The Rest of 2008 Topps Heritage, Part I

#7 Joey Gathright
#42 Jason Jennings
#96 Mark DeRosa
#123 Sam Fuld
#144 JR Towles
#152 Brian Bannister
#211 Mike Sweeney
#269 Horacio Ramirez
#417 Nate Robertson

Joey Gathright- I got this card signed by Joey by the Royals parking lot in 2008. Back then, he was signing just his initials. I got him five years later at an American Association game and he was signing his full last name at that point.

Jason Jennings- Speaking of the American Association, Jason did some time there in 2011. He signed this card for me at an Amarillo Sox game in 2011 while he was a member of the Grand Prairie AirHogs.

Mark DeRosa- I got this card signed at a Royals game in 2009. Mark was with the Indians at the time and he signed during batting practice.

Sam Fuld- Sam signed this card for me between games of a doubleheader in Des Moines, Iowa in 2009. He was playing for the Iowa Cubs.

JR Towles- JR signed this card for me after a Round Rock Express game in 2008.

Brian Bannister- I got this card signed at a Royals game in 2008.

Mike Sweeney- This card was given to me by Uncle Moe in 2009. I probably sent him some cards for his 2008 Topps set and he hooked me up with a few autos in return.

Horacio Ramirez- Horacio signed for me from the Royals parking lot after a game in 2008.

Nate Robertson- I got this card signed by Nate at a card show in Wichita in 2015.

2008 Topps Chrome, Kevin Hart

#224 Kevin Hart

This is a card that I picked up in a trade in 2008 or 2009. Jim from http://jamheat67.webs.com/ saw some Cubs cards on my blog that he needed and we worked out a trade. I sent him a Brian McRae, Les Lancaster, and Juan Guzman card and I got this one in return. I think he might have got the better end of the deal, but what are you going to do?

Kevin had a relatively short Major League career. After breaking in with the Cubs in 2007, he threw his last Major League pitch with the Pirates in 2009. Over that span, he was 6-11 with a 5.27 ERA.

Despite the short career, he did have one postseason appearance. In the 2007 division series against the Diamondbacks, he came in to relieve Ted Lilly in the fourth inning of game two. He did not allow a hit in his inning of work, yet he still managed to allow two earned runs to score. He came in with a runner on third and one out and proceeded to strike out the two batter he faced. He came back out in the fifth and walked two of the three batters he faced. He got yanked from the game and two relievers managed to allow his two runners to score. So, he postseason stat line is 2 walks and 2 K's with an 18.00 ERA in an inning of work.

2005 Bowman Heritage, Brad Corley

#290 Brad Corley

Two posts ago, I showed off the Gio Gonzalez auto that I got in a trade with a random reader for a pair of '05 Bowman Heritage Cesar Carrillo cards. When we made the deal, he gave me a list of cards that he had available for trade. I picked the Gio card and told him to throw in an '05 Bowman Heritage card that he had dupes of. This is that throw-in card.

Brad played in the minors for five seasons, never making it above AA. The second round pick out of Mississippi State reached the AA level in just his third year of pro ball, but could never get any higher. Despite hitting .262 in his first full season there, the Bucs cut ties with him in 2009 and he finished the season playing for the Rockies AA team. That was Brad's last year in baseball.

In parts of three season in AA, Brad hit .249 with 18 home runs and 81 RBI.

In my last post, I poked fun at the pose that Drew Butera was in. This one isn't much better, but it looks much cooler thanks to the Heritage effect.

2005 Bowman, Giovanny Gonzalez

#158 Giovanny Gonzalez

Every once in a while, I will get a random email from somebody that I do not know who wants to trade for a card they found on my blog. More often than not, it is somebody working on a set and they discovered that I posted a card that they needed. That is how I ended up with this card. Somebody noticed that I had some '05 Bowman Heritage cards that they needed and gave me some signed cards to pick from. This is the one that I chose. In order to land this card, I had to pony up two different Cesar Carrillo cards from that set. I think I did OK with that trade.

When I first saw this card, I was not expecting Gio to be pictured with the White Sox. I had no idea he was ever in their organization. Well, it turns out that he was also in the Phillies organization, too, before making his Major League debut with the A's in 2008.

Since making that debut, Gio has pitched eleven seasons and is currently 126-97 with about ten days left in this season. His best season was with the Nationals in 2012 when he was 21-8 with a 2.89 ERA and 207 strikeouts. He has never won more than 16 games any other season in his career, but he has run off a string of eight straight seasons with double digit wins and is one win away from his ninth straight.

Gio is currently hurling for the Brewers and is 2-0 in three September starts with a 1.65 ERA. With nine games left and a 3.5 game lead for the wildcard, Gio is trying to help his club reach the postseason for the fourth time in his career.

1996 Leaf Signature Series Extended, Carlos Hernandez

#77 Carlos Hernandez

Here is another card I got from Night Owl a while back in exchange for a Jackie Robinson manu-bat knob. Other autos he gave me were of Rick Dempsey, Billy Ashley, and Todd Hollandsworth. The other three cards were all base cards that had been signed at some point. This, an autographed insert, is more of what I expected to get in the trade since Greg isn't an autograph collector.

Carlos played in the Majors for parts of ten seasons with the Dodgers, Padres, and Cardinals. He spent the better part of his career in Los Angeles in the back-up catcher role. But, in 1998 with Padres, he was the team's primary catcher and he had a good season. He ended up playing in 129 games while starting 102 of those. For the year, he hit .262 with 15 doubles, 9 home runs, and 52 runs driven in.

For his career, Carlos was a .253 hitter with 24 homers and 141 RBI. He got to play in all four of the Padres 1998 World Series games and was 2-10.

1994 Bowman, Todd Hollandsworth

#359 Todd Hollandsworth

This is the second time that I posted a card of Todd Hollandsworth on here. I picked up a signed Signature Rookies card of him for sixty cents once and I posted that card almost four years ago. This one, on the other hand, was picked up in a trade with Night Owl a couple years back. I pulled a Jackie Robinson manu-bat knob out of a pack of Topps and I offered it up to him. In return, he sent me a small handful of signed Dodger cards. It was win-win for everybody.

If you compare this card to the Rick Forney card I posted yesterday, you will notice that this card is a bit different than Forney's '94 Bowman. This one is almost metallic with the Dodger logo etched into the backdrop. I looked up to see that this parallel was called and it turns out that it is not a parallel. It is just a cool looking base card.

Todd actually had two base cards in this set. The other one was just a normal card, though. It looks like both cards used the same photo, but this one is cropped a little tighter.

1993 Bowman, Billy Ashley

#210 Billy Ashley

Here is a card that I picked up in a trade with an unlikely trade partner. A few years ago, I pulled a Jackie Robinson manu-bat knob out of a pack of Topps. While the card was really neat, it did not fit into my collection. I offered it up to Night Owl in exchange for some autographed cards.

I fully expected to get a few certified autos of some lesser known Dodgers. But, Night Owl surprised me by sending me three cards like this and a couple of certified lesser known Dodger autographs. Night Owl will be the first to tell you that he is not an autograph collector. Sure, he has some and has even sent out a few TTMs to some of his favorite players, but it is typically not something he chases. Because of that, I did not expect to get any cards like this. My only guess is that he is such a great trader on the blogosphere that he gradually acquires cards like this. However he does it is fine by me as I fully appreciated the trade.

Billy Ashley was supposed to be a big thing in LA. He was the supposed to be battling out his fellow Dodger rookies for Rookie of the Year honors. He absolutely killed in in AAA, having back-to-back 100 RBI seasons and hitting 37 homers in 1994, winning Minor League player of the year honors.

But, he was unable to translate that success to the Major League level. He only played in 268 games with the Dodgers over a six year span. During that time, he hit .231 with 25 home runs and 77 RBI. He had almost 100 more strikeouts than hits as a Dodger. The Dodgers released him prior to the start of the 1998 season and the Red Sox picked him up. He got into 13 games with the Red Sox that season before spending the rest of his career mostly playing for independent minor league teams.

I love this look of this card. When I think of 1993 Bowman, I do not think of horizontal cards. I wonder if all of the horizontal cards in packs of '93 Bowman were all together in the pack like they are with current Topps packs. That is doubtful because Topps used to know how to collate cards.

1989 Donruss, Rick Dempsey

#432 Rick Dempsey

Since Rick played on the last Dodger team to play in the World Series, I was hoping to post this card earlier today after a Dodger sweep. That obviously did not happen. But, the Dodgers are up 9-1 now in the ninth inning, so I figured that this was as good a time as any to post this card.

I picked this card up in a trade two years ago. I pulled a Jackie Robinson manu-bat knob out of a pack and had no interest in it. I offered it up to Night Owl and told him to send some autographs for it. I was expecting to get some certified autos from Greg since he doesn't really collect autographs. But, he surprised the heck out of me by sending me a couple of cards like this. Apparently he has a stash of Dodger autos that other collectors must have sent him.

Rick played for the Dodgers for for three seasons, serving as Mike Scossia's back-up. Over that span, he played in 218 games and hit .211 with 13 home runs and 61 RBI. He even got into two games in the '88 Series, starting one, and went 1-5 with a double and an RBI.

This is the second card of Rick that I have posted on here. I posted the first one, his '81 Donruss, earlier this year and it can be seen here.

It looks like the Dodgers are up 11-1 now and are two outs from the World Series. I wish I had some way of watching TBS right now.

1984 Topps, Jeff Russell

#270 Jeff Russell

Here is the last of the three cards that Tom, from The Angels In Order, sent me. The cards were in exchange for getting some cards signed for him at Royals Fanfest.

I had gotten three cards signed by Jeff in 2014 when the Grand Prairie AirHogs came to Wichita. Jeff was the pitching coach for the 'Hogs and I got him to sign cards for me as a Ranger, Red Sox, and Athletic. With the addition of this Reds card, I got a signed card of him with every team he played for except the Indians.

On the last card I posted of Willie Wilson, I guessed that the picture was taken at the All Star Game in 1983. This is another example where it is easy to tell when the picture was taken. In the background, you can see a blurry image of Willie McCovey's retired number in San Francisco.

Jeff only pitched once in San Fran in 1983 and it was on September 5th. He started that game for the Reds and pitched an eight inning complete game, losing 3-2. He had a no-hitter going into the eighth inning before giving up a lead-off double that was followed by a home run. A runner had scored earlier in the game by walking, moving to second on a sac bunt, third on a wild pitch, and scoring on a sac fly. Jeff finished with just the two hits allowed and five walks and five strikeouts.

Three teams have clinched their spots in Omaha. Texas A&M, Oregon State, and Louisville are all in. We will see who gets in today.

1983 Topps, Jack Perconte

#569 Jack Perconte

Here is the second of three cards that Tom, from The Angels In Order, sent me for helping him out with some 'graphs from Royals Fanfest.

Jack played in the Majors for parts of seven seasons with the Dodgers, Indians, Mariners, and White Sox. He did not see a lot of playing time until he ended up in Seattle in 1984. He was then a regular there for two seasons before ending his career with the White Sox in 1986.

For his career, Jack was a .270 hitter with 2 home runs and 76 RBI. His best seasons was with the M's in 1984. That year, he had a career-best average of .294 with 24 doubles and 31 RBI. He even stole 29 bases that season.

1983 Topps, Rick Burleson

#315 Rick Burleson

Here is a card I got in a trade with Tom, from Angels in Order. Back in the day when I used to rake in autographs at Royals Fanfest, I would offer to get things signed from certain alumni if anyone needed them. Tom took me up on the offer a couple of times, though I was only able to help him out once. In return, Tom sent me three signed cards and this is the first of those three.

Rick Burleson played in the Majors for thirteen seasons with the Red Sox, Angels, and Orioles. After breaking in with the Sox in 1974, he was a mainstay in the Boston infield for seven seasons before being dealt to the Angels prior to the 1980 season. But, with the Sox, Rick played in one World Series and made three All Star teams.

He made one more All Star team with the Halos in 1981 before injuring his throwing arm in 1982, limiting his playing time for the next three seasons. He came back strong in 1986 in time for the Angels AL West title run.

For his career, Rick was a .273 career hitter with 50 home runs and 449 RBI. He hit .318 in three playoff series and won one Gold Glove and one Silver Slugger.

I have no idea how Tom got this card signed. I just know that I need to acquire Rick's card from the '81 Donruss set and get it signed.

Today is selection Monday, so the College World Series Contest will be up and running around seven o'clock tonight.

2007 Topps Chrome, Joaquin Arias

#346 Joaquin Arias

Here is a card that I obtained in a trade with Night Owl about eight years ago. Night Owl posted this card on his blog after he pulled it from a pack. He had no interest in it and offered it up to anyone that wanted it. Since it had a signature on it, I thought I needed to have it. So, we worked out a trade and I sent him a Rafael Furcal jersey card for this one.

This is the second card of Joaquin Arias that I have posted on here. The first was posted in 2011 and it can be seen here.

When I posted that last card of Arias, he had just completed a season with the Omaha Storm Chasers. It was the first time in four years that he did not play in a Major League game. That all changed the next season when he got called up by the Giants. He was a member of the team through this past season. After his year in Omaha, I just figured that he was a AAAA type player, but he proved me wrong.

Since he went on to play for the Giants for so long, I am sure that Night Owl was quite happy that he got this card out of his collection.

2005 Bowman Heritage, Trevor Bell

#244 Trevor Bell

Here is a card that I picked up a little over three years ago in a trade with The Angels, In Order. Tom is working on a signed set of 2006 Fleer Tradition and he swapped me this card for a Tim Hamulak card from the set.

Trevor pitched for the Angels for parts of three seasons, from 2009-2011. He started a few games with them, but mostly pitched out of the bullpen. During that time, he was 4-8 with a 5.21 ERA. He posted a career-best ERA of 3.41 over 19 outings in his final season with the club. But, it wasn't enough and they let him walk after that season.

He was picked up by Detroit for 2012, but he was cut during Spring Training. The Reds grabbed him after that and he has been pitching in their system since. He did resurface on the Majors last summer with them. He made just two appearances and they did not go too well. He pitched just .2 innings and gave up 5 runs on 5 hits and a pair of walks.

It would appear that Trevor is currently a free agent.

1994 Nabisco All Star Legends, Bob Gibson

Bob Gibson

Check out this beauty. You will never believe how I got this card. One day, I got a random email inquiring about a 1996 Fleer Andres Galarraga autograph that I had posted. The person was collecting a signed set of '96 Fleer and was still needing the Big Cat. Since the card was just given to me, I didn't have any real attachment to it, so it was available. The person sent me a short list of cards that were available for trade and this one was on there. By that point, it was a no-brainer and I was all in on the deal.

I have nothing at all against Andres Galarraga, but he is no Bob Gibson.

Besides the awesome fact that I have a Bob Gibson autograph now, I know nothing about this set. I thought that there were just four cards in the set- Duke Snider, Jim Palmer, and Frank Robinson. But, when I do an image search, I keep finding other players like Jim Wynn, Bill Mazeroski, Al Oliver, Tug McGraw, and Sparky Lyle. There is so little information out there about this set that the best I could find was from Dodgers Blue Heaven. In a post about the Snider card, Ernest says that there was about 5,000 cards signed and they could be obtained by mailing in a proof of purchase and five bucks. What a deal. How did I miss this promotion?

Bob was an eight time All Star with two Cy Young Awards and an MVP. He was elected into the Hall of Fame in 1981.

I have seen two statues of Bob at ballparks. The first one was in St. Louis at Busch Stadium. He is one of the many mini statues there. This pic was from a game I attended in 2007.

The second statue is located outside of Werner Park, home of the Omaha Storm Chasers. Bob is an Omaha native and they honored him with a statue at the park. This picture was taken last year when we stopped by the park to get a Chasers team set before seeing them play in Des Moines the next day. I have no idea why it came out as bad as it did (the picture, not the statue).

2004 SP Prospects, Christopher McConnell

#CH Christopher McConnell

Earlier this month, I posted a Nic Jackson card that I got in a trade with reader Peter. This was the other card that was included in the trade. To land the two cards, I had to send Peter three signed SP Prospects cards from this set. The trio included Trevor Lawhorn, James Fasano, and the base Christopher McConnell card.

When Peter first proposed the trade, he said that he was trying to complete the '04 SP Prospects set. Since the three cards he wanted from me were signed, I just assumed that he was trying to get the whole set signed. But, after exchanging emails, I learned that was not the case. He just wanted to complete the set and a signed base card was just as good as an unsigned one.

In our first volley of trade proposals, I told Peter that I would trade the Lawhorn and Fasano cards to him since they are still playing in the American Association and they wouldn't be hard to replace them. I doubted that I would ever run into McConnell again, so I wanted to keep his card. But, Peter said that he would throw in this card, which had a much better looking signature on it than mine did, and I bit. So, the trade was my three signed SP Prospects cards for this card, the Nic Jackson card, and two random unsigned cards from this set.

Even though this autograph is on a sticker, the signature on it is so much better than the ballpark signature that I got from Chris. So, it was a good trade. Thank you Peter and I hope your set collection is progressing nicely.

2002 Bowman, Nic Jackson

#129 Nic Jackson

Here is a card that I picked up in a trade last year. Reader Peter, from New Jersey, saw a few 2004 SP Prospect cards that he needed for his collection and this was one of the cards that I got in return.

Nic looked like he was on the fast-track to the Major Leagues. He was a third round pick by the Cubs in 2000 and, by 2003, he had a full season of AAA ball under his belt. But, it looks like he got hurt the following season as he only played in one AAA game and thirteen Florida State League games. He then missed all of 2005.

He came back in 2006 and hit .297 in 74 AA games, but it wasn't enough for the Cubs and he was with the Mets and Phillies organizations in 2007. In 2008, he played in the Atlantic League and he has spent the last two seasons playing for the Fargo-Moorhead Redhawks of the Northern League. As of right now, Nic is still on the Redhawks roster, so there is a chance that I might see him play this summer as the Redhawks are now members of the American Association.

I have no idea where Peter got this card signed. If I had to take a wild guess, I would guess that it was signed at an Atlantic League game. How true that is, I may never find out. But, I am actually more curious as to what type of pen was used to sign the card. It certainly wasn't a Sharpie. The best guess for that is that a paint marker was used. But, whatever was used to sign this card, it sure looks unique.

1981 Donruss, Dave Garcia

#442 Dave Garcia

I picked this card up in a trade last week. At Fanfest, I was able to get a card signed for the 83F Project. I emailed Scott to see if he had any signed '81 Donruss cards and he had this one. So, we made a deal. I sent him the Joe Beckwith card (which came from Night Owl's dollar store) for the Dave Garcia card. Scott got this card signed through the mail when he sent Dave the team checklist from his Fleer set to get signed.

Dave managed for six seasons in the Majors- two with the Angels and the rest with the Indians. His best finish was fifth and that was in the second half of the strike-shortened 1981 season. It looks like he was even fired from the Angles job in 1978 while he was 25-20. For his career, Dave has a managerial record of 307-310. That doesn't seem too bad considering that he managed the early '80s Indians.

Thanks for the trade Scott!

'81 Donruss Tracker: 46/100

1981 Donruss, Jose Cruz

#383 Jose Cruz

Tom, of Astros Baseball Cards, got this card signed recently through the mail with the current Astros first base coach. I might have chosen to take the same route, but I did not have this card. Luckily, Tom had sent two of these cards to Jose and he signed them both. I was able to work out a trade with Tom for this Brian Williams autograph.

Unfortunately for Tom, when I sent him a short list of extra Astros that I had, he picked Brian Williams thinking that it was Brian Hunter. He realized his mistake after I had already sent the card. At least he still needed Williams, so it wasn't a total wash for him.

I just looked at Jose's career stats and learned that he retired from the game as a Yankee. I had no idea that he ever played for them.

This autograph may be the smallest one that I have. It is the complete opposite of Bert Blyleven's.

'81 Donruss Tracker: 25/100

1994 Select, Brady Anderson

#55 Brady Anderson

I picked this card up in a trade. It was actually my first trade that only involved autographed cards. One day, I got an email from a guy that wanted a couple of '89 Donruss that I had signed. The email came from Derick, who runs DK's Baseball Signatures. Derick is trying to get his '89 Donruss set autographed and he asked if I would be willing to part with my Dickie Thon and Bob Dernier. I only have one Dickie Thon autograph, so I kept that one. But, I have three autographs from Dernier, so I traded one for this Brady, straight up. The edges of the Brady card are a little beat-up. But, it's Brady Anderson, so I'm not too worried about.

If you get a chance, check out Derick's site. He has 77% of the '89 Donruss set signed, so he still needs a little help. He is also trying to get the '95 Score set signed and the 2000 Victory set. If you have any cards that would move him toward his goal, he has a trade list of cards he is willing to part with. That is where I picked this card from.

1987 Topps, Hal Lanier

#343 Hal Lanier

I'm finally back to the daily autographed cards. I was going to post this card yesterday until I came across the O-Pee-Chee cards. So, here is the details on this Hal Lanier card.

I got this card in a trade with Tom, of Astros Baseball Cards. A few weeks ago, he posted a couple of Hal Lanier cards that he had got signed through the mail. He said that he had gotten a couple extras signed as well. Right around that time, I posted a Terry Puhl card on here and he left a comment that he didn't have any signed Puhl's. So, we worked out a trade and I sent him a Terry Puhl that I got at Astros Fanfest and he sent me one of his extra Hal Laniers.

To be honest, I do not know much about Hal. But, you can never go wrong with a signed '87 Topps card. Just ask Dan at OMGautos. It turns out Hal played in the Majors for ten years in the '60s and '70s for the Giants and Yankees. I may need to find a card of him from his playing days to send to him.