Thursday, December 4, 2014

1997 Bowman, Jamie Bluma


#98 Jamie Bluma

Here is the second card that Jamie Bluma signed for me at Fanfest this past winter. Unlike the last card that had four players on it, this one features Jamie by himself and it came out looking really good. Jamie has a nice looking signature and it shows on this card. The last card had too much black on it and the lack of room really scrunched the signature.

Jamie was drafted in the third round of the 1994 draft by the Royals out of Wichita State. He had a fantastic debut season that year by posting a 6-1 record with 14 saves and a 0.98 ERA over two different stops in A ball. He was promoted to AA the following season, and was 4-3 with 22 saves and a 3.09 ERA, before getting a brief bump to AAA to finish the year. He then started the '96 season in AAA and was 1-2 with 25 saves and a 3.12 ERA before getting the call to Kansas City.

He got off to a rough start with the Royals, becoming just the second pitcher in franchise history to allow a home run to the first batter they faced. That first batter just happened to be current Royals TV analyst Rex Hudler. But, he settled down after that and posted some decent numbers that season. He was 0-0 with 5 saves and a 3.60 ERA with 14 strikeouts over 20 innings. That is not too shabby for a 5'11" rookie reliever.

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