike Trout with ‘bite,’ a 5-tool player with power and speed as his prominent attributes.

Canseco was always the bad boy jock, but had he cultivated a little more of a clean cut image and a bit more discreet about his indiscretions - he might be a borderline HOFer with his numbers.

Because they were valuable commodities, I don’t know if I seriously chased after any one particular Canseco rookie era card - I still remember the friend whose house I used to go to having the 1986 Donruss Rookies as a likely centerpiece card of his collection.

Maybe in one of the first times, I splurged on a handful of singles at a card shop, I picked up Canseco's 1987 Topps - in the mid 1990s, I might have had a couple of Canseco's cards from the 1986 Donruss Highlights boxed set.

It maybe a little weird looking back, but a 1991 Score Dream Team Canseco was a card I wanted badly - I don’t think it ever was as popular as the Bo Jackson Dream Team subset card from 1990, but for a while, it was a notable card on its own.

Canseco was the ‘it’ player in MLB and he was posed swinging a bat topless by a notable fashion photographer - probably through means I’m not proud of, I might remember pulling the card off loose packs from the local supermarket.

Years later, I remember getting autographs at the ballpark in 1999 and Canseco came out of the front after a game - I must have been going batty when I spotted him and rushed to have him sign a couple of the Beckett magazines I must have bought at a card show.

He scribbled on them dismissively, but here I was seeing one the biggest stars of my childhood in the flesh - I tried asking him for a photo and he said, 'no' but I may still have it somewhere where I got the worst picture of me and him 'together' as he's walking.

TTM autographs received: Greg Harris

The former MLB pitcher signed my cards in a couple of weeks - besides having a 15 year career, Harris' most notable big league quirk was being able to pitch with both arms.

Unintentional cameos - 1991 Score Jack Howell #842 and 2014 Topps Jose Altuve #210

It was probably my friend who gave me this random Jack Howell card as an extra to get signed at a minor league game at least several years ago - current Angels third base coach Gary DiSarcina makes a cameo and only recently was I finally able to get DiSarcina to sign this particular card.

"That's not me," he said before he realized he was on the card. "Oh there I am."

For the most part, I prefer one autograph on one card of a player [regardless of any random cameos] unless it's a dual player card [where both players are listed on the card] - however, when I can pull it off, I like the novelty of having two players sign a card both make an appearance on.

I like anticipating the reaction of the player making a cameo, wondering if he would taking a harder look, seeing it's not really his card I'm having him autograph - I also wonder how the cameo player will be able to fit his autograph on the same card that has already been signed.

Wouldn't it just be something if I can get Jose Altuve's 2014 Topps card signed by him and the guy sliding into him - I don't think that is going to happen with the player making a cameo, though I'm tempted to try.

My autograph day - three distinguished, but random baseball guys

I decided to see what was going on with the in-person graphing scene since [as a baseball autograph collector] it's been a dry spell for me the last couple of weeks - I went to Angel Stadium and was able to get three guys before Sunday's day game, until leaving early to go to my sister's house for Father's Day lunch.

Mike Scioscia (1) - I got him to sign a 1991 Score card I probably should have gotten inked up two weeks ago; missed out on the Arizona Diamondbacks players [and some of their notable coaches like Matt Williams and Alan Trammell] while waiting for Angels to drive in.

Eric Young 1/2 - they were the same 2000 Topps card, so he maybe 'no dupes' or his limit is one.

Don Baylor (1) - I like how his autograph looked on the 1982 K-Mart card, though I wish I had an original Topps card for him to sign, even though I've gotten him at least several times in the past 10 years.