Back in 1985 I saw the Double-A Pittsfield Cubs take on the Reading Phillies in an Eastern League contest. One of the players I saw that day was Cubs pitcher Johnny Abrego, whose name I would remember because it sounds like the name of a gunslinger from a Western. “Sheriff, Johnny Abrego is comin’ into town tomorrow and they say he’s gunnin’ for ya!”
Because I was new to minor league baseball at the time, I got very excited that September when Abrego was a September call-up with the Chicago Cubs. He didn’t pitch all that well in his 5 starts and 1 relief appearance, but he was just 23 so he’d have other chances.
The excitement increased the next spring because Abrego, who had been a 1st round draft pick in 1981, showed up as a Rated Rookie in 1986 Donruss!
Unfortunately injuries put a damper on his career after that. He pitched in Triple-A in 1986 and 1987 and then was out of baseball. The 1986 Donruss card would be his only Major League cardboard.
…But…
Back in 2019 I was at a regional postcard show and picked up this 1986 TCMA “Stars of the Future” postcard. My Abrego player collection was now twice as big!
TCDB lists just two other cards for Johnny Abrego. One is an unnumbered card from something called “2017 Historic Autographs Scripts”, which sounds kind of Broder-y and makes me think someone took an Abrego cut signature, made a custom card out of it and put it out on TCDB.
The other card listed was from the 1986 ProCards Iowa Cubs team set, and in 2022 I acquired this card to complete my Johnny Abrego collection
I have a TCDB user profile but don’t track my collection there… but in this case I couldn’t resist.
I entered my 3 cards in and now…
I’M THE KING OF THE FREAKIN’ WORLD, BABY!!!!!!
And the best part is that I don’t see anybody taking that away from me… They might join me up on the podium, but I don’t see anybody getting all three known cards plus that fourth alleged card.
Bask in my glow, peons!
The Shlabotnik Report 
Historic Autographs (https://www.historicautographcompany.com/) has been putting out “sets” of cut autographs for awhile. They seem to be the successor of sorts to the TriStar SignaCuts series from years earlier.
Thanks, Jason. After checking it out, I’m still not going to consider this a true card. I thought maybe it was a Broder of sorts, but this isn’t much better
I don’t care what anyone says, those cut autograph sets are stupid, and the companies that make them aren’t real card companies. In my mind, those cut signature cards are even worse than Broders; at least a lot of the Broders were enjoyable to look at.
P.S. Congrats on being #1!
Thanks, Jon!
I haven’t entered a ton of cards on TCDB yet, but it’s been a blast to see where I stand against other collectors with some of my obscure collections. Off the top of my head, I know I’m the #1 Ben Weber collector over there – with all of 10 cards!
Time to change the name of this blog to the Johnny Abrego Report??
I think these Johnny Abrego cards are the *only* ones I have entered into TCDB, I have my own database that I use. I could see myself entering another player if the opportunity presents itself. I like the sound of the Johnny Abrego Report, but I’ve got too much brand equity built up with Shlabotnik :-D
A. Congratulations on being the #1 Abrego collector! That’s awesome!
B. My first Chronicles of Cardfoolery post was dedicated to a TriStar Signa Cuts card that took an index card, placed a Avery label with Steve Sax’s signature, and placed it into a card and called it a “cut auto”. Gotta love the silly things within our hobby.