Signature Sundays - Sandy Alomar Jr!

March is here, and with baseball season right around the corner let's return to the very first set of baseball cards I enjoyed as a youth, 1990 Topps, for this week's Signature Sundays post...

The Topps Archives Signature Series releases of recent years are too rich for my blood in unopened format; I'm not enough of a gambler to shell out $40+ for a one-card product.  On the secondary market though these releases are absolute goldmines for acquiring authenticated autographs on the cheap.

Today's subject, as you can see above, is Sandy Alomar Jr.  This autograph is particularly cool because after a handful of games with the Padres in 1988 and 1989 to start his career, Sandy won the American League Rookie of the Year in 1990 as a 24-year-old with the Indians!

While not as successful as his brother Roberto, Sandy played an impressive 20 seasons of Major League Baseball before hanging up the spikes for the final time.  In addition to his Rookie of the Year honors, he captured a Gold Glove, was a 6x All-Star, and even garnered some MVP votes in his best career year (1997).

In this case, the card is actually from the 1990 Topps Traded release.  I happily scoop up any cheap autographs I can find from either the standard 1990 set, the 1990 Traded set, or even the 1990 Rookie Debut set, since they each have the same design with those all-too-familiar comic book-themed borders.  I've even seen an Archives Signature Cal Ripken Jr. from the 1990 Topps Tiffany set on eBay, but at a price tag of $499 I'll pass on that one unless I win the lottery someday. 

Sandy Jr. signed a few of his standard 1990 Topps card (featured with the Padres) for Archives Signature as well, and I'd like to pick one of those up someday.  I decided to target this one first though given that he played just 8 total games with San Diego, and was most successful and best remembered as a member of Cleveland's baseball club.  It was hard not to like those powerhouse Indians teams of the '90s.

I love the large, bold autograph from Sandy here.  He wasn't afraid to use up a lot of the real estate on the card when signing, which is great.

Perhaps the best part about this card is that I was able to secure the latest addition to my 'Topps Baseball Autographs of My Youth' collection for less than $8!  I've got a few more of these types of autographs in hand to share on the blog over the course of the 2020 baseball season, and I'm always on the lookout for new ones as well.  My small tribute to the 30th anniversary of the 1990 Topps set, I suppose.

Until next time, thanks as always for stopping by and enjoy your Sunday!