2005 Bazooka, Angel Berroa

#BB-AB Angel Berroa

Here is the second card that Angel Berroa signed for me at a Wingnuts game in 2012. Angel was playing for the New Jersey Jackals at the time. Back then, the American Association and Can-Am League each had an odd number of teams in the league. To overcome that, they had one interleague series going on all season, just like the Major Leagues do now. That is why the Jackals were in Wichita. I posted the first card Angel signed for me about a month ago and it can be seen here.

Angel played for the Royals for parts of seven seasons. He spent his first two seasons in Kansas City as a September call-up. He then broke camp with the club in 2003 and went on to have his best season. He hit .287 with 17 home runs and 73 RBI, all career bests. Those number earned him American League Rookie of the Year honors and the Royals gave him a contract extension and a hefty raise.

Angel played decently for the next two seasons, hitting .262 and .270 with 19 home runs. But his average slipped to .234 in 2006. In 2007, he spent the majority of the season in AAA. I actually got to see him play in Omaha that summer and I told my friend that he was the highest paid player in the minor leagues. I have no idea whether that was true or not, but he was making about $7 million that season.

Here he is coming off of the field at the game I was at.

I always thought it was weird that the Omaha Royals home and road jerseys both said Omaha on them.

Anyway, Angel started off in Omaha again in 2008 and played there before finally getting dealt to the Dodgers in June.

I like this card. It might not have been the best card to get signed, but for about $1.25, I am not going to complain. I miss the Bazooka sets. They were cheap and great for autographs.

2006 Bazooka, Mark Buehrle

#5 Mark Buehrle

Here is a card that I got signed through the mail in 2009. I sent this card to Mark at the White Sox Spring Training compound in February and I had it back in the first week of March. I don't send out too many cards to Spring Training anymore, but it obviously pays to send them out around the reporting day. That way you can get it to them before the bulk of the mail hits and before they get into the actual games. In other words, it gets to them when they have more free time to answer fan mail.

I was kind of surprised to see that Mark has never been a twenty game winner. He won nineteen in just his second full season in the Majors and has not been able to win more than sixteen since then. In fact, he hasn't even won sixteen since the Sox World Championship season in 2005. Mark has been pretty consistent over the last three seasons, though, as he was won thirteen games in each of them.

Mark is currently a free agent right now and, according to MLB Trade Rumors, there are at least thirteen teams interested in him. It seems like the Nationals have made the biggest push to land him, but anything can happen during the off-season. The Royals are reportedly in the mix, as well, but I would be shocked if that happened. Frankly, it is hard for me to picture Buehrle with anyone but the White Sox. But, that could change.

Even though I have been sending out TTMs since 1988, I really wasn't that good at it until recently. I don't know how many cards I have sent out that were so dark that the signature was almost invisible or were too glossy and the signature bubbled up. But, by 2009, I had finally figured it out. As a result, I sent this beauty to Mark and I could not be any happier with the results.

2006 Bazooka, Charlton Jimerson

#209 Charlton Jimerson

Here is a card that Paul, from Paul's Random Baseball Stuff, got signed for me in 2009. That year, Paul had 'graphed so many Atlantic League games that he had autographs from about everyone that he needed. Being the gracious blogger that he is, he offered to get stuff signed for other people over the course of the remainder of the season. So, I sent some cards out to Paul and he did a great job of getting most of them signed for me.

Charlton has an interesting career stat line. He appeared in thirty-one games over a four year span with the Astros and Mariners. He must have been used mostly as a defensive replacement because he only had nine at-bats in those thirty-one games. But, in those nine ABs, Charlton had four hits and two of them were for home runs. That is not a bad career stat line. Four out of nine is good for .444 career average. But, if Charlton hadn't got that one at-bat with the M's in 2008, he would be a .500 hitter. I don't care if it is only eight at-bats, but four for eight would be something to brag about. Heck, I'd even brag about .444, but that is just me.

In Paul's Thanksgiving post today, he mentioned this blog as one of the things he was thankful for. Obviously, this is a two way street here and I am thankful for all the cards and autographs Paul has thrown my way.

While I am giving thanks, I also want to thank Ryan, Brian, Greg, Rod, Marck, and all of the other bloggers that help make this community what it is. I don't post as much as I would like any more. But, without you all, I probably wouldn't be blogging at all. Thanks, guys!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

2006 Bazooka, Zack Greinke

#129 Zack Greinke

Here is the third card of Zack that I have posted on here. I said that the last time I posted a card of him, but I am pretty certain that this actually is the third card of him.

I got this card signed by the Royals parking lot in April of 2009. That was the day I went to Kansas City to 'graph the parking lot and the game, but the weather was colder than I anticipated. Being under-dressed for a chilly night game did not sound like fun, so I called it quits after 'graphing the parking lot. But, I got over twenty cards signed, so it was a good trip.

When Zack signed this card for me, he was in the midst of his 38 inning scoreless inning streak. But, he was still nice enough to sign a couple of cards for me. It was misting at the time, so the "G" is a little smudged from a small drop of rain.

Zack is not the most personable guy in baseball. But for whatever reason, once the Sports Illustrated with him on the cover came out in 2009, he was signing for everybody after games. That is unusual behavior for a guy that suffers from social anxiety disorder. He didn't talk much or smile while he was doing it. But that fact that he was doing it said a lot about him.

2006 Bazooka, Coco Crisp

#46 Coco Crisp

For some reason, I thought that this was the first Coco Crisp card I have posted on here and I had a nice write-up in my head for it. Turns out that I posted my first Coco card back in May and I used that write-up then. What's this world coming to?

In my last Coco post, I talked about how he had battled injury plagued seasons in 2009 and 2010. It looks like he stayed pretty healthy this year and he appeared in 136 games, which was the most he had played since 2007 with Boston. This season, he finished with a .264 average with 27 doubles and a career high 49 stolen bases, which tied him for the lead league with Brett Gardner. It seems strange that an Oakland Athletic would lead the league in stolen bases.

Coco is a free agent now and it will be interesting to see where he ends up next season. I haven't heard any rumors about him yet, but it is still early.

I really like these blue bordered Bazooka cards. I think they were a one per pack parallel just like Topps Total did with their grey bordered cards. The blue just accents the card better, especially if the signature is in blue as well. The fortune on the bottom is dumb, though.

This card was signed at Royals Fanfest in 2009, just like yesterdays card.

2005 Bazooka, Dallas McPherson

#171 Dallas McPherson

Here is a card that I got signed by the former Angels prospect, Dallas McPherson. I bought this card off of ebay in 2008. That was either before checkoutmycards.com or before I knew about the site. I bought this card because I was going to Albuquerque for a game and Dallas was playing for the Isotopes at the time, who were still affiliated with the Marlins. Unfortunately, I did not get this card signed at that game because I spent the entire time 'graphing the Omaha Royals in the visiting dugout. Luckily, I did catch up to Dallas a few months later when the 'Topes were playing in Round Rock. I had three cards in my book for Dallas to sign, but he would only sign one item. But, I am glad that he signed this card since it is the only card from this set that I have got signed.

Dallas was a top notch prospect that never panned out. He was the #12 prospect in baseball prior to the 2005 season, yet he has only seen action in 128 Major League games. The most time he saw in one season was in 2005 when he played in 61 games with the Angels. Since then, he has seen some time with the Marlins, missed all of 2009, and then played for the A's AAA team last season. He was in camp this spring with the White Sox, but they just recently sent him down to the minor league camp. You have got to wonder how much more Dallas has in his tank.

Dallas sure has an interesting signature. All I can make out of it is the "D" and his number 8. It sure looks a lot different than the one that is featured on his Baseball Almanac page.