Featured autographs - Lethal Lefties completed

Jim Abbott was the last pitcher I needed to complete this 1993 Upper Deck Teammates subset card #53 - I got him to sign the card at the Angels game against the Yankees on June 5th.

Featured autograph - Mark Langston

To be quite honest, sometimes getting the autograph of a former Angels player like Mark Langston have lost a little bit of its allure - because I've seen him enough times at Angels games or perhaps to another Angels related event.

I recently got him to sign a couple of cards I brought - when he showed up the Angels game last Saturday.

However another loose unsigned card or five or six usually finds its way in my hands at some point - it never ends when you are autograph collector or borderline baseball card hoarder.

Langston was a 'junk wax' era guy, so he has his share of cards from the mid 1980s through the 1990s - I still have nearly a page of his cards to get autographed.

Featured autographs - Mark Langston and Tim Salmon

Mark Langston threw out the first pitch in Monday's Angel game against the Cleveland Indians and was scheduled to sign autographs at the top of the second inning - I got in line [on the concourse behind the center field rocks] as the game started and was surprised there was one formed already; I guess one reason to go to the remaining home games this season would be to get autographs of a former Angels players.

One of the 'collector types' ahead of me got an 8x10 print of the Langston/Jim Abbott/Chuck Finley shot used in one of the subset cards in the 1993 Upper Deck set - the collector tried to sneak a second item [a card] for Langston to sign but the 'handler' standing and talking next to him snatched the card like a hawk and said autographs were only one per person.

I got Langston an 'oddball' card I picked up for a dime [at the Texas Rangers / Kansas City Royals spring training fanfest in 2009] because it had Tim Salmon's picture on it - as he was signing the card, Langston asked the handler if Salmon was around and the woman said he was actually at the stadium. If I overheard correctly, I thought it was funny that Langston didn't know Salmon was at the stadium.

Salmon has been doing the Angels Live pregame and postgame shows with Bill MacDonald and Jose Mota - for the first homestand of the 2011 season, which finishes up with a 4:05 p.m. game against the Cleveland Indians on Wednesday afternoon.

In the bottom of the 8th inning, I was waiting behind the rocks [where the postgame show is held] and during the top of the 9th inning, Salmon showed up - he was pretty much oblivious to the various fans [and I] wanting to him to sign something.

I had to wait around until the postgame show was finished before Salmon was finally done with his duties and eventually signed autographs - it was a good thing the ushers didn't kick fans out of the area, even though the rest of the stadium was being cleared out after the game.

Featured Card - Tim Salmon/Mark Langston

I picked this 'oddball' card up for a nickel in a '20 for $1' commons bin. It features two California Angels' stars of the early 1990s, Tim Salmon and Mark Langston.

I remember Salmon being a favorite because I found his 1991 Bowman rookie card when it was a quarter back in 1991/1992 and I think I 'traded' for it, just because he was an Angels' player [though relatively unknown and still in the minor leagues].

Some time later, Salmon was annointed the Angels' top prospect and had an American League Rookie of the Year winning year in 1993. I most certainly believe I officially jumped on the bandwagon and became a 'frontrunner' as someone had said to me.

Salmon became the face of the franchise, providing the up and [mostly] down Angels' teams with a powerful middle of the lineup presence through the rest of the 1990s.

Salmon, who was a very good player during his 14-year career in the Major Leagues was very productive, but at times not healthy. It seemed like the last several years of his career, his bat hand slowed down as well as his range in the outfield.

While he never made the all-star team, considering everything he's done, the pinnacle of his career was winning the 2002 World Series, when he helped lead the Anaheim Angels defeat the San Francisco Giants. He hit .346 with nine hits in 26 at-bats, including two home runs and five RBIs. His on-base percentage was .452 and his slugging percentage was .615.

He fell short of hitting 300 home runs for his career and I think Angels' fans were kind of disappointed he didn't get the milestone home run to close out his playing career. He is a franchise legend, though probably falls just a notch below being a player considered to be a borderline Hall of Fame candidate.