Thursday, December 6, 2018

2007 Topps, Mike Zagurski


#UH198 Mike Zagurski

It has been a week since I last posted a card. Since that last post, I have worked every single day for twelve hours a day. I have three more days of this, but my shift is about to change. Instead of working 6 A.M. to 6 P.M, my next three shifts will be from 6 P.M. to 6 A.M. Then, I will get a couple of days off and be back to normal. The one exception is that I am going to be on nights for good. So, I am not quite sure how that is going to affect my posting. I hope, at the vary least, that I will still post about twelve to fourteen cards a month. Who knows? Maybe I will be able to post more often on this schedule. Only time will tell.

Anyways, here is a card of Mike Zagurski that I got signed at Spring Training this year. Mike was in camp with the Brewers and I was able to get him at the team's minor league morning workout. I caught him as he was trying to leave the fields and head to the clubhouse. The Brewers were hosting the Royals that day, so I had some Royals gear on. Mike saw that and let it be known that he was not a Royals fan. I told him that I was from Kansas and I remembered that he played his college ball at KU. Once we got to talking, I found out that he played ball in community college in Hutchinson, which is twenty-five miles down the road. It is always fun to meet up with someone on the backfields in Arizona that has some Kansas ties.

That day, I did not even plan on 'graphing the Brewers minor league complex. I had planned on going to the game, but I wanted to hit up the White Sox morning practice first. When I got to Glendale to see the Sox, it was dead. We stood around with one other family waiting for the gates to open before someone from the other family made a phone call and found out the White Sox were hosting a night game that evening. Because of that, the gates to the practice field would not open until 3:00. So, we jetted over to Maryvale and did what I could there. Lesson learned.

As for Mike, he has seen stints at the big league level with the Phillies, Diamondbacks, Pirates, Yankees, and Brewers. Those stints were over six seasons that spanned twelve years. He made his debut with the Phillies in 2007 and then would not make it back to the Majors until 2010. He then saw action in 2011, '12, and 13. He then spent a few more years in the minors and in Japan before resurfacing with the Brewers for one inning of work this year. Over that time, he has a 1-1 record in 91 games with an ERA of 7.78. He is averaging a strikeout per inning, though.

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