Cliff Floyd Autographed Card

I've been hearing rumours of the existence of a sport I once thought was extinct: baseball. Apparently, not only is it still going on, but we would be in the midst of their playoffs, and an imaginary team called the Washington Nationals would be a part of it; I can't wait for the New York Yankees to win the World Series so things get back to normal and I can focus on hockey and football again without having the sports highlights be interrupted by bat-glove.

In a former life, I used to go to the Olympic Stadium in the East end of Montréal to watch the Montréal Expos keep pace with the Atlanta Braves and Philadelphia Phillies until early September, then just crumble like dead leaves as hockey training camps got underway.

One player I had a love/hate relationship with was Cliff Floyd, who was essentially there to replace my favourite player of all time, Hall of Famer Tim Raines, which was a no-no and a no-win, in my book - and that was just in his first stint with the team, back when it actually still was one.

You see, after the fire sale following the 1994 players' strike which possibly cost the Expos a World Series berth, fans stopped going to the games in protest against an administration it felt was just out to collect money without trying to field a winning team, essentially just developing players until they're good enough to be traded for more prospects, and eventually the team was sold to an American con man, who bought low, sold high, collected millions by the boatload in the years in between while not selling local TV or radio rights and went on to scam the good people of Florida out of money for a stadium and yearly guaranteed millions in revenue without having to field a competitive Florida Marlins team, all because MLB passed him over as owner of the Boston Red Sox for someone who wouldn't ruin their legacy. Sound familiar?

Well, while Jeffrey Loria moved on from the Expos and set his sights on the Marlins, MLB was operating the Montréal team, handcuffing its GM into not hiring or re-signing free agents, actually over-fulfilling the fan prophecy of the team being more or less the development farm team for the other franchises.

Then came the trade that sent Floyd back to the Expos - with utility pitcher Claudio Vargas, Wilton Guerrero, and cash - for workhorse reliever Graeme Lloyd, pinch hitter with two seasons batting at .280 or better in Montréal Mike Mordecai, Carl Pavano, prospect Justin Wayne, and Donald Levinski. The Marlins re-loaded two-for-one on equal or better talent than what they gave away.

Also: cash. The Expos didn't need cash, they were operated by the league. They could have printed money; instead, the owners of all other teams decided they just wanted a cut of what was left of that team, had them acquire cash and refused to let them use it.

But wait, there's more!

Floyd was back in town for just 15 games before moving on... to the Red Sox, with whom he batted for a .317 average in 47 games. In return, Montréal received Korean pitchers Seung Song (never played in MLB) and Sun-woo Kim, who appeared in a total of 118 games with four different teams in a six-year span. Another fleece in a series of questionable deals made that summer, the second involving the same power-hitting All-Star Floyd.

Here he is on card #154 from Fleer/Skybox's 1997 Metal Universe set, which he signed in black sharpie in 2003 or 2004:

At the time, Skybox was owned by Marvel, and many of its comic book artists had a say in the set's design, which incorporated comic book-type elements into the all-foil graphics. This card is not as "black" to the naked eye but remains quite dark, representing a stormy sky that ranges from purple to dark blue.

I have to say Mr. Floyd was very nice and gracious when I met him. We talked about the politics and economics of the sport, and he was both lucid and engaging the entire time.

Mark Grudzielanek: 2 Autographed Cards

As far as shortstops go, Mark Grudzielanek made his mark in three and a half years with the Montréal Expos, but he wasn't the finest they've ever had at the position; Spike Owen was the best defensive infielder in the National League for a few years, and Wilfredo Cordero was an All-Star, so the competition's impressive.

Then again, Grudzielanek was an All-Star himself in 1996 (grounding out in his only at-bat), and a Gold Glove winner in 2006 with the Kansas City Royals, so he's no slouch either. He also led the NL in at-bats (649) and doubles (54) in 1997, his last full summer with the Expos, as he was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers near the 1998 trade deadline and played parts of five seasons in L.A., where he set an unusual MLB record, with 35 straight home games with at least a hit in 1999, the year he finished sixth in the NL with a .326 batting average.

His career batting average was a decent .289, but towards the end, he was often injured.

Post-retirement, he has moved into a managerial career, first as the Arizona Diamondbacks' Class-A manager, then as part of their Player Development staff.

He probably signed the two cards I'm featuring today in the late 1990s - so, likely as a Dodger, which is ironic considering the other notable #4 for the Expos in my youth was Delino DeShields, who was also a middle-infielder who was sent to L.A. Both cards were signed in blue sharpie and show him wearing the Expos' grey (away) uniform.

First, here's card #76 from Donruss' 1996 Leaf Signature Series set:

And here's card #267 from Topps' 1997 Bowman collection:

You get a good feel of his batting stance with those cards. As you might expect, he fits very well in my Expos Numbers Project.

Jeff Fassero Autographed Card

After a brief break in reality, which led to hockey-time temperatures, I decided to not taunt the Gods and return to the summertime classic, PED-fed America's Pastime with this autographed card of past Montréal Expos star starter Jeff Fassero:

Like his role on the team, his uniform number changed over the years: he started wearing 39 when he was considered mostly a middle reliever, then switched to 13 when he became a starter.

With the Expos, he was particularly great in 1993 (2.29 ERA, 140 Ks) and 1994 (2.99 ERA) on great teams, but wasn't recognized league-wide until 1996, when he finished 9th in Cy Young (best pitcher) voting, despite no longer being the team's star, having been surpassed by Pedro Martinez.

After that season, he moved on to the Seattle Mariners, the first of 8 MLB teams that would use his services, but would never again be a star-caliber player.

This i a bizarre card I don't remember owning or having purchased, be it in a pack or individually, from Skybox's Fleer '97 set (card #377); I don't remember the card, but I remember having him sign one/it for me in blue sharpie in 2003, when he was a member of the St Louis Cardinals. Maybe he signed a lot at a time, and gave the wrong ones back to people, or maybe my memory's becoming faulty with age. Yet, here it is,in all its matte glory - no, can't blame that one on the scan, the card really does look this way!

David Segui Autographed Card

When you're a kid, you can start following (or liking) a player for reasons as simplistic as having pulled their rookie card from a pack. Such was the case for me and then-Baltimore Orioles prospect David Segui, having pulled his rookie card in Donruss, Topps and Score.

First traded to the New York Mets, where he led the National League in defensive statistics for a first basement, he was then traded to the Montréal Expos early in the 1995 season, a big-name arrival after a summer that saw All Stars Larry Walker (Colorado Rockies), Marquis Grissom (Atlanta Braves), Delino DeShields (Los Angeles Dodgers), Ken Hill (St. Louis Cardinals) and John Wetteland (New York Yankees) walk away in free agency, the 'small-market'' team (though ironically second-most profitable market in hockey) not able to match the excessive salaries offered by (mostly) classic teams. All of which would go on to win championships in the near future.

Segui's end-of-career didn't go without controversy, as he was found to have used HGH (human-growth hormones) during his career, as well as anabolic steroids. But he had a doctor's prescription for the HGH, which he'd used for a long time to counter an insufficiently he'd always had.

His specialty, at bat, was doubles, notching 25-30 almost every season, with a peak of 42 in 2000 splitting his time between the Cleveland Indians and Texas Rangers.

I got him to sign this card for me in black sharpie (all I had at the time, and usually still the case - when they're signed in another colour, it's usually a sign that a player used someone else's for multiple items) in 1997:

It's from Donruss' 1997 Donruss set (card #187). I also had one of him wearing the Orioles' uniform, but I must have traded it away.