#145 Jose Herrera
This is another card that Paul was able to get signed for me at an Atlantic League game. Paul got this card signed for me while Jose was playing with the Long Island Ducks.
Jose's professional career closely resembles that of Kevin Baez. Both made it to the Major Leagues fairly early in the careers in the '90s. But, with less than two years of Major League service time, they would never appear in another Major League game. Yet, their dream of one day getting back would last for some time.
For Jose, he had a slow start in the pros and had to repeat Rookie ball. But, in his fifth season, he got called up from AA and made it into 33 games with the A's. He started the next season in AA, but was quickly called up to the A's. This time around, he appeared in 108 games and hit .269. That was his last stint in the Majors as he started out the next season playing for Oakland's AAA team. That was his first tour for a AAA team in his career.
He spent the next three seasons in AAA. He sat out for two seasons before appearing in the Mexican League. He sat out the next season before becoming a Newark Bear in 2005 (plus fives games with Bowie of the Eastern League). He stayed with Newark until at least the 2008 season. I can't find any stats of him from this year and he is not on Long Island's current roster, so I am not sure how much time he spent with them. But, he has done a good job of keeping his dream alive. I hope that he can get into coaching at some point.
As for this card, the back of it lists Jose as an Athletic. But, he is obviously wearing a uniform of a Toronto affiliate. Apperantly, Jose was part of an August waiver trade that sent him and Steve Karsay to the Oakland organization for Rickey Henderson. As a result of that, he only played in four games that season as a A's minor leaguer.
As for the Hagerstown Suns, they are still in the South Atlantic League. They are currently affiliated with the Nationals.
Herrera was a legend in Newark, but for various reasons (that I mostly heard about second hand), he ended up with the Ducks this year.
ReplyDeleteHe signed late - after the all-star game - but he only played in 43 games due to injuries.
He batted .298 with 2 home runs and 17 RBIs in 168 ABs.
If you need current-year stats for any indy league guys (and you know where they played), check howesportsdata.com. www.thebaseballcube.com will list them eventually, but they usually don't get to it until the off-season.
Thanks for the info Paul. It's always good to learn things about obscure players.
ReplyDeleteAnd thanks for the link. That should help me out a lot.