2007 Bowman Sterling, Jeremy Papelbon

#BSP-JPA Jeremy Papelbon

Here is the third and final Jeremy Papelbon card that I got signed at the 2010 Rickwood Classic. You can see the first card here and the second card here.

Jeremy was drafted by the Cubs in the nineteenth round of the 2006 draft out of North Florida. He signed with the Cubs shortly after and made his professional debut with the Boise Hawks that year. He had a good first season, going 4-0 with 3 saves and a 1.86 ERA over 18 games. He got bumped up to Midwest League the next season and went 9-6 with 3 saves and a 3.11 ERA.

He continued his progression in 2008 as he played high-A in the Florid State League. He went 2-1 with 2 saves and a 2.57 ERA. In 2009, he was in AA and half of his appearances were as a starter. His numbers slipped a bit and he finished with a 6-5 record with a 3.38 ERA. He pitched in two AAA games that year, as well, and did not fare too well. He pitched 4.2 inning and gave up five runs on ten hits.

He repeated AA in 2010, and his numbers got even worse than the first go-around. That year, he was 1-2 with a save and an ERA of 5.54. Jeremy ended up retiring after the season.

Jeremy is the younger brother of Jonathan Papelbon.

While Jeremy never made it to the Major Leagues, he does have a big league signature. All three sigs on the cards look nearly identical. That does not happen too much any more.

2007 Bowman Sterling, Greg Porter

#BSP-GP Greg Porter

Here is the third and final Greg Porter card that I have to show. This one was signed at at the same Wingnuts exhibition game as the last card of him I posted.

Greg was a little wearing of signing this card because of all the gloss. He actually rubbed it down a little bit before he signed it and then told me that using an eraser on it before signing works really well. Even though I use baby powder for prep now, I really had no clue about prepping cards back in 2009. I had just heard of the eraser method around that time and had actually prepped this card with one. Still, it is always cool to get some 'graphing tips from the guys doing the 'graphing.

Greg had a good season in 2006, at least good enough to get into all of the 2007 Bowman sets. 2006 was his second year in AA and he hit .298 with 20 home runs and 71 RBI for the Angles Texas League affiliate, the Arkansas Travelers. He split 2008 between AA and AAA and put up good numbers at both stops. In AAA, he hit .345 with 7 home runs and 33 RBI in 56 contests. But, the Angles let him go after the season.

He spent the next season playing AAA for the Nationals and Yankees before winding up in Wichita in 2009. He played four seasons of independent ball before retiring after the 2012 season.

I was at a Wingnuts game last week and I noticed that the club added some banners around the concourse honoring their division and league championships and some of their best players. Greg has a banner up for his stellar 2009 season when he hit .372 with 21 home runs and 86 RBI. I wish I would have taken a picture of it so show on here.

You can see the first Greg Porter card I posted here and the second one here.

2007 Bowman Heritage, Mike Thompson

#SG-MT Mike Thompson

This is the second Mike Thompson autograph that I have posted on here and both of them were given to me. I posted the first card of him back 2011. That card was given to me by Rod, of Padrographs. This one was given to me by Matt, from Heartbreaking Cards of Staggering Genius. I sent him some random cards way back when and he repaid me by sending me a couple of random autographs.

I have mixed feelings about this Signs of Greatness insert set. The design isn't bad for a signature set with the obvious white signing area. But, this Bowman Heritage set looks great signed, so the white signing area may be a little overdone. It probably comes in handy for a card of a player in a darker jersey. But, it is unnecessary on a card with a white or grey. Still, I like the look of this card better than the first Mike Thompson card I posted.

Mike last pitched professionally in 2010. After being out of baseball for a year, he joined the Atlantic League's Somerset Patriots for one season. He started 11 games for them and went 4-3 with a 4.29 ERA.

If I did not know any better, I would think that the first letter in Mike's name started with a "Z".

2007 Bowman Heritage, Greg Porter

#BHP96 Greg Porter

This is a card that I got signed signed by Greg Porter at a Wingnuts spring training game in 2009. Every year, the Nuts open their spring schedule with a game against one of the local colleges in Wichita. In 2009, they played Kansas Newman, an NAIA school. My best friend's brother-in-law was playing for Newman at the time, so we went down to the game to see him play. I took a few cards with me and this is one of the ones I got signed that day.

This is the second card of Greg Porter that I have posted. The first one was posted just a couple of months ago and that card can be seen here. I have one more Greg Porter card to post after this one and it should be up in a few days.

Greg was drafted by the Reds in the third round of the 1998 draft out of high school. He did not sign, however, and instead went to Texas A&M. He played there for three seasons before being drafted by the Angels in the 45th round of the 2001 draft. I am not sure what happened while he was in college, but his draft stock sure plummeted while at College Station.

2007 Bowman Heritage, Jim Fasano

#BHP92 Jim Fasano

Here is a card that I got signed at an independent league game in 2009. While I do most of my minor league graphing at the American Association's club in Wichita, I got this one signed at a different spot. This card was signed at a Kansas City T-Bones game back when they were still in the Northern League. Jim was playing for the Bones at the time and he signed the card for me before hitting the field for warm-ups.

Jim was drafted by the Rangers in the ninth round of the 2004 draft out of Richmond. He made his professional debut that season and hit .266 in the Northwest League. He was bumped up to the Midwest League the following season and he hit .302 there. He spent most of 2006 in AA where he would hit just .244. He repeated AA in 2007 and his average rose to .284. But, it was not enough, and the Rangers released him after the season.

After that, he caught on with the T-Bones and he would play for them for the next four seasons before being traded to Fargo-Moorehead during the 2011 season. He did really well with the Bones and had two 20 home run seasons during his tenure there. Unfortunately, it was not enough to get him back to affiliated ball.

Jim's last season playing was in 2013 and he spent that season playing in Italy. He hit .265 for an awful team that finished the season 4-38. Yikes.

2007 Bowman Heritage, Jeremy Papelbon

#BHP83 Jeremy Papelbon

Here is the second of three cards that Jeremy Papelbon signed for me at the 2010 Rickwood Classic. If you are unfamiliar with the Rickwood Classic, it is a lone minor league game played once a year at the oldest ballpark in the United States, Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama. Even though the Birmingham Barons are in their second ballpark since moving out of Rickwood in 1988, they still play one game a year there and it is a great time.

At the game I went to, they celebrated Rickwood's 100th anniversary and the teams wore uniforms from minor league teams from 1910. The Barons wore some plain looking Barons uniforms and the Tennessee Smokies wore uniforms from the Appalachians. Harmon Killebrew was there to throw out the first pitch and sign autographs during the game. I ended up spending more time going through the autograph line than watching the game.

For some reason, I never did a write-up from the game. But, I did post a few pictures from the game when I got around to posting the Harmon Killebrew card.

Jeremy Papelbon had the sense to get Harmon's autograph before the game, as well.

2007 Bowman Heritage, Nick Van Stratten

#BHP82 Nick Van Stratten

Here is the second card that Nick Van Stratten signed for me at a Burlington Bees game in 2009. Back then, the Bees were the Midwest League affiliate for the Royals. They are currently an Angels farm team, though they had a brief affiliation with Oakland in between the two. The Royals switched their Midwest League affiliation to the Kan County Cougars in 2011 before switching over to the South Atlantic League and the Lexington Legends in 2013. Nevertheless, I still occasionally wear my Bees t-shirt that I bought at the game in 2009.

Speaking of my Bees shirt, I wore it to a Wilmington Blue Rocks playoff game later that season. Nick had been promoted to Wilmington at that point and, when he saw me in that shirt, he shouted out to me "Nice shirt!" and gave me a thumbs up.

Nick is still playing in Mexico right now for the Broncos de Tamaulipas. He is doing real well with a .378 average over 188 at-bats. A couple of his Laredo Lemurs teammates from last year are on the team with him- Travis Denker and Cesar Carrillo. Apparently playing on the Mexican border wasn't good enough for them, so they had to venture down for the real deal.