1997 Bowman Chrome, Heath Murray

#270 Heath Murray

Here is another Padrograph. This is the third Padrograph so far for my '97 cards. Heath got more Major League playing time than the first, Joe Long. But his brief career doesn't come close to matching the second's, Matt Clement.

Heath was a third round draft choice of the Padres, coming from the University of Michigan. After four seasons in the minors, Heath got his first taste of Major League action. Between 1997 and 2003, Heath appeared in 88 games, mostly in relief, with the Padres, Tigers, and Indians. He has a career record of 2-15 with a 6.41 ERA. He recorded 94 strikeouts in 158.2 innings and he also walked 94 batters. 2002 was his last season playing ball.

Does anyone know if this is the first Bowman Chrome set? Unlike the newer sets, I think that you could actually tell the difference between the chrome and regular sets in 1997. They look to be numbered one to whatever and do not have all the crazy letters in front of the numbers like Bowman now does. When I finally get to the newer sets, I will probably just do them all together. That way I won't have to bother finding out if a card is from the chrome set or if it is a chrome card inserted into the base set.